For those of us who've always known him just as Charlie, all the references in the news over the past week or so to "Charles Thomas" have sounded sort of funny. And now that he's been named to City Council to serve out the rest of Bob Becker's term, representing the 5th District, we hope he'll forgive us if we can't quite bring ourselves to use the formal name. Other outlets can "Charles" him all they want; as far as Metro Pulse is concerned, he'll always be Charlie.
So, first of all, congratulations to Charlie, an informed, community-minded, and all-around swell guy. He's a lawyer by trade, though in recent years he's done various kinds of humanitarian work in Guatemala and also helped run a bookstore and publish a magazine there. A graduate of UT Law School (class of '83), he's a past member of the Knoxville Transportation Authority Board and served as president of the Knox Greenways Coalition. He's the chair of the James Agee Memorial Park Steering Committee, and in separate but possibly related capacity, was for some time R.B. Morris' landlord. He is, in other words, our kind of guy. (Over on KnoxViews, Sandra Clark says he's our first-ever Council member with a ponytail.) He has said he won't run for re-election, which means his time on Council expires in December. We look forward to his service. And we'll be happy to buy him a beer at Toots some night, if it doesn't violate any Council ethics codes.
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