Mark Riggins will be sworn in as Clarksville's next mayor after winning a tight three-way race by just 2.8 percentage points over his closest contender, and he says his first order of business is rebuilding public trust in a city government he describes as inheriting a financial crisis, legal disputes and stalled capital projects. “We knew it would be close, but we thought we would win,” Riggins said of Tuesday night's result.
According to Clarksville Now, final tallies from Main Street Media of Tennessee show Riggins took 44.55% of the vote, with Wanda Smith at 41.75% and Brian Zacharias at 13.34%. Riggins began working for the City of Clarksville in an entry-level job in 1996 and rose through leadership positions before this election, and he now describes his incoming role simply as being “everybody's mayor.”
Rebuilding Trust and Seeking an Outside Audit
Riggins named regaining the public's trust as his top priority, saying trust in the city is currently lacking and that he's committed to repairing it. “Regain the trust of the public,” he said, describing the work ahead. He added that conflicts and divisions harm citizens and that the city cannot afford them.
To that end, Riggins plans to seek an in-depth outside review of the city's finances, covering its revenue, its expenses and its debt. Clarksville already undergoes annual state audits of its books, but Riggins said he hopes an additional outside review will surface best-practice options for resolving the city's financial problems. He also intends to meet individually with each City Council member to understand the needs and priorities of their wards, saying that building those relationships early will help the council and mayor tackle problems together.
Roads, Parks and a Stalled Sports Complex
Among the capital projects Riggins wants to finish are Spring Creek Parkway and improvements to Mason Rudolph Golf Course. He's also looking at the Tylertown Road widening project, which removed sidewalks and street lights along the corridor; Riggins said he plans to find a way to put those back in, arguing it's cheaper to add them during widening work than to retrofit them later.
The long-stalled Exit 8 sports complex is also on his radar. Riggins said some private entities may be interested in a partnership to help get the project moving again, though he did not detail specific terms.
Roxy Debt Vote Pushed to February
On the proposed Clarksville Performing Arts Center, known locally as the Roxy, Riggins said he was pleased the City Council delayed until February its vote on co-signing the project's construction debt note, because he feared the vote would otherwise fail. The council wants to see evidence of outside financial support, such as donor pledges, before taking on that debt-note risk, he said.
Riggins pointed to Clarksville industries that have expressed interest in making significant donations to the project, as well as two incoming full-service hospitals he identified as potential donors. He said sufficient donations could shrink the project's price tag enough for the city to feel comfortable backing the note. Separately, Yahoo News has described the Roxy as a $65 million construction project tied to a capital campaign aiming to raise $40 million, with the city potentially on the hook for $4.7 million a year starting in 2030 if fundraising falls short.
Senior Center Dispute Still Unresolved
Riggins also faces the ongoing legal fight over the Ajax Turner Senior Center, which serves about 1,400 older adults according to NewsChannel 5. The Ajax Turner 50+ Center nonprofit sued the city, Mayor Pitts and others in July, alleging the city tried to seize a 60-year-old charitable senior center and the building it occupies even though the city neither owns nor lawfully controls it, per the lawsuit's allegations reported by Clarksville Now. A judge later ruled that the city must go through eviction court to take over the center, NewsChannel 5 reported in September.
Riggins said he wants to bring both sides of the dispute together, lay out the facts and work through the issues rather than let the conflict drag on. More broadly, he said the city should support nonprofits that are successfully serving the public rather than compete with them. He closed by framing his new job in plain terms: the city works for its citizens, he said, and he's excited to serve them.
