Correction: Charles Van Morgan is 60 years old. We initially reported his age as 62.

In the primary contest for the District 1 Knoxville City Council seat, four candidates are vying for two general-election spots.

The candidates are Knoxville-Knox County Planning Commissioner Karyn Adams, state agency compliance officer Lindsey Jaremko, insurance agent Becky Jones and taxi-business owner Charles Van Morgan.

The district encompasses all of South Knoxville and the Fort Sanders neighborhood.

The seat is currently held by Tommy Smith, who is unable to run for reelection because of term limits.

The district encompasses all of South Knoxville — including the South Waterfront, Island Home Park, Vestal, South Haven and Colonial Village — and the Fort Sanders neighborhood adjacent to the University of Tennessee campus.

Politically, the district tilts toward the progressive end of the spectrum. In the 2024 presidential election, more than 55 percent of South Knoxville voters cast their ballots for Democrat Kamala Harris. City elections are nonpartisan in the sense that candidates’ party affiliations aren’t noted on the ballot. 

As of June 30, the end of the second-quarter campaign-finance reporting period, Adams had $15,511 on hand — twice the amount of the nearest competitor. Jones had $7,227 at the same point, with Jaremko reporting $2,598 and Morgan just $30.

Early voting begins Wednesday, with Primary Election Day falling on Aug. 26.

Karyn Adams

Adams has served on the Knoxville-Knox County Planning Commission for the past five years. Every month, she makes decisions on land use and zoning that help shape development in the city and county.

“I’ve had some people tell me that Planning Commission is the hardest job you can have in the public sphere,” she said between sips of non-alcoholic hop water at Printshop Beer Co. on the South Waterfront. “I personally think school board is the hardest, but Planning forces you to reckon with land-use decisions and zoning decisions that affect (people’s) biggest investment — their home — and their physical community.”

Adams said she would focus on being intentional about growth and preserving greenspace if elected to City Council.

She said South Knoxville is unique in the city because it wasn’t chopped up by interstate construction. “That’s why we have the greenspace we have, that enabled the Urban Wilderness and the parks that we have. People want to make sure they persist.”

Her time on the Planning Commission, as well as in the private sector and in education, has prepared her for service on City Council, she believes. 

“I’m the most experienced person that’s running in this race,” she said. “That’s the bottom line.”

Adams, 53, grew up in Kingsport. She attended Agnes Scott College in Atlanta before transferring to the University of Tennessee, where she earned an English degree with a concentration in creative writing.

While at UT, she worked at the Tomato Head, where she met her future husband and worked her way up to manager. After graduation, she considered moving to New York City, but a friend persuaded her to go to Atlanta, where she worked for Omniview, later known as IPIX and best known for its camera technology that could capture 360-degree images.

Adams then took a job at Maryville College, where she helped develop the campus master plan and worked on a major capital campaign that financed the school’s Clayton Center for the Arts.

In 2010, she founded H-A ThirtyOne, a marketing firm for higher-education institutions, where she is principal and creative director. 

Adams and her husband, Bruce Cole, have lived in Lindbergh Forest for 22 years and raised their two sons in the neighborhood. Active in community organizations, she’s a member of the South Knoxville Neighborhood & Business Coalition and has served as president of Ijams Nature Center. 

Adams said Chapman Highway, the often-dangerous main thoroughfare through South Knoxville, needs attention. She said she considers the stretch north of Fort Dickerson Park to be an extension of Henley Street, and she noted that improvements already planned for that section of the highway should slow traffic, create safer streets and elevate the sense of community.

Two bridges — one historic but closed and the other in the planning stages — will be important links for South Knoxville.

The historic Gay Street Bridge is under repairs that will return it to service, but only for pedestrian and bicycle traffic until it can be replaced. Adams said she trusts the engineers who have recommended that the span remain closed to vehicular traffic for now but acknowledged that residents are impatient for the bridge to reopen.

“People feel strongly about the bridge. I do, too,” she said. “No one doesn’t want it open.”

The planned pedestrian bridge between the Scottish Pike area of the South Waterfront and the UT campus would establish a connection between the two parts of the 1st District, but it would serve the city as a whole as well.

“That pedestrian bridge all of a sudden connects a network of greenway systems that allows someone to get from far South Knoxville to far West Knoxville.”

As would be expected of a member of the planning commission, housing is one of Adams’ primary interests. She said Knoxville needs more options than single-family houses and large apartment complexes. Mixed-use development along Chapman Highway, with residences and locally owned “shops of utility,” would represent meaningful progress, she said.

Adams said the city should pursue multiple strategies to address homelessness but praised Flenniken Landing in South Knoxville as a model for successful permanent supportive housing. That’s not the only solution, however.

“You start to solve homelessness by giving people homes, but it’s also the most expensive way,” she said.

Adams was surprised by the number of people she encounters who are not opposed to the proposed sales-tax increase. Accountability, however, has to be a key component.

“If this passes, I will hold the mayor and my colleagues accountable,” she said. “People just need to know. If they know, they can make informed decisions.”

Adams said she loves the city and South Knoxville and wants to make sure that people can live in Knoxville and pursue their dreams.

“I feel very passionate about this,” she said. “I understand how important it is to make sure that we keep moving forward, but I understand that it’s important that we move forward together. I don’t want to leave anybody behind.”

Lindsey Jaremko

Jaremko was motivated to run for City Council during last year’s referendum on Knoxville’s election cycle. She said she believed that district voters should have the final say on electing their representatives, and she worked on the successful effort to defeat the proposal to convert district seats to at-large positions.

“I didn’t like that attempt. I thought it was bad representation,” she said, adding that supporters appeared to be engaged in “political gamesmanship.”

Having to run citywide, Jaremko said, would distract council members from their constituents. District 1 candidates would court voters in District 2 (West Knoxville) and District 4 (East Knoxville), where turnout is typically much heavier than it is in South Knoxville.

“You’re really thinking about citywide issues versus being committed to your district and hoping to see that voter turnout go up,” she said.

Still, Jaremko said it shouldn’t be hard to stay informed on issues primarily affecting other districts. She said she pays close attention to what’s going on citywide, and the voters do, too.

“People in District 1 don’t just live and work and exist in District 1,” she said. “These people are very informed on other districts.”

Jaremko’s campaign themes are simple: “I would like to see more accountability and transparency in the city,” she said during a gentle rain while sitting at a picnic table beneath a tree in Suttree Landing Park.

Jaremko, 40, was born in Southern California and worked for a while packing trucks in the film industry. She met her husband, who is originally from Knoxville, and they made plans to relocate to the city.

“We already had a relationship with the city, so it made sense,” she said.

Jaremko had volunteered for CASA, the organization that advocates for abused and neglected children, and decided to go t0 UT for a master’s degree in social work.

She has worked at the United Way of Greater Knoxville and the Department of Children’s Services and now monitors commercial truck-driver training programs for the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security.

She and her husband, Terrance Jaremko, live on Hillwood Drive in South Haven. She’s active with the South Knoxville Neighborhood & Business Coalition. 

Jaremko is concerned about the rising cost of living in South Knoxville, where she said residents are seeing their home values going up, but selling isn’t an option in the city’s housing market and they’re paying higher property taxes. Disinvestment, long the scourge of South Knoxville, is a thing of the past.

“That was there for a long time, until it wasn’t,” she said.

Homelessness is a major issue for residents. “Universally, people are worried. More and more people are living on the streets, and that creates other issues we’re not properly addressing,” Jaremko said.

She doesn’t like seeing the Gay Street Bridge closed but like many wants it to be safe for users. The planned pedestrian bridge between the South Waterfront and UT has created tensions between residents in the Scottish Pike area who don’t want their neighborhood irrevocably changed and supporters of the project.

“People really are mixed on it. If you’re somebody who bikes a lot, you love the idea,” she said, adding that she’s encouraged that the city has engaged in an open process during the planning stage.

Process is important for Jaremko because the problems that go away as the result of a decision are replaced by new problems caused by the change. “You’re choosing the problems you’re OK with,” she said.

Jaremko said she would vote against the sales-tax increase, but it’s ultimately the collective decision of all voters. 

“I like to be transparent about my position on it because I do think it’s helpful for voters to see how people see these issues,” she said.

If the measure does pass, she said, she likes the list of projects in the 1st District to be funded by the new revenues. However, she would insist on greater transparency about how those funds are spent.

“I would like to see a trust or special fund to make the money easier to track,” she said, adding that in her experience the city does a poor job responding to public-records requests.

Jaremko said the mayor has too much power in city government at the expense of City Council. The mayor chairs the meetings and has control over developing the budget.

“The mayor doesn’t need much consensus if what the mayor wants is going to pass,” she said. “It’s hard to be the dissenting voice in the room.”

Jaremko has the support of Councilwoman Amelia Parker, who has long pushed back against mayoral power and has acted as a sounding board for her.

“She’s somebody I’ve gone to over the past couple of years to ask questions,” Jaremko said.

She’s knocked on nearly 1,000 doors in the district and, once they ask her party affiliation (city elections are nonpartisan), has been making connections with voters.

“I’m finding a lot of common ground with people, regardless of party,” she said. “People are very distrustful of the city. It’s too bad, but they still vote.” 

Becky Jones

A strong advocate for police officers and first responders, Jones said she got into the race after a conversation with a retired Knoxville police officer, who suggested that she run.

She prayed about it and “felt the Lord say, ‘Go for it,’ and here we are.”

Jones comes from a law enforcement family. An uncle is a retired TBI agent, and she has cousins who work for the Knox County Sheriff's Office. She said her husband, who is African-American, runs counter to the “false narrative” about law enforcement officers and race.

“Police officers respect him because he respects them,” she said.

Jones said Police Chief Paul Noel was one of the first people she spoke with after deciding to run. 

“We talked about the issues that a lot of the voters were mentioning, and the issue that kept coming up regarded the homeless,” she said in a phone interview. “The majority of the homeless people that are downtown are either … on drugs or they have mental-health issues.” 

She wants to see KPD work closely with mental-health facilities, but she doesn’t think officers have the training to go on calls with mental-health professionals, as they do under the department’s co-responder program.

“I think that’s the most ridiculous thing that has ever been thought of,” she said. 

Jones said voters are telling her to make South Knoxville relevant, with nice restaurants and locally owned shops instead of businesses such as vape shops.

“If I see another vape store open up, I’m going to vomit,” she said. “We have vape stores up and down Chapman Highway. South Knoxville voters want options.” 

Jones, 45, is a lifelong South Knoxvillian who lives in Vestal with her husband. She has an accounting degree from South College.

“I’ve never lived outside (South Knoxville) or past the Henley Street Bridge,” she said. “So when I tell you I’m homegrown, I’m

homegrown.” 

Jones does go out of the district for work, however. She’s an insurance agent in Fountain City. She got into the field 20 years ago when she called to get a quote on a policy and wound up being recruited to become an agent.

Jones said the city needs to find the money to rebuild the Gay Street Bridge sooner rather than later because the added traffic on the Henley Bridge could eventually compromise that span.

“Knoxville has to have a bridge to be able to get across. It’s just the fact of getting in and looking at funding and what has to happen. But we definitely have to have a bridge.”

Jones’ support for bridges doesn’t extend to the planned pedestrian bridge across the Tennessee River between UT and the Scottish Pike neighborhood on the South Waterfront.

“That’s not what South Knoxville needs, and it’s not what Knoxville needs,” she said.

Jones is also strongly opposed to an increase in the local-option sales tax, a referendum on which will be on the ballot in November.

“That’s a hard no for me,” she said. “I do not support any type of tax increase. We’ve got a lot of people that are just struggling to get by now, and to turn around and try to tax people that are already struggling, that’s not something that I’m for.” 

According to Jones, Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon wants to spend too much money on the wrong things — the new sculpture in the Cradle of Country Music Park and defending lawsuits from firefighters instead of paying them more, for example.

“You look at all these different things, and yet we are continuing to spend, spend, spend, instead of looking at what we have right now,” she said. “Our budget definitely needs a look, and the frivolous spending needs to stop.”

Even if the sales-tax referendum passes, Jones isn’t on board with the five-year spending plan that would go with it. For example, she said the $10 million annually for affordable housing would be useless.

“There is no such thing as affordable housing,” she said, “especially when you have a lot of these builders that are coming in from different areas, and they’re building four-plexes and then selling them to people that don’t even live in Knoxville.”

Money for sidewalks and paving would be welcome, she continued, but bike lanes are a waste of space and money.

“Moody Avenue — I rarely see people riding bicycles down through there,” Jones said. “Those types of things are not where we need to be spending our time, money and energy for South Knoxville; there’s a lot bigger types of things that are needed right now, so that’s not a priority to me.”

She said she would prioritize listening to voters to understand their exact needs and wants, taking them seriously, and carrying their sentiments to City Council. She said one voter told her that candidates had always told him what they wanted and never asked what he wanted.

“This is not how I want to approach it,” Jones said. “I want to be able to talk to voters and be their voice. Yes, I have ideas, and yes, there are things that I want to see different, but I want to be their voice, and be their loud voice.”

Charles Van Morgan

Morgan wants voters to know this: Governments in Tennessee are corrupt. All governments. From the City County Building to the judiciary to the governor’s office, he says, officials lie and manipulate the system to their own benefit and against the best interests of the public. And he will protect the residents of Knoxville’s 1st District from their machinations.

“I know government corruption,” he said, an uneaten hamburger on the tray in front of him at Burger King in South Knoxville. “I’m going to know when they’re trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes, and I’m going to be the spotlight for the citizens and say, ‘No, that’s not right.’”

Morgan said he’s running for office for the same reason he used to work for the Tennessee Highway Patrol — “A desire to serve the public for the common good of people.” He added, “I’m going to listen to what the people of South Knoxville and Fort Sanders say.”

Morgan, 60, grew up in South Knoxville and has an extensive educational background in addition to his law enforcement experience. He earned an associate’s degree from Draughon Business College, a bachelor’s degree from Tennessee Wesleyan University, a master’s in sociology from the University of Tennessee and a law degree from the Nashville School of Law.

He lives in South Haven with Melissa Morton and their three children and is the owner-operator — and only driver — of Safe Taxi.

He went into law enforcement, and for many years he worked for the Tennessee Highway Patrol. He describes himself as an effective officer who saved lives. “I arrested more drunk drivers than anyone in the state for more than a decade,” he said.

His career at THP ended in 2012 after a high-profile incident that left him angry and bitter with the agency’s leadership. 

According to news reports, Morgan was chasing a speeding vehicle in Knox County when the suspect vehicle wrecked, killing the driver instantly. Morgan, who says he did not see the crash, slowed his vehicle as he passed the scene and then kept driving, returning to the site only after someone else had reported the incident. 

After determining that Morgan saw the crashed vehicle and deliberately drove past it, THP officials fired him. He lost a subsequent court battle to regain his job.

“That was bogus,” he said. “They did wrong. That was a turning point in my life.”

Morgan contends he never saw the wrecked vehicle and followed THP procedures throughout the incident. He angrily denounced THP commanders.

“The Highway Patrol is a crooked agency,” he said, accusing officers of lying and falsifying reports. “They’ve got some good people, but the leadership is crooked.”

He likewise accused an official of the state Board of Law Examiners of lying by determining that he had not been candid on his application, which prevented him from receiving his Tennessee law license. 

“The Tennessee judiciary is the most crooked judiciary in the country,” he said, adding that they “blackballed” him.

That sense of being the victim of injustice drives him. “I’ve been on the inside,” he said. “I know.”

This is Morgan’s second run for public office. He ran for governor in 2022 as an independent and had a run-in with authorities while campaigning in Chattanooga. Police arrested him for harassing voters at a polling place, but the charges were later dismissed.

“You can tell me all about Mr. Putin and Russia,” he said, returning to his theme of public corruption. “Let’s look at our government officials in the United States of America. They’re dirty.”

Improving public safety is at the top of his agenda in the City Council race, especially making Chapman Highway a safer thoroughfare. “Why haven’t they done anything about Chapman Highway? It’s almost criminal they don’t do anything to fix that road,” he said.

Morgan said small businesses are being crushed by large, out-of-town corporations, aided by city-government policies. “We’ve got to stop unfair competition,” he said. “Local businesses are the backbone of this nation.”

During the campaign, Morgan said, he’s been knocking on 70-100 doors a day to get a sense of what South Knoxvillians want. The needs shift from neighborhood to neighborhood, he contended. For example, people in Vestal are worried about the homeless population, while others are concerned more about speeding.

Morgan took issue with Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon’s handling of the Gay Street Bridge, which is closed for safety reasons and will be converted to a pedestrian-and-bicycle-only span until it can be replaced.

“It’s been open since 1898, and all of a sudden in 2025, we don’t have the money to fix that bridge? I don’t believe that. It’s just a lie … It hurts the economy when you close bridges. Milk don’t get to stores on the backs of bicycles.” 

Morgan supports the proposed sales-tax increase that will be on the ballot in November because visitors will share the burden with locals, with the caveat that it’s paired with a substantial property-tax cut. 

“The government needs to focus on the main functions of government — roads, public safety — and get the basics down,” he said.