As Hamilton County Trustee Carl Levi leaves office after the recent election of County Commissioner Bill Hullander as trustee, some of those familiar with Mr. Levi’s public career recalled that the late Chattanooga Mayor Rudy Olgiati hired Mr. Levi to work for the city “for six weeks” — but Mr. Levi “didn’t leave his public service till 44 years later!”
His service has been honorable and good.
Mr. Levi graduated from Chattanooga High School and the University of Chattanooga, and he later studied at the University of Wisconsin Center for Public Financial Administration, gaining qualification as a certified municipal finance administrator.
He also had notable military experience. He entered the Army as a private in 1952, during the Korean War. He studied in a number of military schools, was commissioned a second lieutenant in artillery in 1958, served in various National Guard positions — and retired in 1987 as brigadier general in the Tennessee National Guard!
It was appropriate, therefore, for Chattanooga’s National Guard Armory Drill Hall to be named the “General Carl E. Levi Drill Hall.”
In local government, Mr. Levi served as deputy City Court clerk from 1957 till 1961. Then he was named assistant city treasurer for Chattanooga. In 1978, he became city treasurer, and he continued in that important position till his retirement Dec. 31, 2001.
But Mr. Levi was not to be out of local government service for very long. He was elected Hamilton County trustee in August 2002.
As county trustee, Mr. Levi has been charged with collecting all county taxes set by the County Commission, plus the property taxes of the cities of Collegedale, East Ridge, Lakesite, Red Bank, Ridgeside, Soddy-Daisy and Walden.
His responsibilities have included investing those funds temporarily, until they were called for by the appropriate government officials for varied public services.
Mr. Levi has done his job faithfully and well, and was recognized in 1988 as “Treasurer of the Year” by the Municipal Treasurers Association of the United States and Canada.
Other professional honors were to follow. He was lauded as “East Tennessee Treasurer of the Year” in 2005 and 2006, “Outstanding Trustee for the State of Tennessee” in 2006, and “Tennessee Trustee of the Year” in 2009.
He also served as president of the Municipal Treasurers Association of the United States and Canada.
One of Mr. Levi’s finest civic services has been his leadership over many years in Chattanooga’s nationally exemplary Armed Forces Week tribute to those who have served in our military forces.
All Hamilton County residents should greatly appreciate Mr. Levi’s many years of outstanding military, financial and civic service as he retires from office with well-deserved respect.
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