Kyle Copenhaver Testerman (December 27, 1934 – April 11, 2015) was mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee from 1972 to 1975, and again from 1984 to 1987. Testerman was a Republican.

First term

Testerman was a Knoxville lawyer and businessman and a member of the Knoxville City Council when he first ran for mayor in 1971, against incumbent Leonard Rogers. A major issue in the campaign was the selling of liquor by the drink, something which was at the time illegal in Knoxville. Rogers was opposed to it, but Testerman argued that liquor by the drink was necessary to attract

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...

and tourism to Knoxville. After winning the election, Testerman brought a liquor by the drink referendum to the voters, who approved it two-to-one. With the opening of West Town Mall in 1974, business began to drain out of the

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Knoxville area. The city began to look for redevelopment opportunities, and at the request of the Downtown Knoxville Association, Testerman appointed an advisory committee to conduct a study on the possibility of hosting the

1982 World's Fair The 1982 World's Fair, officially known as the Knoxville International Energy Exposition (KIEE) and simply as Energy Expo '82 and Expo '82, was an international exposition held in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States. Focused on energy and ele ...

. The committee found it to be feasible, but Testerman was not able to oversee the project as mayor, as he was voted out of office in favor of

Randy Tyree Randell "Randy" Tyree (born 1940) is a Tennessee politician who served as mayor of Knoxville from 1976 to 1983 and was the Democratic candidate for Governor in 1982. Biography Tyree was born in Carthage, Tennessee, in 1940. He received a b ...

in 1975. A possible contribution to Testerman's loss to Tyree was dissatisfaction with his handling of garbage workers in 1974. Testerman fired around three hundred workers in July of that year after they went on strike because of disputes about

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and overtime pay. At the end of the year, however, following conditions agreed to in court, the mayor announced retroactive pay raises for the unionized workers.

Second term

In 1984, Testerman again became mayor of Knoxville. The World's Fair over, the city was now deeply in debt and involved in discussions about what to do with the site of the Fair and the structures left over from it, which were still owned by the

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. As Testerman summarized the problem, "It was wonderful and grand -- then BAM, the lights went out, the music stopped playing and the ladies stopped singing and then they said what are we going to do on the site?" One particular problem was a large, steel and glass pavilion which was built to be a model of

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efficiency but which did not work correctly and for which the city had no use after the Fair was over. Testerman, acting for the city, ended up winning the $12.4 million structure at auction for $950,000, thus reclaiming land which had belonged to Knoxville to begin with. The building was a "liability," Testerman told reporters, but it was on "a nice piece of land." Further work or redevelopment on the site was delayed during Testerman's term, partly due to his doubts about a large-scale redevelopment plan, and partly due to the entanglements of Jake Butcher, a would-be World's Fair site redeveloper who was convicted of

bank fraud Bank fraud is the use of potentially illegal means to obtain money, assets, or other property owned or held by a financial institution, or to obtain money from depositors by fraudulently posing as a bank or other financial institution. In many ins ...

. In 1986, with County Executive Dwight Kessel, Testerman formed the Knoxville Coalition for the Homeless to conduct studies about homelessness, an endemic problem in the area. He died in hospice care on April 11, 2015.http://www.knoxnews.com/news/local-news/former-knoxville-mayor-kyle-testerman-dies-at-79

External links

Photo Gallery: Kyle Testerman through the years

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Testerman, Kyle 1934 births 2015 deaths People from Knoxville, Tennessee Mayors of Knoxville, Tennessee Tennessee Republicans