Charles Thomas - 5th District 
386 Hiawassee Avenue
Knoxville, TN 37917
865-687-6090
[email protected]
Term ends: December 2027


Charles Thomas was sworn in as a City Council member on December 21, 2019. He was reelected in 2023 for another four year term and was sworn in on December 16, 2023.

Charles Thomas grew up in rural Middle Tennessee, the son of a mother who was a public school teacher, and a father who was a World War II veteran and a janitor at the elementary school where his mother taught. 

Charlie graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a pre-law major in Political Science and another B.S. degree in Psychology, with a minor in English. He earned a J.D. from University of Tennessee School of Law in 1983 and has been a practicing attorney in Knoxville for over 30 years. He’s lived in the same house in Oakwood-Lincoln Park since 1992. 

In January 2011, Charles Thomas was chosen by City Council to serve out the remainder of 5th District representative Bob Becker’s unexpired term. Thomas served on the Metropolitan Planning Commission (now Knoxville Knox County Planning) starting in 2016 before resigning in 2019 to run for City Council. 

Thomas has served on a variety of community and neighborhood boards, including the Knoxville Transportation Authority, Knox Greenways Commission, Broadway Corridor Task Force, and he was chairperson for the James Agee Park Steering Committee.

He’s a member of the Legacy Parks Foundation Trails and Greenways Committee and Oakwood Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association.

He was formerly a member of Knoxville Area Transit Citizen’s Advisory Board and the Caswell Park Task Force.


Swearing in ceremony of Charlie Thomas on December 16, 2023