I was very much disturbed when I got home today and saw the article titled "Adams: I'm Proud To Say We're Going To Raise Taxes In East Ridge".

The article quotes Mr. Adams as saying that the taxes will be raised by 47 cents. He said that it's fine that some people will be mad at him over this increase. He goes on to say that East Ridge city employees are going to get a 4% increase in pay and that police officer's starting pay will increase to $32,157. He also states that the budget contains $1,250,000 for lights at Camp Jordan. He also talks about a new flashing sign for Camp Jordan.

As a member of the East Ridge City Council, let me say that I have not voted for these increases nor has any other member of the council voted for these increases. As a matter of fact, the budget has not been on an agenda to be voted on.

I will further state that I have not even seen a copy of the proposed budget. In fact, our first workshop on the budget is not scheduled until this Saturday morning, July 12.

How can Mr. Adams make these statements when the council hasn't even seen a copy of the budget?

Jerry Petty
East Ridge Vice-Mayor

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Mayor Petty, where have you been? Long before taking the East Ridge city manager's job, Ol' Curtis made it clear to us Hamilton County residents who put him in office that he could care less about the will of the people regarding taxes.

That's why none of us complained when he took the East Ridge city manager post. Misery loves company, you know.

But it ain't all that bad. Y'all will really enjoy those million-dollar Camp Jordan lights this winter and that $105,000 garbage truck.

Jim Ashley
jashley41@comcast.net

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As a citizen of East Ridge, I find it very interesting that Mr. Adams is so very proud to raise the taxes. And I am very pleased that he expects the people of East Ridge to be upset with him. That’s the first true statement that has been made by him since he became city manager.

Let me say I use to attend the City Council meetings, but the agenda and the outcomes don’t always benefit the citizens of East Ridge. The budget has been discussed for some time, yet I remember not too long ago, we had a surplus and not a deficit. What happened with that money? Now we don’t have the monies to move forward.
I find that somewhat amusing, Mr. Adams.

I also remember when offices were not available for the mayor and his staff. Now everyone has an office, and the city manager had his name on the door before he was even officially elected. If we have such a money crunch, why are you driving the city vehicle to your appointments, church, restaurants, etc. instead of your own car? Yes, it’s a perk because you are the “city manager,” but you surely do not lead by example.

Did you share the fact that Hamilton County will probably raise property taxes next year? Then you can be really proud, and we will all be happy over being double-taxed.

Also, I was told at one of the council meetings that the city had hired an outside firm to collect the “over $1 million” in outstanding fines. Where is this money? It doesn’t appear this firm has held up their end of the bargain, but I am sure we have paid them. I also was told the names of these people that owe these fines would be posted. Where are the names and when will they be posted?

There is not a citizen anywhere in the city of Chattanooga, or anywhere else for that matter, that could get away without paying their fines. If we had those million dollars, maybe some of your wishes would come true.

Camp Jordan. Yes, it’s a wonderful place, and we are all very proud of it. It would probably support itself if the city would quit giving away its services. Every meeting I ever attended, we were allowing groups a decreased rate to use the park. Why, if we are in such a crunch?

There have been big plans announced for the city…none have come to fruition. Lots of groundbreaking, but the dirt is still there. We are getting a new Wendy’s at the south end; that should really help, the one at the north end closed.

I realize and know we need money, and an increase in taxes, in all likelihood, would be inevitable. I suppose the meeting for the 12th will not be held since the decision has been so proudly made. How about the administration of East Ridge assist the taxpayers and show a little responsibility? Collect the money that is owed to us. Give up a few of your own perks and show just a little bit of accountability instead of boastfulness.

You are correct on one count…the citizens will be upset. They didn’t even elect you or put you in that office. It was a pre-planned situation.

And I am also sure there will be more discussion regarding taxes. My only hope is that we see something that will help this city, and not be sold a bill of goods, as we all have in the past.

Jackie Fulks
East Ridge

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Advocating a 47-cent property tax increase would be no source of pride for me.

This Republican is put off by such an arrogant statement.

Bob Lawson
Chattanooga

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Sure he is proud - after all he has two salaries to be able to use to pay his taxes. It will take mose of one month of my income to pay my taxes with his new rate.

But why do we need to send four and five vehicles screaming across Germantown Road to fender-bender accidents? Why must a fire truck be sent with ambulances on a call? One I saw recently was allowed to sit idling for half an hour or more. Brush trucks are riding around empty - for what?

A million dollars for Camp Jordon - another waste of money for what?

Don Lee
lee482@comcast.net

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I just read the article about Mr. Adams and the tax increase in East Ridge. I also read the responses from Vice Mayor Petty and the others. I am afraid I am going to have to take what is probably the more unpopular stance on this issue.

I don't want to make anyone mad but the fact is, I have lived in East Ridge for over 30 years. I happen to know that East Ridge's property taxes are less than Chattanooga's and that Red Bank was paying for their garbage service long before we in East Ridge were. My Hamilton County taxes are also more than my East Ridge city taxes, even though the bulk (and when I say bulk, I mean it) of our city services are handled by East Ridge, not the county or private entities.

I think our city employees deserve a raise. I for one have always gotten excellent service from them. A neighbor of mine had the nerve to call me last night and say if East Ridge would get rid of its "dead wood" employees we wouldn't have to have a tax increase. This man has no idea what he is talking about

We are landlocked by Chattanooga and Georgia so we have no room to expand to bring in more revenue that way. If my property taxes increase, I will pay it and be thankful that we live in our community and that our taxes are not even higher, which they could be.

By the way I do not have anyone in my family who has ever worked for the city of East Ridge.

Becky B. Roberts
East Ridge
beckeroo50@gmail.com

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East Ridge City Manager Curtis Adams comments yesterday at the Chamber of Commerce meeting, "I am proud to say we're going to raise taxes in East Ridge by 47 cents, and I can tell you where every dime of it is going to be spent."

How arrogant is this coming from an elected official at the county level, much less an East Ridge city employee who works under the direction of the City Council. It's my understanding that a city manager makes recommendations to the elected city council members and they decide if and how much the increase is or is not, not the city manager making announcements without the approval of the council? Who is running this city?

How can Mr. Adams be proud to announce a 50% tax increase on the citizens of East Ridge? These are the same folks who are struggling to buy milk, medicines, fuel to run their cars, to heat their homes, and more and more in our community are on fixed incomes and hurting bad. How and why would Mr. Adams be proud to do this without council approval? Does Mr. Adams feel the hurt as he collects $90,000 a year from county and city governments funded by our tax dollars? Is Mr. Adams using his personal car and filling up at the same pumps I pay nearly $4 a gallon for? I would guess the East Ridge city car and city paid gas is sure a help to him right now.

Mr. Adams voted to raise our Hamilton County property taxes last year by 26 cents or 9% of the total budget for Hamilton County. This year he is happy to levy a 50% tax increase to the citizens of East Ridge. Next year? What does he have in mind for us then?

I applaud Vice Mayor Petty for going public on the Chattanoogan.com and letting us know he is not in favor of Mr. Adams actions. Not many will publicly stand up to Mr. Adams.

In a time where everyone I know is hurting, cutting back, tightening up their own personal budgets at home and feeling the pinch, it's disturbing that in East Ridge we are buying, giving raises, and improving. No mention from Mr. Adams of cuts, savings, layoffs, trimming, reducing services, just 50% more from our pockets in one year. Does Mr. Adams know there is another way to raise money to fund Camp Jordan and its improvements and the visitors to East Ridge would pay for it, not our residents? Does he care? I'm for improving Camp Jordan, but this idea of our residents paying for this at this time is crazy.

I have not heard of any other city even coming close to a 50% increase at one time, so why does Mr. Adams think our retired and blue collar work force in East Ridge can afford this? Does he care?

And while I 'm wondering what in the world is going on in East Ridge, if Mr. Adams gets the employees a 4% raise, does he get one also? Or is he exempt? If not, aren't we talking about another $2,400 a year increase to his salary? I guess he can afford a 50% property tax increase.

To our city council- please thank Mr. Adams for his stepping in to help after David Mayes retired, and give him a three month notice while you advertise and interview for a city manager with experience in a city of our size and budget concerns. You owe the residents of East Ridge to at least try to search and interview for the best qualified manager that will work under your direction, not as Mr. Adams seems to be doing. This entire council has had one year to look at reducing and operating our city within the income that it has. Each of you knew that in a years time this budget would come up again. One a years time many options could be exercised that we talked about last year. What suggestions did you take from a group of residents who suggested 10 different ways to reduce cost and 10 ways to produce new income?

Whether it's 37 cents or 47 cents is not important. Neither is acceptable during this time to our residents of East Ridge. Live within your means. Spend no more than you make, that's what we teach our kids. We elected you and you hired Mr. Adams. Represent the residents and what they want. Communicate better with us. Listen and get our city back in control. Unlike Mr. Adams, I'm not proud of this nor what will happen to our residents in East Ridge.

David Roden

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Mix East Ridge with Curtis Adams and you just created a recipe called (controversy ER). Add Red Bank with over zealous photography (or money makers), equally, let us just say, entertaining leaders as City Manager Adams, and school land deals and the recipe is called (trouble).

I wonder if it is just be a matter of time before Curtis Adams reminds women who opposes his tax ideas, to "have his dinner ready when he gets home," and "that they do not have time to work" or Red Bank to announce that they are defecting from Hamilton County authority and running the schools (yikes).

Of course, for people that have lived here all of our lives and know the history, we simply refer to the new small city situation as the entertainment factor.

Rob Graham
Chattanooga

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It is plain and simple; Curtis Adams and his gang of cronies need to go. It cannot happen a moment too soon. There has never been a city who has idiotically elected not the most qualified candidates, but for those who taught, coached, or went to church with one on the level of the city of East Ridge. Maybe that explains the infamous line of politicians who have been elected and served in the past.

Oh, let us not forget that we did not vote Curtis Adams as the city manager, his buddies in the city appointed him to that chair.

How about Mike Steele? If you want to hear a quote from a true politician check out what Mike Steele said about the traffic cameras in East Ridge "This is a safety issue." Nothing could be further from the truth. As my wife's grandmother says, "This is a fee grabbing issue" and nothing else.

Adams needs to move back to the Democratic side and completely disassociate himself with the conservative movement. Why do I want to waste my tax dollars at Camp Jordan when they cannot even hold a simple men's softball league to attract local teams that are forced to go to Ringgold and participate or allow the taxpaying citizens to use the park we are forced to pay for?

At the same time, Adams has vowed to raise my taxes while he fights for tax relief for seniors; of which he is a member. This should help keep the senior citizens voting and putting him back into office like a bunch of lemmings. It should also help the current exodus of upper middle class families out of East Ridge and into outlying communities such as East Brainerd, Chickamauga, Ringgold, and Ooltewah. With that comes the influx of undesirables that we all fear will move in next door to us. While I have been a homeowner in East Ridge for 15 years and my wife a resident over 30 years, we both are considering the next opportunity to sell our property (now decreased in value by new residents of our city or the lazy owners that rent to them) and move elsewhere to escape this travesty in local government.

Maybe one day the city can rename Camp Jordan to Camp Curtis. I pray that when it happens I am a citizen of a proactive community that takes care of its citizens and not still a member of a city driven by car lots, check-cashing outlets, and politicians concerned only about their own well being and their "legacy." In the case here, legacy is way too strong a word.

Patrick McBride
East Ridge

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I wish to give some background on my response to those against the tax increase proposed for the city of East Ridge. First I have supported the increase since last year, long before budget time in June of 07. When the budget was revealed last year it became apparent to anyone going through it that we as a city needed much more revenue to operate. Previous administrations were negligent, period. Negligent in addressing declining revenues, planning for the future and securing a plan to cope with the short fall in revenues and rising operating costs. It became obvious that time was needed to review, plan, and prepare for the conditions of our city owned equipment and wages. Our mayor and council sought the advice from citizens who studied, suggested and revised the budget.

First, our city garbage trucks and other vehicles are on average 18 years old. They are worn out and should have been replaced long ago. Secondly, our trained police have been the source for employees for the Hamilton County sheriff for years, we train them, they hire them away, but not anymore. Our pay scale will help ensure that we retain our police.

I attended the council meeting when the previous mayor proclaimed "we have a surplus budget.” Ninety days later we found that this was far from accurate, we were in debt to the tune of a million plus dollars. There was a mistake of interpretation, we now must rectify the mistake with a tax increase.

Curtis Adams "was not elected" is a correct statement, but you should read our city charter. Our city manager has the full authority and must by law present a budget to the mayor and council. Curtis Adams was by our charter hired by council, he has the authority in Section 5-IF to be hired as the administration officer; He shall appoint when he deems necessary for the good the service, suspend or remove all city employees. He shall direct and supervise all departments, offices and agencies of the city. He shall see that all laws, provisions of the charter are enforced by him or by officers of his subjects. He shall submit to the council and make available to the public a complete report on the finances and administration activities of the city as the end of each fiscal year. He shall keep council fully advised as to the financial condition and future needs of one of the lowest tax rates in the country for a city our size, offering the services that you as a citizen enjoy for the dollars spent.

Curtis Adams said that “after much hard work that he was proud to present as required by our charter to the city council and mayor a budget that would balance our budget, give our employees an increase in wages and replace 18 year old trucks and equipment." Curtis did say that he was proud to offer up a tax increase, only a much needed one, big difference.

I suggested at the last council meeting a tax increase more than has been suggested, one of .50 cent increase, why? No one knows the costs of operation next year of fuel .Three cents more will only return $82,500, that's only about 18,000 gallons of fuel at $4.50/gallon.

This is not an easy decision facing our city manager, mayor or council, complacency got us here but it is more difficult, and therefore more, than be able to decide. The decision is council’s, the future is ours, may they have the wisdom to achieve this goal.

Chuck Mehan
East Ridge
cbm2006@comcast.net

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Mayor Steele and Commissioner/City Manager Curtis Adams are trying to pull one over on the citizens of East Ridge. It should be expected of Adams and it seems Steele has bought into Ole Curtis's ways. Mayor Steele has been a total disappointment with his handling of hiring Adams as city manager. He really pulled a slick one on the resident's of East Ridge. Since that hire East Ridge is now in the news a lot and in a bad way. East Ridge had finally not been the small city that was a comedy of sorts politically. Thanks to the leadership or lack of and the unbelievable hiring of Adams we are once again a joke.

Just a week or two ago it was announced that there was a proposed 37 cent tax increase. Now Curtis is proud to announce a 47 cent increase, even though it has not been voted on?

We'll have to wait and see but my take is that they have gotten together on this. Raised the proposed increase in one week by 10 cents and heroically will lower it to the last week price of 37 cents. All to get the citizens off their backs. Just watch and see.

The old good guy, bad guy tactic.

Thanks Mike and Curtis for making all of East Ridge proud.

Matt Conners

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In this economy when so many East Ridge residents are scraping to get by, how can Curtis Adams look us in the face and tell us he is "proud to raise our taxes?" Everywhere you go prices are being raised and more money is being taken out of our pockets. Gas, corn, milk, meat, bread - all the basic necessities of life are costing us more every day. "Proud?" What arrogance.

I have a huge problem with handing Camp Jordan over $1 million. Camp Jordan already has lights on the fields and I'm not sure if a big flashing sign is going to bring a family heading to Atlanta on the interstate back to East Ridge.

Wasn't it Camp Jordan that came up in discussion over the last budget that they had never paid the city back over $30,000 they had promised to pay? I never heard the resolution of that discussion. I have heard board members from Camp Jordan talking about having excess money to spend and they don't know what to spend it on. I would suggest lights or a big flashing sign so we don't have to.

It is pretty well known that soccer teams at our complex actively recruit from the Dalton area. I think that's great. Let’s ask how many of these families pay to use the facilities. I believe that any child should be able to play any sport they want to play regardless of income, but to go actively seeking and recruiting families that don't pay - just to win games - doesn't make much sense to me. I would hope it doesn't make sense to other families that do have to pay.

As far as Camp Jordan being filled with tournaments to bring in income to East Ridge, that doesn't make much sense either. Entry fees and concession money would go to the complex, not the city. Income would be gained by the few hotels we have, but I would bet that most out of town families stay in Chattanooga hotels, not East Ridge. According to the website the only tournament I could find is on Aug. 8-10. Let’s watch carefully and see how successful it is for East Ridge before we give them $1.2 million.

Mr. Adams, please do us East Ridge residents a favor and stop being so proud to help us.

Jim Smith

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Nobody likes the idea of raising taxes, unfortunately higher taxes are as much a part of life as getting older. Being a former East Ridge City Council member I have been faced with this decision. Fortunately, through the collective efforts of elected officials and administrative staff we were able keep services good and taxes low.

I am glad that my garbage is picked up two times a week and that I see police patrolling my neighborhood so regularly, so if a small tax increase is warranted to maintain these levels of services and goods then I am in support of it. However, I do not believe it is in the best interest of the city or its citizens to raise property taxes to such an extreme level as proposed for the purposes of making capital purchases or hiring additional employees.

Today’s energy cost are having an adverse effect on our economy and especially the elderly. Everyone has been forced to cut back and conserve. I believe we should expect no less from our governing officials. More efforts should be made to acquire government grants for special projects. Conservation efforts should be impose on all city owned take home vehicles. Flex hours should be revised to fit all departments to conserve fuel and energy. Cross training should be offered to all employees. This would allow the city to fill vacancies within and give current employees incentives and the chance for advancement.

To everyone in East Ridge, let’s put the pioneer spirit to work. Only by working together can we ever expect to move forward and raise East Ridge to a level we can all be proud of.

John Tilley
East Ridge

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Thank you, Vice Mayor Petty.

Finally, someone in elected office representing East Ridge that will stand up to Curtis Adams publicly. It is high time for Mr. Adams to realize that he is not running a small kingdom and everyone else are just puppets.

Yes, I know how many times he's been elected, and yes, I know how much of the taxpayers money that he has spent in East Ridge, several thousand in the last 12/24 months, seems reasonable that he would get three votes rather quickly and quietly to hire him city manager at $60,000 plus to perform duties that he was supposed to be performing already as Hamilton County Commissioner, better housing, economic growth, schools, safer neighborhoods, lower taxes?

Problem is, ego. He has to be in control, he tries to run the county, thinks he's running the school board and looks like he's running the East Ridge City Council. Maybe he is, so when is he our Hamilton County Commissioner? The city job is an eight hour a day job I thought, how can he be in two places at the same time? Difficult task even for Curtis. Sounds like a big ole' case of conflict of interest.

East Ridge doesn't have the kind of income that Hamilton County does, we don't have free discretionary funds to throw around when needed with no accountability to show for it. As a city, we have to live on what we have, same as our citizens. Do we need to raise taxes? I think so. Forty-seven cents at one time? No, .37 was probably the number the whole time and the ole' scare tacit was used. Announce .47 people get angry, drop to .37, everybody happy. Why not smaller increments over time? Because Curtis said "people forget."

This will no doubt get me a letter in the mail on city letterhead, but that's OK.

Thank you again Mr. Petty.

Grant Sowder