Commissioner Tim Boyd is at end of table
New County Commission Finance Chairman Tim Boyd on Wednesday said he wants to focus on eight specific topics, including discretionary funds, the WWTA, and the Read 20 program.
At a special called meeting, he said he wants the finance panel "to go beyond just reviewing resolutions each week."
Commissioner Boyd, who recently clashed with County Mayor Jim Coppinger's chief of staff, Mike Compton, said he wants better communication between the county mayor's office and the commissioners. He said he has only gotten some five calls from the county mayor in his five years on the commission, and he said the county mayor has still not responded to an Aug. 27 email.
The proposals drew mixed reviews from his fellow commissioners.
Commissioner Greg Beck said, "This doesn't really sound like something for the finance committee chairman. It sounds like something for the commission chairman."
He added, "This is a partnership. The County Commission can't just run off on our own way."
Other commissioners said they get frequent calls from County Mayor Coppinger. Commissioner Marty Haynes said, "If I have more communication from the county mayor's office, I think I'll die."
Commissioner Warren Mackey said, "I wonder where this distrust comes from. You are going over policies that were put in place by good men like Claude Ramsey, Bill Bennett and Harold Coker."
He added, "There's too many big egos on this commission. The way we behave, there's no wonder the constituents wonder about us."
Commissioner Joe Graham, who lost his finance committee chairmanship after voting for the losing side on chairman and vice chairman, went down the list of Boyd topics and said most were invalid.
He said, "I have a great relationship with the county mayor's office. I hear from them a lot and communicate well with the county mayor and his staff."
Defending his initiative, Commissioner Boyd said, "This is not a witch hunt. This is a policy review to make sure that Hamilton County is the best-run county it can be."
The Boyd list includes the $250,000 request by Orange Grove for needed recycling equipment. He said he favors going along with the request and "finding the best way to do it." The Coppinger administration did not recommended the funding, noting that the county stopped appropriations for Orange Grove and certain other agencies when the city chose not to renew the 1964 sales tax agreement.
Commissioner Boyd said he is concerned that, if the commissioners cannot spend discretionary funds on school projects, then the county would be barred from funding Read 20. He said 91 percent of the program's $286,404 budget goes to three staff members. On the pay of the "chief reading officer," he said, "Ninety-five percent of residents of East Ridge don't make six figures."
He said it seems clear to him that Read 20 funding violates terms of a recent state attorney general's opinion that says general purpose county funds should not go for education.
On the WWTA, Commissioner Boyd said, "I get more hate mail about the WWTA than all the other agencies combined. I have never gotten a complaint about EPB or the water company." He said he lives in a very small house with only his wife, and he said his WWTA fee is triple his water bill. He said, "It must be a hundred bucks for a family of five or six."
He hit "the lack of respect really that WWTA gives its constituents."
The commissioner also said he does not understand why the city of Chattanooga can resume local billing instead of using a California firm and WWTA cannot. He said the bills come at a different day each month with a different due date. He said, "It's really a subtle way to collect late fees."
He said he wants a presentation from the WWTA board chairman - "not Chris Clem (attorney) or Cleveland Grimes (executive director)."
Commissioner Boyd called for a close look at discretionary funds, saying they have become "a political football."
On whether or not to keep them, he said he will always remember a statement by Commissioner Beck that they can "change peoples' lives."
He said he would like County Mayor Coppinger to provide a fiscal study on the impact for the county and the municipalities on his proposal for the county to get a larger share of the sales tax.
Commissioner Boyd said there should be "more transparency" in the selection process for architects on county school projects. He said the county commissioner is initially involved, but then there is a step that involves "the county mayor and the school superintendent behind closed doors."
On the stalled city/county firing range, he said he would like to consider building an indoor range at the Enterprise South Industrial Park rather than putting $300,000 more into the outdoor range at Moccasin Bend. He said it should be moved away from the Bend. He said there would have been heavy remediation costs at the former suggested site on 11th Street.
The final item on his list was to review the lifting of a restriction at the Bonny Oaks Industrial Park that would have allowed one firm to unload ethanol. He said that firm went bankrupt and the property is for sale.
Commissioner Boyd said, "These are just some items I feel need to be addressed and discussed more thoroughly to determine if changes and/or options need to be seriously considered in the future."
Former finance committee chairman Graham said of the Orange Grove suggestion, "How do you pick Orange Grove over all of the other great 501(c)(3)s?"
On the firing range, he said the cost had gotten over $5 million without even considering the condition of the dirt at the old Farmers Market.
Commissioner Graham, on WWTA, said, "We have no control over them whatsoever. They have their own governing board." He said he has also gotten complaints about WWTA, but has been able to meet with WWTA officials and work them out.
Noting that Commissioner Randy Fairbanks said he was embarrassed when a mayor opposed to the county mayor's sales tax proposal asked him about it and he did not know what he was talking about, Commissioner Graham said all the commissioners were briefed before the county mayor met with the mayors. He said, despite strong opposition from three mayors in his district, "I am going to support it. It's fair. The cities have been allowed to annex and annex and take business away from the county."
On the architects, he said the final step involves approval by the County Commission.
Commissioner Graham said, "Most - if not all - of these questions have been asked and answered and continue to be answered on a regular basis."
Chairman Chester Bankston urged commissioners to "take the I out of our discussions and focus on the we."
The special meeting ended as Commissioner Beck told Commissioner Boyd, "I have no doubt you want what is best for the county."
Commissioners Randy Fairbanks, Joe Graham and Marty Haynes