A lawyer for the Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) said in a letter to County Attorney Rheubin Taylor that Commissioner Tim Boyd should not have released certain information about the CVB he obtained from the county auditor's office.
Attorney Phillip Whitaker said if there are any additional "breaches of confidentiality" that the CVB will pursue legal action.
Commissioner Boyd said, "This letter is just another example of how the CVB wants to keep their financials from going public. The fact the CVB is using their funds to pay a high-priced lawyer to intervene is another example of questionable use of our tax dollars.
"We all need to remember 80 percent of the CVB operating funds come from the hotel/motel tax, which the County Commission entrusts to them.
"If the CVB has nothing to hide or if the CVB really wants to make me look bad, release the documents. Let the public be the judge and jury of whether the CVB is being good stewards of our tax revenue."
Attorney Whitaker said in the letter, "We represent the Chattanooga area Convention & Visitors Bureau and are writing concerning a document entitled "CVB - Beyond the Audit Report" that Tim Boyd prepared and released to the public on March 29, 2017 at a County Commission committee meeting in his capacity as a Hamilton County Commissioner.
"This document appears to be an official report of the Hamilton County Commission. The document states on its face that it was prepared using information obtained from the Hamilton County Auditor. That information appears to have been derived in part from working papers created by or supplied to the office of the County Auditor in connection with audit reports of the CVB.
"As I am sure you are aware, working papers, including records of an auditee, and all records relating to the audit or investigation by the internal audit staff of the County Auditor, are confidential as a matter of Tennessee law.
"Mr. Boyd, in his capacity as a Hamilton County Commissioner, had no right to release, and indeed had a duty not to release, to the public any information from the working papers not appearing in the audit reports themselves.
"Mr. Boyd's violation of the statutory confidentiality rules in his capacity as a county commissioner is not only a problem for him, it also reflects poorly on the entire Hamilton County Commission.
"Please understand that should the Hamilton County Commission allow any further breaches of confidentiality, we will pursue the action necessary to protect our client's interest."
Commissioner Boyd said the county attorney's office reviewed his report prior to its release and approved it.
The CVB gets $7.1 million per year from the hotel/motel tax that first goes to the county, then is transferred to the tourism agency.