Commissioner Lee Helton
The County Commission has voted to pull $1,050,000 that had been pledged earlier to county Parks and Recreation and two local groups and use the funding for two county school athletic projects.
Earlier, the Urban League was told it was getting $450,000 and the Sankofa Fund for Civic Engagement was pledged $400,000. Parks and Recreation was to receive $200,000 for parking lot paving projects at the Enterprise South Nature Park.
The money is from the federal American Rescue Plan Act.
County Commissioner Lee Helton introduced a late resolution that would allot the funds instead to provide a turf field at the Howard High School football stadium and upgrades to the softball field at Brainerd High School.
Several commissioners said they favored the moves, but should have been given advance notice.
However, the change was approved with Commissioner Greg Beck voting against. Commissioner Beck said he only learned about the change right before the meeting.
Commissioner David Sharpe said afterward he did not vote. He said, "This is yet another instance of avoiding state transparency laws. This was bad government plain and simple. The state of Tennessee passed a law last year to stop this type of thing, but Hamilton County is doing it every week still. The people of this county are entitled to and deserve the opportunity to know what their local government is up to before it's a done deal.
"It's a shame that these worthy projects had to be funded in an underhanded manner. This is why we need more transparency and accountability in county government."
Lee Brouner, finance director, said the Urban League and Sankofa Fund had not yet spent the promised funds. He said the county had retained the money.
Also, the County Commission on Wednesday approving placing 121 license plate reader cameras around Hamilton County using a federal grant.
Sheriff Austin Garrett earlier said the city, county, Red Bank, East Ridge and the Chattanooga Housing Authority are cooperating on the $1,184,929 project.
The fixed LPRs are in addition to mobile readers that are in all Sheriff patrol cars, Sheriff Garrett said.
The cameras are being purchased through Motorola, which has a state purchasing contract.
Sheriff Garrett said the cameras help detect if a vehicle is stolen. He said they can also be used in helping catch a fleeing crime suspect by entering a particular tag number in the system and alerting for it.
The sheriff said he wished the cameras had been in place recently when a woman went missing in the north part of the county. He said a diligent search finally located her deceased near her vehicle in Meigs County.
Sheriff Garrett said the new system allows authorities to put out a search for the tag of a criminal or of a person who has gone missing.
Two citizens spoke against the system, saying it raised fears of state surveillance over the activities of citizens.
Sheriff Garrett said the information is stored for 90 days and is not to be transferred to third parties.
Commissioner Chip Baker said he felt the in-car LPRs "had helped tangibly to get the bad guys."