Mayor Weston Wamp would rather back-room scheme than do an honest day’s work.
Mayor Wamp intentionally kept the Hamilton County School Board and the Hamilton County Commission in the dark about anticipated cost overruns in moving the Chattanooga High School Center for Creative Arts into a vacant Blue Cross-Blue Shield building. He did this to influence school board decisions.
Behind the backs of our county commissioners, Mayor Wamp hand-picked a Knoxville architect to prepare a report to influence school board priorities.
Using this report, Mayor Wamp has single-handedly blown-up the school board’s priorities for approved school construction projects.
In the past, the Hamilton County Commission approved the school board budget and
only the school board would decide how to spend the allotted amount.
Not the commission.
Absolutely, not the mayor.
The mayor is supposed to keep his hands off the school system’s allotted money. If the mayor wanted to influence school board decisions, he should have run for the school board.
Since Mayor Wamp does not sit on the school board, he schemed another way to influence school board decisions. Mayor Wamp created a new position, deputy mayor of education, to influence school board policy. Mayor Wamp then appointed past school board chairman Tucker McClendon as the first unelected deputy mayor.
Deputy Mayor McClendon’s past working relationship with the superintendent gives the mayor access to influence school board decisions he would not legally have but for the newly created position. A position never approved by the County Commission.
With his man in place, Mayor Wamp went to work to influence school board decisions. Behind the backs of the taxpayers, and the County Commission, he hand-picked out-of-town architects that would support his view of what school building priorities should be. Mayor Wamp then used his architect’s report to thwart school board building priorities.
Past mayors did not hire private architects to design the schools. The school board used to do that.
Past mayors did not pay private architects with taxpayer money. The County Commission used to do that.
But that’s not the way our county mayor operates. We have seen his behavior throughout his administration. Mayor Wamp attempted to fire the county attorney because he wanted his own county attorney. His actions cost the taxpayers over $300,000 when he lost in court. He took money earmarked for the Urban League because he could. The Urban League was forced to cut necessary expenditures. Mayor Wamp opposed the Lookouts‘ new baseball stadium because the Lookouts had earlier refused to hire him. His actions cost the taxpayers time and money. Because of his infighting, Opening Day at the new Lookouts Stadium was pushed back until 2026.
Mayor Wamp wants the McDonald Farm to remain like the one where he had his birthday parties, not a manufacturing plant employing hundreds of workers. His decision will cost millions in job growth for Hamilton County.
And now? Mayor Wamp is bullying the school board into building his newest pet project, the “Weston Wamp School of Tap Dancing and Technology” in the empty offices taxpayers bought for $10 million from not-for-profit Blue Cross-Blue Shield.
Maybe it’s time for the County Commission to regain leadership of our county government again.
Because it’s already too late.
C. Mark Warren