Hamilton County Commission

21 Apr, 2017

No tax-supported entity should get secrecy in spending

By |2017-04-24T17:28:29-05:00April 21, 2017|Categories: Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: , , , , , , |0 Comments

A shadowy situation has emerged in Chattanooga with an organization that manages millions of taxpayer dollars with no transparency and such a surprising disregard for accountability that one wonders what it would take to wake up elected officials who are supposedly in charge. Welcome to the Chattanooga Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, whose lawyer threatened to sue the county after a commissioner dared to shed a little sunlight on how it spends tax dollars. The Chattanooga CVB is on track to get $7.8 million in hotel/motel tax this year via a pass-through arrangement with the Hamilton County government. The Chattanooga CVB gets almost all of its funds from [...]

Read More
24 Feb, 2016

Chattanooga lawmaker scolds Hamilton County commissioners for secret attempt to change law

By |2016-02-24T18:48:33-06:00February 24, 2016|Categories: Legislature|Tags: , , |0 Comments

State Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, pulled his bill, S.B. 1911, from consideration in a Senate committee Tuesday, saying the Hamilton County Commission had asked him and others in the Hamilton County delegation to sponsor it without discussing it in a public meeting. State Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, speaking to a Senate committee. To see the VIDEO, click on the picture. The bill was filed as a caption bill, meaning the language was a placeholder for the real intent of the sponsor. Gardenhire told the Senate State and Local Government Committee Tuesday that the bill now had an amendment (which has not yet been made public on the General Assembly's [...]

Read More
22 Jun, 2015

Sneaky Six in Chattanooga carry on troubling tradition of Hamilton County Commission

By |2015-08-18T10:11:20-05:00June 22, 2015|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

Is it open, transparent government when six Hamilton County commissioners, after weeks of public meetings where they and the public heard detailed budget requests, vote to give themselves $100,000 each out of the county's rainy-day fund with no public discussion or explanation? No. Times Free Press columnist Jay Greeson called them the Sneaky Six in a Sunday column, and it's a moniker that deserves to stick. The Hamilton County Commission has skated the edges of the Open Meetings Act and its principles before. These are the same county commissioners who keep phones at their dais and make private calls to each other during the meeting -- covering their mouths so their microphones [...]

Read More
15 Feb, 2015

Hamilton County commissioners send secret letter for more power to set their own pay

By |2015-02-16T14:19:16-06:00February 15, 2015|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

Eight of the nine Hamilton County commissioners appeared to have gone to great lengths to avoid talking in public about a bill that they asked their local state lawmaker delegation to draft so they could set their own pay. Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Louie Brogdon reports that the bills, Senate Bill 707 and House Bill 717, would remove language in state law that sets Hamilton County commissioners pay and ties potential raises to the county mayor's salary. By decoupling the commissioners' pay from the county mayor's pay, county commissioners could give themselves a larger increase without increasing other county salaries. Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Beck drafted the letter [...]

Read More
15 Jan, 2015

Hamilton County commissioner says “Sunshine law stinks”

By |2015-02-16T14:13:38-06:00January 15, 2015|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: , , , , |1 Comment

During a public meeting yesterday, Hamilton County commissioners took aim at the requirement in the state's Open Meetings Act, sometimes referred to as the sunshine law, that formation of public policy must be done in public. One even went so far as to say, "The sunshine law stinks." The comments came on the heels of a story by the Times Free Press about commissioners using telephones to call each other during the meeting to talk privately. After their comments on Wednesday, the commissioners explained their negative view of the sunshine law to reporter Louie Brogdon.  Brogdon also called TCOG for comment, allowing us to explain the importance of open and public [...]

Read More
Go to Top