Audio clip
Ron Littlefield
Combining certain city and Hamilton County services over the next four years could be a goal if it brings relief to taxpayers and makes more sense, local officials said Monday.
“That could happen,” said County Commissioner Curtis Adams. “That would just be good business.”
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Staff Photo by John Rawlston Newly-elected Chattanooga City Councilman Andrae McGary takes the oath of office on Monday morning during inauguration ceremonies at the Tivoli Theatre.
Mayor Ron Littlefield was inaugurated Monday for his second four-year term, along with the City Council’s nine-member body. Shortly after being sworn in, Mr. Littlefield gave an inaugural address that described his far-reaching aspirations of combining several city and county services, creating a regional water and sewer authority much like EPB and annexing all areas within the city’s urban growth boundaries.
“People will say, ‘Oh, my goodness, he’s talking about metro government,’” Mr. Littlefield said at the Tivoli Theatre. “Not necessarily, but I am talking about refinements in our local government to be more efficient, effective and economical.”
Voters defeated measures to install a metropolitan government for Hamilton County in 1964, 1970 and 1984, according to Times Free Press archives.
“‘Metro’ has become a word that you should probably not even bring up,” Mr. Littlefield said after the speech.
Councilman Peter Murphy said afterward he wanted to hear more about the mayor’s agenda.
“He’s talking a lot about what sounded an awful lot like metro government to me,” Mr. Murphy said.
County Commissioner Greg Beck, who attended the inauguration, said he heard something different.
“Some people say they heard metro government,” he said. “I didn’t hear that.”
What he said he heard was talk of unification of some entities that could save money and in some instances even gain money. That’s already happened in certain areas such as 911 service, he said.
Local officials should not be afraid to unify services and infrastructure, Mr. Littlefield said, bringing up the idea of buying Tennessee-American Water.
“I’m not sure all of that can be achieved,” he said. “But we’ll try to do it.”
Immediately after the address, Councilman Jack Benson said he wanted to get to work finding duplication of services within the county and the city. He also said he was impressed with Mr. Littlefield’s speech.
“There was a lot of substance,” he said.
Councilwoman Sally Robinson said unification of a lot of services could and should be considered.
“You don’t want to throw up red flags, and there’s a lot of people still resistant to metropolitan government,” she said. “We can come up with another name.”
One advantage of combining forces would be getting all city and county employees under one health care plan, Mr. Adams said. With more employees under the plan, premiums would be lower, he said.
“The bigger you are, the more power you have to buy,” he said. “He’s (Mr. Littlefield) making a lot of sense.”
QUESTIONS LINGER
Some officials were hesitant to latch onto everything in Mr. Littlefield’s speech. John Watson, president of Tennessee-American Water, said the company opposed any dealings such as a takeover or a purchase.
“Our company is not and never has been for sale,” he said.
Phil Smartt, chairman of the Hamilton County Water and Wastewater Authority, said he did not know the “ramifications” behind a regional water and sewer authority. The mayor suggested bringing in state representatives to help implement the authority.
All the mayor’s suggestions need to be researched further, Mr. Smartt said.
“I asked our attorney to look into it, and we’re looking into it,” he said.
Jim Coppinger, chairman of the County Commission, said he could see consolidating city and county services. But the mayor’s proposal for annexing a huge swath of area that lies in the district he represents is a different story.
Communities such as Hidden Harbor and Middle Valley do not want to be annexed into the city and pay higher property taxes, he said. There’s also a question of whether city services such as fire and police would be adequate in those areas, he said.
“They are not interested,” he said.
Mr. Murphy said he found the speech “visionary,” but he wondered if taking over a water company and annexing more land fell in line with the city’s goals.
“I don’t know if that’s our most pressing priority,” he said.
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Video: Is metro government coming?Following his oath of office for a second term, Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield addressed a crowd about the possible combination of some city and county services.
Cliff has worked for the Times Free Press for five years and covers Chattanooga city government. He previously covered Rhea County, as well as transportation and growth and development in Southeast Tennessee. A native of Maryville, Tenn., Cliff graduated in 2003 from the University of Tennessee with a bachelor’s degree in communications with an emphasis on journalism. Before coming to Chattanooga, he was a crime reporter with Hernando Today, a supplement of The Tampa (Fla.) ...
All I see here are a bunch of really bad ideas.
I can't understand why this idea of the city taking over the water company keeps coming up. It died during Kinsey's administration, and it was a bad idea then. We have some of the lowest water rates in the nation here. Whenever cities have taken over utilities they raise rates, just like they raise taxes. Stop beating this dead horse and bury it already.
Plus, is city government taking over private businesses the message we want to send to other businesses considering making Hamilton County their home base?
Annexing people that don't want to be annexed is merely taxation without representation. Plus, it would mandate that the city tax rate would have to be raised in order to provide support and services to those areas. It would put a strain on existing city resources. I don't want to pay even higher taxes just so Middle Valley and East Brainerd can be part of one big happy Chattanooga family. I think the area would lose some of its appeal if the entire county was encompassed in the cities borders. Right now people can choose city our country life and that kind of diversity is what attracted VW execs here in the first place. Take that away and the Scenic City loses a bit of it's sparkle.
Coming up with another name for metropolitan government is simply more political correctness, call it what you will it is still metro government and only means bigger, slower, unfriendly beauracracies, more red tape, and higher taxes for everyone. I also foresee the smaller municipalities in the area losing out, they would be begging for the crumbs that fall off of Chattanooga's table under a merged government. It's a lose lose proposal.
Yup, the Mayor is clearly an environmentalist, because he is trying to recycle the bad ideas and failed plans of Chattanooga city mayors past.
Is it just me or does anyone else reading the Mayor's laundry list feel like we just gave John Kinsey another term by proxy? Especially, the nonsense about the water company. Not a single original idea up there, seen it all before. They were bad ideas back then and they are bad ideas now.
Is City Hall haunted? because I see a whole lot of Ghosts of Mayor's past in that list of ideas.
Ron I don't know whose advising you or writing your speeches but you need to fire them. They are making you look bad.
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