Hamilton County Commissioners Sabrena Smedley, Randy Fairbanks, Jim Fields, Chester Bankston and Tim Boyd.The battle's over. Hamilton County commissioners have their discretionary funds back. But now they are trying to figure out how they can spend the cash.
Commissioners Wednesday asked County Attorney Rheubin Taylor to petition Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery III for a new opinion specific to Hamilton County and its discretionary accounts.
Last week, the state comptroller's office said county commissioners were not allowed to spend a combined $900,000 commission set aside toward education projects. That's because a 1991 attorney general opinion said general fund money couldn't be spent on education after the year's tax levy was set.
IN OTHER BUSINESS
In other business, Hamilton County Commissioners on Wednesday: * Voted to pass two tax agreements. One for auto supplier Gestamp in Enterprise South Industrial Park and another for a 210-unit apartment development at 1400 Chestnut St. * OK'd a resolution to pay S&ME $50,000 for inspection services for the new Dallas Bay and Tri-Community fire halls. * Confirmed the appointment of Peter Avisto to a five-year term on the Hamilton County Water & Wastewater Treatment Authority.
Six of the commissioners cited school needs as a reason for pulling the money out of the county's savings account after Mayor Jim Coppinger left the funds out of the 2016 budget.
And county spokesman Mike Dunne said commissioners were notified three days before they voted to override a mayoral veto of the budget they had amended.
Commissioner Warren Mackey, who was one of the six commissioners who voted to pull the money from savings and supported the veto, said the comptroller's opinion seems wrong.
"The idea is that we can't use discretionary money for school spending, but at the same time, using that same argument and the same source of money, it would say we couldn't spend the money on school resource officers," he said. "The comptroller's opinion I think is based on a dated case and dated law."
Commissioners Randy Fairbanks and Sabrena Smedley say they hope the state's top attorney has developed a different opinion over the last 24 years.
"How do you deal with the fact that the department of education at this time is not required to provide athletics?" Smedley said. "If we can't spend any of the general fund money on any education projects Then I want to see how we can make sure those types of things get included."
Fairbanks said he was keeping his fingers crossed.
"All I can do is hope and pray that the attorney general says [the comptroller opinion is] not totally true," he said. "Otherwise, all of us adults have argued back and forth, and at the end of the day the children are going to lose."
Commissioners Joe Graham and Marty Haynes said they have different things to consider.
Haynes, Graham and Commissioner Greg Beck voted against adding the money to the budget and against overriding Coppinger's veto.
District 3 residents have urged Haynes to just give the money back to the fund balance.
"I'm not sure that I'm going to pursue that. The simple thing would be just to not spend any of it at this point," Haynes said.
He has no plans to spend the cash, unless an emergency crops up, Haynes said.
Graham hasn't heard from residents but he thought about giving the money back on his own.
"My first natural instinct was to give the money back. But the more I thought about it, the money belongs to District 6, so to give the money back would be punishing District 6," Graham said.
What's still not clear is whether giving money to a nonprofit booster club that supports schools would be a breach of the law.
County spokesman Mike Dunne said Taylor was still researching that question.
Contact staff writer Louie Brogdon at lbrogdon@timesfreepress.com, @glbrogdoniv on Twitter or at 423-757-6481.