The spring budget process has quietly resurrected the contentious topic of discretionary spending by Hamilton County commissioners.
Last June, six commissioners voted to take $900,000 out of the county general fund balance to replenish discretionary funds after Mayor Jim Coppinger left their special project money out of the 2015-2016 budget. The same commissioners - Chester Bankston, Tim Boyd, Randy Fairbanks, Jim Fields, Warren Mackey and Sabrena Smedley - also shot down Coppinger's veto of the amended budget.
A Tennessee government watchdog group has called the discretionary money a County Commission slush fund.
Boyd, who serves as chairman of the Finance Committee, said in a committee meeting Tuesday he wants to know what other commissioners think about discretionary fund policies now.
After moving to a more remote conference room, Boyd said he would have the commission's executive assistant email all county commissioners to find out if they think discretionary funding is a good policy and if it should be continued or changed.
"This is for information purposes," Boyd said of the email requests. "We're not going to deliberate the issue. I just want to get feedback for information on where we need to go with this."
After the meeting, Boyd said he did not make the announcement before the entire County Commission because it was within the purview of Finance Committee business. He said the Finance Committee meets in a conference room away from assembly chambers because it is small and flexible.
People who wander in and out of the assembly room who have no concern for the Finance Committee are "a distraction," Boyd said. Retiring to the conference room is preferable to clearing the chamber, he said.
Before going to the conference room with committee members Smedley and Fairbanks, Boyd said the meeting was open to the public. Commissioner Joe Graham and County Attorney Rheubin Taylor attended the meeting.
Boyd said he did not consider gathering opinions by email to be a violation of open meeting laws and that he only wanted to get the commission's thoughts so as to have a "final outline" before opening a discussion during a full commission meeting.
He said the emails - like all County Commissioner emails - are available to the public for review upon request.
Boyd said discretionary funds can change lives and leverage greater returns.
Graham has been outspoken in his opposition to how discretionary money was obtained for the current budget.
"I expect this commission will take the money again this year if it's not in the budget," Graham said after the meeting.
He also said he was not against discretionary money in general, but that he opposed spending it on nonprofit organizations. Its purpose was for items intended to last for years, Graham said.
"I don't want to be a philanthropist with [taxpayer] money," he said.
Contact staff writer Paul Leach at 423-757-6481 or pleach@timesfreepress.com.