Rifts within the Hamilton County Commission have turned increasingly public as members of the body direct their ire toward Chairman Chester Bankston and Joe Graham, a recent contender for the chairman's seat.
On Wednesday, two commissioners called Graham a bully and a hypocrite during a discussion about discretionary spending within his district.
"We're not always going to agree on every vote - we shouldn't," Commissioner Sabrena Smedley said. "But we should disagree respectfully. And we shouldn't be running to the media and throwing each other under the bus for our own personal gain."
Smedley criticized Graham for alleging the commission broke open meeting and record laws when the body privately circulated letters asking state legislators to allow them to set their own pay. In February 2015, Graham spoke to the media about the existence of such a letter; in December 2015, he revealed a copy of a second such letter from the commission dais.
"I've gone over and above and beyond the call of duty to be accountable and transparent as I serve my community," Smedley said. "[The bullying] is not right. I don't know what the answer is. I don't know how we stop it. I would love, if I had the answer, to take a leadership position up here and to turn things around."
Smedley also accused Graham of attacking fellow commissioners through social media.
Commission Vice Chairman Randy Fairbanks delivered a 12-minute statement in which he questioned media scrutiny, allegedly driven by Graham, over his lack of support for a $2,500 discretionary spending project for a Lookout Valley recreation center. Fairbanks asked why the media has not focused on Graham for not supporting his colleagues' special projects an estimated "50 or 60 times" over the last 18 months.
Except on a few special occasions, Graham has voted "present" when commissioners request to use discretionary money taken from the county reserve fund. When County Mayor Jim Coppinger did not include $900,000 in discretionary funds - which breaks down to $100,000 per commission district - in the fiscal 2016 budget, six commissioners amended the budget to include the money and later overrode the mayor's veto of the amended budget.
Fairbanks went on to bemoan getting "roasted" in a Free Press editorial when Graham spoke to the paper about a lack of discussion after a failed proposal to allow special-event alcohol sales in parks. He also accused Graham of airing the commission's "dirty laundry in public" and having other media "henchmen" make attacks against him and his wife.
"But this is the kind of things, you see, that we face weekly up here on this commission," Fairbanks said.
Graham denied "running to the media," while acknowledging he could do nothing to convince his colleagues otherwise.
"I am doing the public's business in the public," Graham said, citing reasons he has held news conferences in the past. "I'm not attacking anybody up here. It's not our job to attack anyone up here."
Commissioner Greg Beck chastised his colleagues for attacking Graham and criticized Bankston for not stopping it.
"Mr. Chairman, never before in the history of this County Commission has there ever been a time when the chairman allowed a commissioner to be maligned, to be talked about on this dais," Beck said. "Some of the things that have been said, I know to be true about Commissioner Graham, but I certainly respect his opinion and he's entitled to his opinion."
When Bankston interrupted Beck to say the county attorney told him he did not have authority to stop a commissioner from talking, Beck called him out.
"Don't interrupt me," Beck said.
"Well, you said I have authority to shut you up," Bankston responded.
"This is an embarrassing situation and all of you out here know it," Beck said, calling for peace. "It should be more embarrassing to you that a black man is telling you that you ought to be peaceful up here."
County Attorney Rheubin Taylor told Bankston the chairman's duty calls for presiding over the meeting and keeping decorum, including the authority to call people out for making attacks.
Fairbanks also accused Graham of attempting to "drum up the votes" to recall Bankston as the commission chairman.
Beck recently floated the idea of changing his Sept. 7 vote to elect Bankston as the commission's leader, although he has not said why he has second thoughts.
Commissioner Warren Mackey, who also voted for Bankston, said he would change his vote due to unspecified broken promises Bankston made in a private conversation.
Bankston has denied rumors he promised to support Beck for the commission's vice chairmanship or made any other promises to vote one way or another before a meeting.
Contact staff writer Paul Leach at 423-757-6481 or pleach@timesfreepress.com. Follow on Twitter @pleach_tfp.