Barrett: Wind-sowing yields bumper crop of whirlwinds yet again

What's with all the indignant surprise over Rick Smith's likely ascent to the schools superintendent's job?

You may adore him or deplore him, but his promotion was expected by anybody who has been paying attention. Its roots are planted firmly in the all-too-correct public perception that the former majority on the school board had gotten arrogant and out of touch.

I recall vividly the meetings in the newsroom with candidates, some of whom now serve on the board, who made no secret of their frustration with then-Superintendent Jim Scales. Subsequent articles in the Times Free Press reported that displeasure faithfully, just as the paper has long reported that Smith, now interim superintendent, is favored as a permanent replacement for Scales by some new and longer-term members of the board.

This has all been common knowledge, so any sense of astonishment over the current course of events is mystifying.

Those who are determined to be aggrieved, though, might want to guide their anger toward the board members whose tone-deaf and sometimes outrageous actions drove the voting public to shake things up.

Exhibit A was the extension, by a 5-4 vote under virtual cover of darkness, of Scales' contract for four more grinding years when his original contract was barely half finished. Did the board not hear the splintering of rafters in homes from Birchwood to Brainerd as that bright idea - and the way it was carried out - sent Joe and Jenny Public through the roof?

As if the community needed additional motivation to pluck feathers and set the tar pot asimmer, the previous board gave itself retroactive retirement pay last year for its part-time work - shortly before new and presumably less grabby members were to be installed. To this day, no good excuse has been offered for that merry escapade in the Land of Unguarded Cookie Jars. Did board members not detect a peep of the public's consternation over their pulling such a stunt in a time of economic crisis? Or did they just not care?

Each of these actions was gratuitous. Taken together, they were like a nasty case of poison ivy: not deadly, but aggravating as all get out.

But some board members evidently couldn't resist the impulse to kick voters in the shins. I guess it never occurred to them that voters might kick back.

Footnote 1: It has a ways to go to restore anything resembling public confidence, but the renovated board has made overtures in that direction - starting with its 5-4 defeat this year of an insensitive plan to pass out millions of dollars in bonuses when the district was already in a bind and area unemployment remained high. It's also cause for optimism that Smith has cut the $84,000 director of communications position and is laying the groundwork for $1 million worth of cuts to the central office staff.

Footnote 2: Scales recently was considered for the position of interim superintendent in Dallas. The possibility that he would become the head of a large district was smugly cited by his supporters here as proof of Hamilton County's shortsightedness in bidding him happy trails. Sorry to sift reality flour on that theory, but Scales' generous tender of service in Dallas has been met with a courteous "No thank you." A different candidate was selected by unanimous vote of the Dallas Independent School District's trustees.

Where is that shutoff valve?

You may have read Judy Walton's fact-rich takedown in the Times Free Press of the Tennessee Multicultural Chamber of Commerce's inscrutable finances and its inconsistent budget requests to Chattanooga and Hamilton County. If not, take a look at the article, which ran last Sunday, and prepare for a series of Maalox Moments. It's captivating stuff.

Of course, even before Judy brought the chamber's financial issues to light, there was one overriding reason why it shouldn't have gotten a dime from taxpayers: Its mission is to develop businesses based on race. In a free country, an organization has every right to do that. But it has no "right" to use tax dollars in pursuit of such a goal.

Judy's article provided a number of perfectly serviceable justifications for ending the flow of taxes to the Multicultural Chamber. Let's hope one or more of those justifications persuades city and county officials to turn off the cash spigot, since heretofore they have not deemed the principle of governmental neutrality on matters of race adequate cause to do that.

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