We hope the Hamilton County Commission's Wednesday reversal of a previous vote to establish new oversight rules on certain nonprofit organizations won't stop the body from careful scrutiny on the use of county money spent on such agencies.
The commission voted 6-3 in late June to force nonprofit organizations that receive at least 25 percent of their operating budget from the county to adhere to county purchasing and travel policies, to provide all their expense records to the county and to allow commissioners to have a seat on each of their boards.
The problem was no one at the time of the vote knew how many organizations would be affected - almost two dozen -and what the upshot would be for each organization in attempting to comply.
Although we supported the measure, it probably should have been delayed until more detailed information was forthcoming.
Since then, commissioners received pushback from the Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau, which pocketed $7.8 million in lodging tax revenues in fiscal 2017, and from the Humane Educational Society, which said it annually provides the county with its budget, an outside audit and a contract.
Commissioner Sabrena Smedley said she also heard from nonprofits that couldn't adhere to county travel policies because the county's bid process is not workable in emergency purchasing situations.
Although the oversight rules matter wasn't on the commission agenda Wednesday, Commissioner Greg Beck brought it up at the beginning of the meeting, referred to it only by its official resolution designation and made a motion to bring it back up for discussion. When that was agreed to, Beck made a motion to rescind the original resolution. The vote to do so was 7-2, with Commissioners Smedley, Beck, Chairman Chester Bankston and Warren Mackey changing their votes from their initial support of the measure.
The original resolution grew out of Commissioner Tim Boyd's deep-dive look into the Convention and Visitors Bureau's finances and his belief that the organization was getting an excessive amount of county funds. After Wednesday's vote, he said he'll soon suggest that the percentage of lodging tax revenues the organization gets be cut. In the past, he has noted that other cities' tourist arms do more with less and that Chattanooga's tourist arm should be given that challenge.
Smedley said it might helpful if, in the future, commissioners receive copies of the financial information annually sent to the county by affected organizations.
Our interest, generally, is in transparency with county money. The more open finances are, the easier it is for the public and commissioners to be more secure (or less, depending on the situation) about how county money is being spent.
We want them to always be on the lookout for waste, fraud and abuse.