Most days when we wake or slow down for the evening in this beautiful, interesting Chattanooga area, we know we are blessed.
But somewhere in between waking to the scenic river and mountains then settling in our comfortable homes for the evening, we hear or read about our local leaders making yet another mess of governing.
Call us whiplash county
That was the case late last week when most of us heard of the Hamilton County Commission's most recent reversal. This time, commissioners voted 7-2 to rescind their late June vote of 6-3 to require any nonprofit organization to adopt county purchasing and travel policies if it receives county money exceeding 25 percent of the nonprofit's operating budget.
In other words, most county commissioners in June thought nonprofits such as the Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Humane Educational Society should be more transparent about how county taxpayer money is spent. Now in late July most county commissioners think that's not so important.
Only Commissioner Randy Fairbanks, an accountant, stood with Commissioner Tim Boyd in trying to save the oversight rules Boyd introduced and won a month ago after he questioned the lavish spending of the CVB, which has received all of the county's lodging tax revenues since 2007 - $7.8 million last year. With that spending of our $7.8 million, the CVB brought in about $1 billion in tourism, and yes, that seems a great return on our money. But other cities do just as well with less of a stake. Huntsville, Ala., for instance, reportedly spends about $2 million to bring in $1 billion, according to Boyd.
The CVB has argued it cannot be transparent about what it bids to host events and competitions such as Ironman because that would give other cities an unfair advantage in vying for them. That's disingenuous. The CVB, with county dollars making up more than 80 percent of its budget, could easily lump all such event bids into one blurred line item while being fully transparent about spending on travel and dining and other costs.
It would seem that would be an important consideration at a time when spending is so tight for public schools. We have a growing $24 million educational needs list and a $200 million school maintenance backlog.
In last week's reversal, commissioners said a number of nonprofit agencies told them they were for accountability, but they could not adhere to county purchasing policies.
What - they can't bid purchases? They can't plan? Then they shouldn't get our money. Period.
Shame on Commission Chairman Chester Bankston and Commissioners Warren Mackey, Sabrena Smedley and Greg Beck for reversing their support for Boyd's resolution, as well as Commissioners Jim Fields, Joe Graham and Greg Martin who opposed the accountability measure in the first place.
School board still dithers
Our school leaders, too, can't quite seem to wrap their heads around the fact that they either can work with the state to improve education here or the state will take over at least some of our five poorest performing schools.
New Hamilton County Schools Superintendent Bryan Johnson did just about all he could do to help them last week after nearly an hour of board discussion over the state's Partnership Zone proposal.
Johnson told the board: "Let's develop a comprehensive plan, so we can go back [to the state] and say, 'This is what we see as a plan, and let's figure out how we partner to move our schools forward."
The state's proposal is in itself a compromise gift, albeit one that some of our school board members have simply refused to acknowledge - apparently because of turf concerns masquerading as local pride and distrust of the state. Other board members have added that local leaders and educators are "invested" in these schools.
Well, sure they are. But so is the state. So is every mom and dad and student here who have been slighted over and over and over for more than a decade while the local educational input - both with planning and dollars - wasn't good enough to bring these students an adequate environment in which to learn.
Kudos to Johnson for gently reminding the board on Thursday that this isn't about local vs. state leadership. It's about our children and their education.
"There are 2,300 students [in five schools] not getting what they need. That is the bottom line," he said. "We've got an obligation as a board, an obligation as a community to ensure these students get what they need."
We hope school board members will finally get it.
Bradley sheriff clings to office
Bradley County Sheriff Eric Watson (a former four-term state legislator and former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee) was booked into his own jail Friday after a Bradley County grand jury indicted him on six counts of knowingly holding or using forged or falsified car titles in his unlicensed used car sales transactions. The charges are felonies, punishable by one to six years in prison.
These charges are new, and are not related to any other allegations of misconduct by Watson that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has been looking into for 13 months.
Why has he not resigned already?
***
Yep, we are, without question, blessed with this place we call home. But we can and must do better about finding and electing our local leaders.