The Signal Mountain Town Council is postponing the decision of whether to join the Small Cities Coalition of Hamilton County until the next council is seated following the Nov. 6 election.
Bridgett Raper, communications strategist for the coalition, and Ted Rogers, city manager of Collegedale, which officially pays Raper; attended the town council’s Aug. 24 agenda work session to explain what the coalition does for member cities and how much it would cost the town to join.
Rogers said the coalition was formed about three years ago to collectively combat a proposed change in the distribution of state shared sales tax that would have lowered the revenue streams of the state’s municipalities. The coalition was able to stop that process before it reached state lawmakers, he added, though he thinks the measure may be revived soon.
“We spoke with a larger voice being six of us together,” Rogers said in a follow-up interview. “If the initial ideas had changed tax funding streams, then small cities would have lost millions of dollars in revenue.”
The cities in the coalition are the same now as when it was formed: Collegedale, East Ridge, Lakesite, Lookout Mountain, Red Bank and Soddy-Daisy.
When Signal Mountain Councilman Bob Spalding asked if the coalition was “like a lobbyist for municipalities,” Rogers responded that they are not lobbyists. He said the coalition’s goal is to clearly communicate to municipalities regarding potential legislation that could affect them, and for the cities involved to come together and respond collectively to those issues.
“[Raper] does a great job with keeping us smaller cities updated. She tracks legislation and issues that affect us in small cities,” said Dwight Montague, who’s been Lookout Mountain, Tenn.’s city consultant for the past eight and a half years. Under that town’s form of government, there is no city manager but Montague operates in much the same capacity.
He pointed to the state’s recent short-term legislation as an example.
“It came down to who has the right to set zoning – the local communities, or should the state dictate to local communities?” Montague said. “What’s right for Red Bank may not be right for Lookout Mountain.
“They passed legislation, but it wasn’t as problematic as it would’ve been if the Airbnb lobbyists had gotten their way.”
While Raper works with each member city to understand their individual stance, Rogers said, having a centralized contact has proven beneficial. He referenced an instance in which he said a legislator called Raper regarding potential legislation.
Raper told Signal Mountain Town Council members that she meets monthly with the managers of member municipalities, and also helps to develop press releases on things happening in the cities, helps with their websites and video production, with planning special events and with media training.
“I have come to realize that Bridgett offers a level of institutional knowledge of each town and has proved to be very valuable in city manager transitions, which gives them a leg up,” Rogers said in his follow-up interview, when asked about some of the other benefits he’s seen come from the position.
The cost to be a part of the coalition varies based on the size of the municipality, and the cost per municipality would go down if more were to join. Lookout Mountain and Lakesite, the smallest member municipalities, pay 10 percent of the total cost, while the larger cities pay 20 percent.
If Signal Mountain were to join, the larger cities would then pay 16 percent. That would amount to an annual cost of $17,430.72 for Signal Mountain.
The cost covers Raper’s $78,000 salary, employee benefits and set $10,000 in annual travel expenses, all of which Collegedale volunteered to keep on its books, said Rogers. The total annual cost for the position is around $120,000, he said.
A 6 percent raise for Raper has been proposed, but the governing body of each member municipality would have to vote to authorize that. Rogers said Raper has not received a raise in two and a half years.
“In my opinion, it’s worth every penny we pay because we’ve seen great benefits across the board from having this job. And it’s a position that each individual city would not be able to afford by itself,” he said in the follow-up interview.
After their presentation, Signal Mountain Councilman Dan Landrum said he’d like to consult with Town Manager Boyd Veal on whether Veal feels he needs the services and advice provided by the coalition. When the issue of joining the coalition was discussed at the council’s Sept. 28 agenda work session, Mayor Chris Howley echoed that sentiment.
“I think it’s something we need to hold for the next council once it’s seated,” Veal said when Howley requested his feedback. “I think we should schedule a meeting where we ask representatives from each of the participating cities to come up and talk to the council as opposed to just Collegedale and the actual employees associated with [the coalition].”
Email Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com