Hamilton County commissioners already individually control more money than any other local elected officials in the state — by a wide margin. And Wednesday, they voted to give themselves a little more buying power.
In addition to the $100,000 a year each commissioner gets in discretionary spending for county capital projects, commissioners voted to divvy up the proceeds from the pending sale of the old East Brainerd Elementary School building and use the money to cover school projects in their districts.
The move was tacked onto a resolution allowing Mayor Jim Coppinger to move $2.2 million from the sale of the old Ooltewah Elementary School to the general fund and spend the same amount in bond funds to buy security cameras for all county schools.
A camera is mounted in the office of Ooltewah Elementary School.The resolution states that money from the East Brainerd Elementary school sale will be equally distributed across the county’s nine districts “to pay for the needs in the various schools.”
Typically, the Hamilton County School Board or system officials decide what those needs are — but not with this special, commission-crafted set-aside.