Dalton RobertsUnless some excellent historian like the late James Livingood sets his mind and hand to it, few will fully appreciate the work of the first Hamilton County Commission. I say without hesitation, it was the grandest legislative body in local history.
When I retired from my role as county executive, I said, “If I still had my original commission to work with, I would never want to leave this job. They were dreamers but hard-nosed dreamers. They had a vision of doing things for the people. They were honest, and they had courage.”
I do not believe in living in the past, but when we fail to acknowledge our debt to those who make our present and future better, we will cease to have a better present and future.
We were all elected in 1978 under a new form of government. The first black commissioners in county history — Paul McDaniel and Rheubin Taylor — were elected. A woman commissioner — Brenda Bailey — was elected. There were nine commissioners elected from nine districts.
Things were rough in the area. Chattanooga had been the ninth-strongest manufacturing town in America based upon the percentage of the population working in manufacturing, but we had lost 15,000 manufacturing jobs as technology and the outsourcing of jobs began. Both inflation and unemployment were in double digits. Downtown looked like an old western ghost town at night.