Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield said Tuesday the city has started talks with the county about merging Hamilton County Criminal Court and the City Court clerk’s offices.
He said the city attorney’s office sent a proposal to Hamilton County Criminal Court this week.
“It’s a draft,” he said.
Some local media outlets caught wind of the proposal and incorrectly reported the merger would occur Sept. 15. Mr. Littlefield said that probably wouldn’t happen.
“I’d like to think we could conclude it that quickly, but I don’t think we can,” he said.
Richard Beeland, spokesman for the mayor, reiterated that talks were merely at the starting point. City officials said there have been no face-to-face talks yet.
“It’s at the very beginning,” Mr. Beeland said. “It’s literally at the very beginning.”
County Mayor Claude Ramsey said Tuesday no agreement has been reached about the two court systems.
“There’s a lot of details to be worked out,” Mr. Ramsey said. “There’s not an agreement in place.”
He said there would be issues of staffing, benefits and funding that need to be agreed on.
“None of that’s been worked out,” Mr. Ramsey said.
Mr. Littlefield started talking about merging the city and county services last year after being voted in as mayor for a second term. He has since said he supports the city and county unifying under one government.
County officials have said they would support merging some departments, such as the courts, but have not gone so far as to say they would support metropolitan government.
Staff writer Dan Whisenhunt contributed to this report.