Incoming Commissioner Joe Graham said he wants to reform the way commissioners use their discretionary money, but some commissioners want to leave the accounts the way they are.
Money left in discretionary accounts for Hamilton County Commissioners as of Aug. 23:* Note: these figures include money rolled over from previous years.Fred Skillern:* General fund: $274,773* Bond fund: $39,073Greg Beck:* General fund: $49,968* Bond fund: $4,642John Allen Brooks:* General fund: $17,151* Bond Fund: $0Richard Casvant:* General fund: $0* Bond fund: $0Jim Coppinger* General fund: $289,719* Bond fund: $9,166Larry Henry* General fund: $219,693* Bond fund: $22,582Bill Hullander* General fund: $168,329 (Hullander spent $155,000 spent on projects Aug. 26.)* Bond fund: $43,137Warren Mackey* General fund: $90,553* Bond fund: $4,257
Each year commissioners receive $100,000 to spend on projects of their choosing. Some outgoing commissioners are depleting their accounts before four new commissioners take office this week. Commissioner Richard Casavant, for example, gave $100,000 to the Mountain Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports public schools on Signal Mountain, which is one area Casavant represents.
During his campaign, Graham implied his opponent, incumbent Commissioner John Allen Brooks, used the money to sway the election. He said he wants to ban spending the money after commissioners qualify to run for re-election.
“Whenever qualification starts I think the checkbook ought to be taken away,” Graham said. “My opponent and Mr. Casavant are pretty well draining their funds.”
Graham added he would support abolishing discretionary funds, an idea not popular with some commissioners. According to records provided by the commission office, Brooks spent around $244,000 since April 2010. Part of that money had rolled over from previous years.
The idea of limiting or doing away with discretionary spending wasn’t popular among some commissioners.
“I’m for leaving it just like it is,” current Chairman Fred Skillern said, adding that he’s only one vote and other commissioners might have different ideas.
Commissioner Jim Coppinger said commissioners might miss opportunities to spend money on useful projects if the funding was limited. Commissioner Warren Mackey said the criticism about how the funds are used is “troubling.”
“It implies that there’s some kind of impropriety or that discretionary money is being used to influence campaigns and that simply is not anything that I have experienced in my tenure on the commission,” Mackey said.
Other commissioners were in favor of considering some reforms. Commissioner Greg Beck said while he doesn’t have a problem with spending the money during a political campaign, he would like to limit commissioner’s ability to unload discretionary money before leaving office. Commissioner Larry Henry said he would also consider reforming discretionary spending.
“We could look at limiting the amount of spending they do,” he said. “I think that would be appropriate.”
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