Nearly losing a $3.6 million weatherization program was the “wake-up call” Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield said he needed to reorganize the city’s Department of Human Services.
The first shift came Wednesday, with the announcement that Director Bernadine Turner will retire June 30 and that Al Chapman will serve as interim director. Mr. Chapman now is administrator in the Faith-Based Initiative and Community Partnerships office.
“These are no longer dead-end jobs where you can just chop off and be for 30 years without performing,” Mr. Chapman said. “I’m not saying that’s the case, but if there are folks that think that way, they’re in for a rude awakening.”
The shake-up comes after the department’s failure to achieve a goal of weatherizing 118 homes by the end of December. By March 31, only 83 homes were weatherized.
Mr. Littlefield announced Ms. Turner’s exit in a news release. Asked if she chose to leave voluntarily, the mayor said he was “not going to get into those kinds of things.”
Ms. Turner, a 38-year employee of the Department of Human Services, declined comment.
Mr. Littlefield said it was time to make “adjustments” to the city department. On Tuesday, the city formalized a transfer of the state-administered weatherization stimulus program to Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise.
“I would have gone with Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise from the outset,” Mr. Littlefield said. “It really taxed the ability of our Human Services people to manage a program that became that large that fast.”
SELECTED HUMAN SERVICES PROGRAMS* Social Services* Head Start* Child Care* Housing and Urban Development Counseling* Volunteer Income Tax AssistanceSource: City of Chattanooga
Those remarks came a day after the mayor’s spokesman, Richard Beeland, blamed the failure specifically on “bad management” by Human Services employees.
But Human Services workers on Tuesday said insufficient staff and “no plans” from the mayor’s office to administer the program were the cause of the problems.
The mayor said he’s not sure what will happen to employees who strictly are involved with weatherization.
“Everyone should know that their job needs to be essential and they need to be doing a good job at it,” he said. “Otherwise it’s potentially on the chopping block.”
Mr. Chapman said that’s true all the way up the line.
“He’s going to be watching me, too,” Mr. Chapman said. “Everybody’s on trial. I think that’s a good idea for any government office.”
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