COUNCIL NOTESHow they voted:Councilmen Larry Grohn, Jerry Mitchell, Moses Freeman and Chip Henderson voted against the method to select Industrial Development Board members. Councilwoman Carol Berz and Councilmen Chris Anderson, Russell Gilbert, Yusuf Hakeem and Ken Smith voted in favor.In other business:• City Council approved the first reading of an ordinance to pay small business owners up to $10,000 a company to add new employees. The program is part of Mayor Andy Berke’s small business incentive.• Berke’s office also unveiled a website that will track whether Chattanooga is meeting its monthly goals for the city. The website called Chattadata is part of the budgeting for outcomes process that ties taxpayer dollars to performance and gives the public continuous updates on their progress.
The Chattanooga City Council on Tuesday rejected the easiest method to replace four members of the Industrial Development Board, opting instead for an arcane process that includes multiple committee meetings and drawing names from a hat.
The council has been gridlocked for weeks on how to replace members of the IDB, which reviews proposed tax breaks and financing deals with businesses. The City Charter gives the council the responsibility to appoint the seven IDB members, but for years it has done no more than affirm nominees chosen by the mayor’s office.
That needs to be fixed, council members have argued, but they haven’t been able to agree on a process.
One IDB member recently quit after it came out that he didn’t live in Chattanooga, as required by the IDB charter. The chairman also recently quit and two sitting IDB members’ terms have expired.