NASHVILLE – A bill in the Tennessee General Assembly that some Hamilton County commissioners hoped would put them in charge of their pay got shelved Tuesday as Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, delivered a public scolding of commissioners for what he called their secretive ways in asking for the measure.
But Commission Chairman Chester Bankston was having none of it, saying Gardenhire “did not tell the truth” about the situation.
The flare-up came after Gardenhire appeared in the Senate State and Local Government Committee and told colleagues he was sending the bill to the general subcommittee, saying he hopes never to see it again.
“We received some letters by some of the elected officials in Hamilton County, which were written in secret, behind closed doors, asking us to do this,” Gardenhire told the Senate panel. “I’ve asked for a [legal] opinion on that. I didn’t want to be nor did anyone else in the delegation [want to] be complacent in accepting such a letter.”
The senator said “the reason for this [bill] was they wanted to decouple their salaries from the county mayor so they could ultimately increase their own salaries.”