It only took the Hamilton County Commission a month to back down from new financial oversight rules it put in place for certain nonprofit organizations.
In late June, the commission voted 6-3 in favor of regulations requiring any nonprofit organization to adopt county purchasing and travel policies if it received county money exceeding 25 percent of its operating budget. The new rules also called for an affected nonprofit to give a board seat to a county commissioner and to provide all expense records to the county.
Commissioner Tim Boyd introduced the financial oversight measures after months of publicly scrutinizing the Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau, which has received all of the county’s lodging tax revenues since 2007. In fiscal 2017, the bureau received $7.8 million in lodging revenues; in 2018, the agency is expected to receive $8.2 million. County dollars make up more than 80 percent of the bureau’s income.
On Wednesday, commissioners voted 7-2 to rescind the new nonprofit rules, with only Commissioner Randy Fairbanks standing with Boyd in trying to save them.
“The taxpaying citizens are the ones who lose,” Boyd said after the meeting. “Come election time, I’d hate to have to explain why I reversed my vote on transparency and accountability. I don’t have to worry about that.”