Just as the Hamilton County Commission had done with some $69 million a few days earlier, the Chattanooga City Council approved how to spend $30 million in federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds last week.
One difference in the outlays of the massive amounts of money, which were ostensibly marked by supportive members of Congress for COVID-19 relief, were the local processes by which use of the funds was determined.
Where most of the county money was directed by the mayor, plus individual amounts by the nine county commissioners, the distribution of the city money was determined with a measure of community input.
Our feeling is that where there is more sunshine the public is better served. In other words, if the public has input into area projects where taxpayer money is involved in one way or another, they will be better informed and feel they have at least some buy-in.
In several cases over the past several months, that has not been the case. To cite just three, we think of the county ARP money, the governing change of Erlanger Health System and the foundry/stadium project.