A chief housing officer, a chief equity officer and a director of community health are among 11 new senior leadership positions created by Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly since taking office in April 2021, many of which resulted from a reorganization of the city's departments and reporting structures that occurred after his election.
All of them, his administration says, are essential to executing the One Chattanooga plan Kelly outlined in May, a broad and evolving set of priorities -- including affordable housing and early learning -- aimed at closing socio-economic gaps in the city.
"I did feel as though it had been a long time since we had a mayor who was willing to tackle the hard stuff," Kelly said in an interview Thursday with the Times Free Press. "We've been in many cases kicking the can down the road, sweeping the hard stuff under the rug. The lift, strategically, I knew was going to be heavy, but I confess I didn't realize how heavy."
Across city government, Kelly's administration has created 72 new positions since the end of former Mayor Andy Berke's tenure, which is a 2.6% increase. Excluding agencies and positions funded by grants, the city of Chattanooga now has 2,640 budgeted positions.
"We've had a fairly modest increase of positions citywide, and we're honest to God still trying to fill the vacancies that we have," Kelly's chief of staff, Joda Thongnopnua, said in a phone interview Friday.
The city has 362 vacancies, most of which are in the departments of public works and parks and outdoors.
Spending on salaries and wages citywide, meanwhile, has increased by 21.5% between fiscal years 2021 and 2022, moving from about $82.2 million to $99.9 million. Thongnopnua said most of that jump has been in the form of raises the city approved in 2021 -- an average of 18% for city employees -- to remain competitive with peer employers and keep essential services running amid tight labor markets. The city had to temporarily suspend curbside recycling services in July 2021 amid a shortage of drivers.
The Chattanooga City Council approved a $30 million increase in compensation in September 2021, funding it through an increase in property tax revenue.
Employees in the fire and police departments received pay increases of about 23% and 24%, respectively, and although there are still openings, the city has managed to "stop the bleeding," the mayor said Thursday.
"It's not as though this is some kind of New Deal government bloat," Kelly said of the new positions. "We have a 'strong mayor' model here, and it's been a while since we had a mayor with a business background.
"I'm as leery as anybody of false parallels between business and government, but they're more alike than not in this sense. It's a bit like taking over a company that's not running well and restructuring it to run better. That requires a different focus."
NOT A REPLACEMENT
Kelly said his guiding principle for the city's new departments is that they foster collaboration between existing community organizations rather than replace them.
For example, the city created the new Office of Community Health, led by Mary Lambert, during the pandemic. Although the Hamilton County Health Department was always the primary leader in combating the spread of the virus in the region, Kelly said, Chattanooga's health office has also played a role in boosting local vaccination rates.
Likewise, Kelly said he doesn't expect his choice for director of entrepreneurship, a job the city is in the process of filling, to blaze new trails. Instead, he wants the person to help ensure organizations like the Company Lab, the Tennessee Small Business Development Center and Launch Tennessee are working toward a common goal.
"My job writ large, as (former U.S. Senator and Chattanooga Mayor Bob Corker) has always said, is to be the orchestra conductor for all these elements outside of city government," Kelly said, "and in a smaller way, those jobs are all trying to conduct their own orchestras in those different vertices. We're not trying to recreate the wheel. We're just trying to make the wheel a little rounder."
Kelly also has plans to hire an executive director of community safety and gun violence prevention, a position that was funded in the fiscal year 2023 budget. He expects a violence intervention consultant the city recently hired for $250,000, Norman Kerr, will help the city identify the right person for the role.
Speaking about the city's overarching strategy around addressing violence, Kelly also stressed that Kerr's work will not be a repeat of the violence reduction initiative under Berke's administration.
"This is not targeted toward gang members," he said. "We do focused deterrence through the Police Department, but this is upstream of that. I expect that Norman and his group will be working more with community centers and community health as much as he will with the Police Department."
TRUST AND CONFIDENCE
Asked about the status of city services near the onset of his term, Kelly said some departments were in a "miserable, terrible state," citing human resources as an example of one that was dysfunctional.
"We're having to dive in and fix a lot of past sins that were allowed to fester for essentially organizational neglect and a lack of active management," Kelly said.
His administration has been taking stock of the working conditions in various departments, he said, which is a topic that bubbled to the surface during a Chattanooga City Council meeting Tuesday when several employees appeared to raise concerns about unpredictable schedules they were working because of a shortage of garbage truck drivers.
Chief Operating Officer Ryan Ewalt told the panel Tuesday that the city managed to hire more drivers after boosting pay in 2021 but has not been able to keep enough on staff. Ever since, officials have been required to pull employees from other areas to cover gaps, which has been a challenge. The city has been working to create a fair and consistent way to manage the issue, he said.
Overall, Kelly said Friday that Ewalt -- who joined his administration in November 2021 -- has been tasked with rebuilding city culture so it's "mission-focused" and "a place where people are proud to work."
"You would hope you could walk into the city and say, 'Oh, well everybody already sort of knows that,' and they didn't," Kelly said. "We still have a lot of work to do to reinstill confidence and trust between the administration and our rank-and-file employees."
Contact David Floyd at dfloyd@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.