Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp criticized the head of the County Commission on Monday for negotiating a new deal for the Lookouts stadium project and saying it would hold the taxpayer-backed portion of the construction costs to $112 million.
"We invited Commissioner Eversole to speak at the Taxpayer Town Hall last week about the increased costs to the South Broad stadium," Wamp said in a statement. "Instead of accepting our invitation to listen to his own constituents about a better deal, we now know Eversole was cutting a deal with the lobbyists and city mayor to barely improve this boondoggle."
Wamp said it is highly inappropriate for Eversole to represent the county in negotiations on the stadium without working with the chief financial officer, the county mayor and fellow commissioners.
(READ MORE: Taxpayer cost for Lookouts stadium will hold to $112 million, officials say)
"Unfortunately, there are still more questions than answers about the complex financing scheme for a new stadium," the statement continued. "While I'm glad other elected officials are finally acknowledging the deal needs to be improved, taxpayers should demand clawbacks if developers don't deliver on their promises, a split of naming rights revenue, and significant up front cash investment from the team owners and developers, including the cost of high-end and unnecessary features.
"Unlike Eversole, I live in the city of Chattanooga where Shelby and my property taxes went up 30% soon after the current mayor was elected. Our intention in pursuing a better stadium deal was to avoid the same happening for county taxpayers."
In September 2021, city leaders approved a new property tax rate that generated $30 million to fund pay increases for public employees like police officers and firefighters. At the time, officials said, Chattanooga was losing workers and in danger of browning out fire stations and cutting back on essential services because it was struggling to compete with other employers. They set a new minimum wage for city employees of $15 per hour.
Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly said in an interview Monday that municipalities aren't very good at selling and monetizing naming rights. Teams are typically more effective at accomplishing that. Many companies also don't negotiate naming rights with governments because they don't want to publicize how much they paid for them, officials said.
"We felt that was better off in the totality of negotiation letting them keep that," Kelly said.
Eversole said in phone calls Monday he wants Wamp to be involved in improving the deal, noting the new arrangement isn't intended to be the "end all be all" and officials are still refining minor details. Eversole said he wanted to expedite the process. It's been a year and a half since city and county leaders approved initial plans for the project.
(READ MORE: Hamilton County Mayor Wamp tells taxpayers they have 'all the leverage' in stadium deal)
"If he wants to get political, that's OK," Eversole said. "If he wants to stay on the outside, that's OK. We hope he comes to the table and helps us with some of the smaller details of the project."
Wamp said the $112 million public price tag for the stadium rolled out Monday was also misleading, saying it omitted $9 million in financed interest costs that should be disclosed.
"It's just another way these guys try to round this whole thing down," he said by text.
Contact David Floyd at dfloyd@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.