Although the process sparked some concerns among elected leaders, Hamilton County officials have made a series of appointments to a new, independent audit committee they expect will be insulated from political influences.
“With a budget currently exceeding $1 billion, Hamilton County, now more than ever, needs a fresh set of eyes in aiding the commission and mayor in oversight and transparency,” Amie Haun, a certified public accountant who played a key role in developing the new committee, said in an email. “Accountability is not optional, especially in government.”
(READ MORE: Hamilton County Commission OKs new audit committee consisting of four outside experts)
In a 7-4 vote June 26, the commission approved the new members of the five-person audit committee, which will consist of Haun, Jim Harris, Bernard Harris, David Kukura and Commissioner Chip Baker, R-Signal Mountain. That’s four outside members with backgrounds in finance and one representative from the commission. The committee’s first meeting will be 9:30 a.m. July 25.
Commissioners Greg Beck, D-North Brainerd; Mike Chauncey, R-East Ridge; Joe Graham, R-Lookout Valley, and Gene-o Shipley, R-Soddy-Daisy, voted against the appointments.
“That could very easily be a political weapon against the mayor,” Beck said in a phone call Tuesday. “That’s what I envisioned, and I didn’t want to see that. That’s why I voted no.”
In a statement, Mayor Weston Wamp said he has full confidence in County Auditor Chris McCullough and the entire auditing department.
Baker said Beck’s concerns are unfounded. Before now, the audit committee included three commissioners, which he said was not an effective structure.
“Now, it will be a truly professionally organized, professionally approached process,” he said.
The board will support the activities of the Hamilton County auditor, Baker said.
Public members
— Amie Haun is a senior lecturer in the department of finance at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. She is a certified public accountant, certified fraud examiner and certified management accountant with more than 37 years of business experience, according to her resume. She was a member of the Chattanooga audit committee for five years.
— Bernard Harris has worked at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee for almost 20 years and handles external financial reporting and corporate accounting. He’s a member of Tennessee Certified Public Accountants and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
— David Kukura is an accountant and retired FBI special agent with more than 30 years on the job. At the FBI, he focused on financial crimes, including fraud, embezzlement, money laundering, bribery, corruption and other white-collar crimes. Kukura is a self-employed accountant, fraud examiner and speaker.
— James Harris most recently served 10 years as a member of the Chattanooga audit committee, according to his resume. Since 1968, he’s served as an auditor for various agencies and companies, including Erlanger hospital and the Unum Group, where he spent 20 years until his retirement in 2012.
Wamp has been at odds with members of the county commission in the past — notably when he tried to fire longtime County Attorney Rheubin Taylor, an effort that faced strong pushback and culminated in a legal opinion upholding Taylor’s latest four-year contract.
This year, commissioners have raised questions about Wamp’s executive budget. They have also mulled a new organizational chart that would move many functions of county government under a chief of staff appointed by the board, although the commission ultimately chose to adopt a structure already implemented by the mayor’s office.
Beck said he would like to see a regular rotation in the audit committee’s commission representative, which Baker said could easily happen. Baker said he’s also open to eliminating the commission representative from the audit committee entirely.
Another commissioner who voted against the appointments, Graham, said he has no doubts about the new members’ qualifications. But it bothers him that commissioners received a list of names and didn’t get an option to solicit applications.
“There’s a lot of talk about doing everything in the daylight,” Graham said in a phone call. “Well, there was an awful lot of darkness with picking the appointees. … None of us had a choice.”
Staff Photo by Robin Rudd / In 2022, Hamilton County Commissioners Joe Graham and Chip Baker confer during a meeting.In September 2022, commissioners chose a new magistrate, Charles Paty, after holding public interviews with six candidates.
Although he didn’t like the selection process, Shipley said in a phone call he was pleased with the candidates commissioners approved. It’s unclear to him how the committee will fit into the county’s existing systems of financial oversight, he said.
“How many people do you need looking at something?” he said.
A LINCHPIN
Baker said the process of forming the new audit committee began last fall, and if Graham felt there wasn’t enough commission input, he should have spoken up at that time. Haun, who has served on the Chattanooga audit committee and is a lecturer at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, played a crucial part in building the new committee, Baker said.
“Amie was the linchpin in the process,” Baker said. “Not a commissioner, but a true professional.”
Haun said she specifically considered the backgrounds and experience of qualified individuals as she was looking for participants.
“I brainstormed numerous capable individuals that would work well together, bring differing perspectives and be able to contribute robustly to the first independent committee,” Haun said. “In a nonpartisan approach, I took into consideration skill sets, independence from the county government and elected officials in totality, and their ability to contribute time and energy to the initial efforts. A select few agreed that they would be willing to participate.”
Chair Jeff Eversole, R-Ooltewah, said commissioners received resumes for all the candidates. The new audit committee will provide an unbiased perspective on all aspects of county government, he said, including the commission.
“I want newness,” Eversole said in a phone call. “I want new vision. I don’t want the same gray skies. I want us looking at things differently.”
This week, the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office released a report on $27,000 worth of questionable reimbursements Commissioner Warren Mackey, D-Lake-Vista, received from his county discretionary spending account. A lawyer from the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference has declined to pursue criminal charges against Mackey. The comptroller’s office determined the Hamilton County Commission failed to provide adequate oversight of discretionary spending. The county’s finance department also did not have appropriate internal controls over the custody of checks, increasing the risk of misappropriation, the comptroller found.
Eversole has declined to comment on the investigation, but he hopes the new committee can offer broad guidance on the county’s spending practices.
“That will help position us better for the future as we’re looking to be good ambassadors for taxpayer money and making sure that we’re sticking by guidelines,” Eversole said.
Contact David Floyd at dfloyd@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.