Hamilton County commissioners are continuing to raise questions about the executive budget of Mayor Weston Wamp, whose immediate staff members together are paid 45% more than those of his predecessor, Jim Coppinger.
Wamp is proposing to pay 10 employees $1.19 million a year in the budget year that will start July 1, compared to $822,000 paid to nine people in similar positions in Coppinger’s last budget, approved in 2022.
The comparison considers employees in the mayor’s office, the office of the mayor’s chief of staff, and Chief Operating Officer David Roddy, whose position was added by Wamp and is budgeted separately from the other two offices.
“Modernizing county government was one of Mayor Wamp’s top priorities when he came into office, and we have saved taxpayers tens of millions of dollars as a result of our new approach,” Chief of Staff Claire McVay said in a statement to the Times Free Press. “Adding career public servant David Roddy into a leadership role has significantly enhanced the effectiveness of operations across all departments.”
Roddy is the former police chief of Chattanooga.