Hamilton County Commission Chair Jeff Eversole on Wednesday ordered the independent audit committee to review reports that County Mayor Weston Wamp hired architects for multiple school projects for amounts that kept the spending out of the commission’s view and then kept the commission from knowing accurate project cost estimates calculated by those architects.
“We are investigating the actions of county employees,” Eversole, R-Ooltewah, said by phone, after the meeting. “I want to look at whether county government is spending money that the school board should be spending. Are we spending money and keeping it under the threshold, versus it being reported, and are we not accurately reporting projects?”
The commission’s finance committee chair, Ken Smith, R-Hixson, also said his committee would take on a monthly review of expenses initiated by the mayor’s office to ensure the commission is in the loop.
“Maybe it’s going to be appropriate that we have an acknowledgement of these items during finance once a month,” Smith said, “so that they are intentionally brought before this body with detail, and there’s an opportunity at that time to ensure that items are not being overlooked or not being missed.”
The transactions were detailed Sunday in the Chattanooga Times Free Press, which reported about Wamp’s conduct in shepherding a number of school facilities projects — in some cases, hiring outside architects to study options that were not selected by the school board, which has sole authority to set such priorities.
The newspaper also reported that Wamp in August quoted the commission a price of $40 million for the school board’s No. 1 priority project — relocating the Center for Creative Arts to a new location on the Westside — when the price calculated by architects Wamp hired was $82.2 million.
“I am getting a lot of questions and I am not sure who to go to,” Commissioner Steve Highlander, R-Harrison, chair of the commission’s education committee, said Wednesday when a lengthy and tense exchange between commissioners and the mayor over Sunday’s report commenced. “If it’s a miscalculation or misunderstanding, then let me know.”
Wamp defended his actions, saying the newspaper got the story wrong and there were “litany of errors.”
“The Times Free Press has issued multiple corrections to their own story as of last night,” he said. There were “a lot of problems with the way that story came together,” Wamp said.
In fact, the Times Free Press published two technical corrections to the story, but neither undercut the central reporting about Wamp’s actions regarding the school projects.
GOLDEN GATEWAY
The focus of the story was the proposed move of the Chattanooga High School Center for Creative Arts from North Chattanooga to a site on West M.L. King Boulevard previously owned by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee and known as the Golden Gateway. The location was intended as a vocational education or technical educational school site when purchased by the county but was later identified as a new site for the arts school as well.
Architects hired by Wamp estimated the cost of the multipurpose school as preferred by the school board would be $82.2 million, but when Wamp brought a project list to the county commission in August for approval, he listed the price of the project as $40 million.
“When we bought that building it was the intention of this body that it become a technical school and then it went to jump from here to there and as it jumps the cost goes, the cost is different, $40 million, $80 million,” Commissioner Gene-o Shipley, R-Soddy-Daisy, added, in defense of the mayor.
“That is a big difference,” one of the other commissioners said.
“That is a big difference,” Shipley responded. “But is it going to be a technical school? Because we bought it to be.”
Commission Lee Helton, R-East Brainerd, said there were quite a few agreements in place with the state and the city that tie dollars to the Gateway project being a technical school.
“I thought we purchased it with that intent and we explored other options but it doesn’t look like they are financially viable,” Helton said. “I don’t know why this is even a discussion.
“I think its great to talk about moving the school and jockeying things around but there are too many dollars at stake and it was never our intent when we purchased it,” Helton added.
When it was suggested the matter be discussed in a committee, Commissioner David Sharpe, D-Red Bank, chimed in.
“I believe there have been quite a few misleading statements,” Sharpe said, referring to the mayor. “It would probably make more sense to have meetings about facilities projects before we announce the facilities projects. Just a little ahead of time with a little more transparency. That would be fantastic.”
THRESHOLD TALK
The Sunday story also revealed that Wamp launched a number of architectal studies that cost less than the $25,000 threshold requiring the commission be notified of the spending. One set of studies was disclosed to the commission with a single line item saying “The Lewis Group Architects Incorporated” with no indication of what the firm was doing.
“My problem is the amount of money that was paid out to architects, and I do know this, because I have done my fact checking,” Commissioner Chip Baker, R-Signal Mountain, said from the dais Wednesday. “We should be about the best communication between us and every department in the county, including the mayor’s office.”
In April 2023 the county raised the threshold for contracts requiring commission approval from $25,000 to $50,000, while requiring Wamp to report to the commission all expenditures between $25,000 and $50,000.
“At first we got some reports between $25,000 and $50,000,” Baker said. “It took a while to get them. Then we had to get more details to see what they were. I saw some things in there that I didn’t like.
“Until we get all this worked out,” Baker said, he wanted the commission to scale back spending allowances which empowered the county procurement office to spend up to $50,000 without commission approval.
And Baker proposed an emergency resolution to that effect Wednesday, but the board split 5-5 over the proposal to rein the mayor in.
“We need better information, and this is one way to do it,” Baker said.
Wamp said he was disappointed to not have known about the surprise resolution — although Baker said he informed Wamp on Monday.
“More than one year ago the commission deliberated over a proposal that was made by our purchasing department to cut red tape and make county government more efficient,” Wamp said. “Those changes have modernized purchasing rules in this county. They have undoubtedly saved taxpayer money.”
Wamp, who told the commission Wednesday that he kept some school leaders and some commissioners in the loop on school projects, acknowledged, “There could have been better communication.
“We will always disagree on some small things,” Wamp said, but right now the commission needed to decide, “Are we working together to move the county forward or are we going to work against each other to move the county backwards?”
Eversole, Sharpe, Highlander and Commissioner Warren Mackey, D-Lake Vista, voted with Baker.
“One commissioner said that he had a number of telephone calls where people were concerned about what they read” in the paper, Mackey said. “And he was not alone in getting those kind of telephones and and having people come up to me at games and the rec center. So if we can’t do our job and make sure we have our thumb on the pulse of the money, I don’t know what to tell you.
“If we don’t know where the money is going, where it’s been spent, we can’t do our job.”
Commissioner Greg Beck, D-North Brainerd, Commissioner Joe Graham, R-Lookout Valley, Smith, Helton and Shipley voted against the resolution to pull back the spending limit.
NOT GOING BACK
Beck said they should improve communication, not change resolutions.
“I am not in agreement with this,” he said. “We are not going back, at least District 5 is not.”
“District 11 is not going back,” Graham said.
Commissioner Mike Chauncey, R-East Ridge, wasn’t present.
Because the vote ended in a tie, it was recorded as no action, meaning the resolution can be revived in the future.
Eversole said it’s the job of the commission to ensure the county is spending wisely.
“I am directing the county mayor and his team that this audit team has unfettered access and if there is any roadblocks put in front of this audit team, they are to report back to me immediately,” Eversole said after the meeting. “I want answers to make sure that we are acting on the best interest of taxpayers.”
Contact Joan McClane at jmcclane@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6601.