Most Hamilton County commissioners don't want to split what's left of $900,000 in available capital bond money for their individual districts.
Last fall, the commission approved a request a by Commissioner Jim Fields to put $150,000 of the money towards resurfacing the Red Bank High School track. In January, the commission stonewalled a request by Commission Chairman Chester Bankston to use $500,000 for a new track shared by Central High School and Brown Middle School. Both projects take place in the respective commissioner's districts.
Today, commissioners voted 5-3 against such a proposal made by Commission Vice Chairman Greg Beck. Commissioners Tim Boyd and Warren Mackey supported Beck, while Commissioner Randy Fairbanks abstained. The measure called for the money to be split eight ways, leaving out District 2, which Fields represents.
Mayor Jim Coppinger said splitting the money up on a district basis ran counter to the intention the money should be used at scale and make a large impact on the community.
"What we said was that we're setting aside this money for the commission to collectively bring forward a project," Coppinger said. "We had this discussion and this is contrary to what we agreed upon and what was stated in the discussion of how we would do this particular allocation of money. It was never intended to be discretionary spending."
The allocation of $900,000 came about as part of an undocumented discussion between Coppinger and commissioners at budget workshop last spring. At the meeting, he said he extended the county line of credit for their joint use. Since they are only tapping a line of credit, it does not exist as a budget line item.
Commissioner Greg Martin attempted to amend the proposal to allocate the remaining money - about $747,536 - to the county school system to spend on priority projects. The measure died for lack of a second motion.
"If you don't want to particularly want to draw on that money, so be it, but the resolution is saying you've got the opportunity is there.," Beck said. "Equal opportunity - have you all ever heard of that word before?"
Contact staff writer Paul Leach at 423-757-6481 or pleach@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @pleach_tfp.