At the start of the new year, Hamilton County commissioners may agree to buy more than 30 cars for the sheriff and various government departments and spend $102,000 prepping, clearing and studying parts of a 300-acre plot at Enterprise South industrial park to make way for new development.
"We are buying the stew out of cars today," Finance Committee Chairman Joe Graham said at Wednesday's non-voting agenda session.
Commissioners discussed buying three dozen cars in six resolutions. Most of the cars would go to Sheriff Jim Hammond's office for use in crime scene investigation and patrol. But car purchases also were discussed for the district attorney general's and county trustee's offices.
The purchase was included in the budget commissioners passed at mid-year. But commissioners grilled Hammond, Trustee Bill Hullander and county finance department staff about the purchases. At times, some seemed to be against the spending.
But Hammond pushed back. Crime scene and patrol cars are heavily used, and the amount of gear deputies have to carry with them always increases, he said.
"This is not just so the vehicles look good as they are driving down the road," he said. "Our fellow departments have updated their fleets, while ours have continued to erode. ... What we are talking about here is industry standards. It is not a luxury item."
The only cars not already budgeted for were for District Attorney Neal Pinkston's office. He is requesting a budget amendment to buy two sedans for $37,950 to use in a new cold case department he created shortly after taking office.
After the car debate, commissioners had no questions on Chairman Jim Fields' request to spend $50,000 from the District 2 discretionary fund to help buy a firetruck for Waldens Ridge Emergency Services.
Commissioners will vote on the spending next week during their regular meeting.
Commissioners also heard three resolutions that would call for clearing part of Enterprise South, doing environmental studies and planning for future development.
The county is seeking to pay Barge, Waggoner, Sumner & Cannon for designing plans to clear 70 acres of the 300-acre site northwest of the Volkswagen plant for $58,600. Another resolution would pay the same company$25,000 to make a master plan for the whole site.
County Public Works Administrator Todd Leamon said there are no wetlands on the 70-acre portion, but environmental impact studies are needed to determine how future development would affect streams and wetlands around the park.
The city of Chattanooga will split the cost of the contracts with the county.
Mayor Jim Coppinger said there are no deals in stone yet, but the county and Chattanooga want to get the property ready.
"We are obviously going to market that property. There is a lot of interest that we are hearing from people who are wanting to start businesses here or expand businesses here," Coppinger said.
In a voting meeting Wednesday that was recessed from early this month, Commissioner Marty Haynes also tried to bring some movement to an embattled chair purchase that has hounded commissioners, judges and general government.
A resolution to replace 144 deteriorated chairs in Hamilton County Criminal Court for $60,000 has been debated since October. Commissioners bristled at the $416-per-chair price tag, and Graham had questions about whether the purchase was budgeted and about the bid requirements on the project.
Coppinger said the bids went through all the proper internal and state-mandated purchasing procedures. And he said that, while there was no line item for the chairs, the county has roughly $3 million set aside for capital outlays.
The measure later was tabled indefinitely.
Haynes moved Wednesday to bring the resolution back to the floor. A majority of the commission agreed but it takes six votes -- or two-thirds of the commission -- to bring a resolution off the table, according to County Attorney Rheubin Taylor.
Haynes, Chester Bankston, Greg Beck, Randy Fairbanks and Sabrena Smedley voted to bring it back up for an up-or-down vote. Commissioners Tim Boyd, Graham, Warren Mackey and Jim Fields voted against the motion.
Contact staff writer Louie Brogdon at lbrogdon@timesfreepress.com, @glbrogdoniv on Twitter or at 423-757-6481.