City Council narrowly approves staff restructuring after heated debate

photo Moses Freeman

APPLICANTS4 nominated to Industrial Development Board Industrial Development Board applicants:• Ray Adkins -- nominated• Jelena Butler• Garnet Chapin• Joseph Crites• Edward Greene -- didn't qualify• Ronald Hughes• Richard Johnson• Patrick Kellogg• Alan Lebovitz -- nominated• Stephen Lepley• Kathryn Nash• Charles Paty• Shenita Pinkerton• John Rice• Jimmy Rodgers -- nominated• Richard Rous• Thomas Rumph -- nominated• William Stanley• Henry Wells

A divided City Council resorted to name calling Tuesday over whether to restructure its staff and ask employees to reapply for their jobs. And those in favor of the plan were called "yahoos," "cowards" and part of a plot to fire the staff.

"This is people's lives, I can't imagine what our motives could be at this point," said Councilman Moses Freeman to the rest of the council. "I don't know how we could sit here and vote yes for this thing. ... It just smacks of evilness and devilishness and it also smacks of being cowardly."

For weeks the City Council has argued whether its four employees -- a clerk, a management analyst, a deputy clerk and a council support specialist -- should get a raise. Last week, Council Chairman Chip Henderson presented a plan to restructure the staff, change job descriptions, requirements and give the employees an increase in pay as directed by the city's Human Resources Department. Henderson also proposed that one of the employees should have a law degree for the City Council to have a full-time attorney on staff.

But after pressure from the council, he changed the job description from a requirement to a preferred law degree.

As part of the process, City Attorney Wade Hinton said the city likely will have to publicly post the staff positions and the current employees will have to reapply for their jobs.

After nearly two hours of heated debate Tuesday, the council voted 5-4 to reorganize the staff positions based on Henderson's plan.

But three hours later at the regular City Council meeting, Councilman Yusuf Hakeem and Freeman repeatedly asked whether the current employees would be terminated and Hakeem accused the city attorney of "dancing" around the issue.

Banging the gavel, Henderson tried to bring the meeting to order, but Councilwoman Carol Berz cut in.

"We don't terminate anyone like that, that's wrong," she said.

The city attorney's office said they will study what the next steps will look like.

The debate stems from earlier this year when the council's clerk Sandra Freeman asked then Chairman Hakeem for a raise.

The request prompted a Human Resources study that determined the council's employees needed to be in the city's pay plan to receive certain benefits and to follow city personnel policies. HR Director Todd Dockery also discovered the clerk and the assistant clerk positions were duplicated and needed to be folded into one position.

Another controversial decision that has been debated for weeks got closer to a resolution Tuesday. The council nominated four new members to the city's Industrial Development Board -- a board that approves tax break agreements for businesses and has recently come under fire for a controversial tax financing deal.

The nominees are Ray Adkins, a former IDB member; Alan Lebovitz, senior vice president of asset management for CBL; Thomas Rumph, with Eastdale Family Dentistry; and Jimmy Rodgers, an attorney with Summers, Rufolo & Rodgers.

The council has spent weeks arguing over how to replace Chairman Ric Ebersole, who retired, another member who quit after it was revealed he didn't live in Chattanooga and wasn't eligible to serve on the board, and two other members whose terms expired.

Of the 19 people that applied to be on the board, 18 members met the city requirements, such as living in Chattanooga city limits. The council will vote on the nominees next week.

Contact staff writer Joy Lukachick Smith at jsmith@timesfreepress.com 0r 423-757-6659.

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