Chattanooga City Council takes long way around on development board appointments

COUNCIL NOTESHow they voted:Councilmen Larry Grohn, Jerry Mitchell, Moses Freeman and Chip Henderson voted against the method to select Industrial Development Board members. Councilwoman Carol Berz and Councilmen Chris Anderson, Russell Gilbert, Yusuf Hakeem and Ken Smith voted in favor.In other business:• City Council approved the first reading of an ordinance to pay small business owners up to $10,000 a company to add new employees. The program is part of Mayor Andy Berke's small business incentive.• Berke's office also unveiled a website that will track whether Chattanooga is meeting its monthly goals for the city. The website called Chattadata is part of the budgeting for outcomes process that ties taxpayer dollars to performance and gives the public continuous updates on their progress.

The Chattanooga City Council on Tuesday rejected the easiest method to replace four members of the Industrial Development Board, opting instead for an arcane process that includes multiple committee meetings and drawing names from a hat.

The council has been gridlocked for weeks on how to replace members of the IDB, which reviews proposed tax breaks and financing deals with businesses. The City Charter gives the council the responsibility to appoint the seven IDB members, but for years it has done no more than affirm nominees chosen by the mayor's office.

That needs to be fixed, council members have argued, but they haven't been able to agree on a process.

One IDB member recently quit after it came out that he didn't live in Chattanooga, as required by the IDB charter. The chairman also recently quit and two sitting IDB members' terms have expired.

A council subcommittee early Tuesday rejected the idea of advertising for applicants and then choosing among the responses. Tuesday night, the council voted 5-4 on a method that involves dividing the council into three groups, each of which would nominate and vote on one nominee to bring before the whole council for a final vote. They will decide which group goes first by drawing names from a hat -- important because the first group also would get to fill the fourth empty chair.

Councilman Yusuf Hakeem indicated he wanted the nominees' names kept private, which others pointed out was illegal.

Councilman Moses Freeman called the process a "fiasco," suggesting the mayor's office should continue to vet applicants.

But Councilwoman Carol Berz defended the final process, explaining it shouldn't matter if choosing candidates is complicated because the public needs to be assured the council is fully vetting people before they are placed on the board.

"It's our responsibility that was made clear to us in the law," she said.

The IDB has faced sharp public criticism, recently lost a lawsuit and now faces a second suit over awarding $9 million in tax-increment financing to a private group to build a road up Aetna Mountain in a high-end golf course community.

The taxpayers would repay the developers for the road using additional property tax collections from the mountaintop homes and businesses created by the new road.

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

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