Chattanooga City Council mulls staffing changes

BY THE NUMBERSBelow are the current and proposed positions and pay for the City Council's staff.Current:• Management analyst - $84,684• City Council clerk - $55,825• Deputy clerk - $40,598• Council Support Specialist - $35,531.Henderson's plan:• Legislative and Management Analyst - $58,496 t0 $90,705• City Council clerk - $45,833 to $71,070• Council support specialist - $35,911 to $55,685• Administrative assistant - $24,306 to $38,255IN OTHER BUSINESSIn other business the City Council voted to:• Amend the city's small business incentive grant program.• Abandon a sewer easement at 1300 East 3rd Street and 1450 E. Third St.• Abandon an unopened alley at 1400 Fairleigh St. behind 2805 Riverside Drive.• Passed a special exception permit for a late night entertainment center at 250 Northgate Mall Drive to serve alcohol after 11 p.m.

Chattanooga's City Council meeting Tuesday went along without much fuss. Every resolution and ordinance was passed without discussion.

But prior to the main meeting, during a strategic planning meeting, there was no shortage of debate.

Following up on a request to upgrade the City Council's staff pay grades to be in line with other city employees, Councilman Chip Henderson proposed a plan to restructure the council office. The plan could increase pay for some of the City Council's four employees -- but it also puts in place requirements that may mean the current staff would no longer qualify for their jobs.

The council hires a clerk, a management analyst, a deputy clerk and a council support specialist in the clerk's office.

Henderson's proposal changes some duties among three employees in the clerk's office, folds the deputy clerk and clerk positions together and adds more responsibilities to the management analyst post -- requiring a law degree and law license.

Henderson said having an attorney on staff would help council members research and write legislation -- although legal advice would still come from the city attorney's office, per the City Charter.

But Councilman Moses Freeman expressed concern about hiring a lawyer for the City Council, who could possibly disagree with future decisions made by City Attorney Wade Hinton's office.

He also called the proposal a "back-door way" to clean house.

"This notion of restructuring smacks of a way to avoid facing what may be a difficult problem in dealing with an individual, or maybe more than one, rather than owning up to our responsibility to make judgments," Freeman said. "I don't want to get rid of anybody with a back-door maneuver called restructuring."

That brought a swift retort from Henderson.

"I take a little bit of exception that this is a back-door process. ... I took what I heard this council say they wanted with the help of a person from HR and the guidance of the city attorney and that's what I made my recommendation off of," Henderson said.

Ultimately the council voted to table the discussion until next week. Only Councilman Jerry Mitchell voted not to table it.

Also during the planning meeting, the council selected the group of council members who would make the first and last picks to fill four Industrial Development Board posts.

Group C, which is made up of representatives for Districts 7, 8 and 9 -- Councilmen Chris Anderson, Freeman and Yusuf Hakeem -- will have the first and last appointment to fill the vacancies.

The groups will meet to make the appointments at 1 p.m. Sept. 30 in the Council Conference Room.

Contact staff writer Louie Brogdon at lbrogdon@timesfreepress.com, at @glbrogdoniv on Twitter or at 423-757-6481.

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