Commission exploring potential meeting time change
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- Could the Hamilton County Commission’s meeting time potentially change?
For many years, the Hamilton County Commission has held their meetings at 9:30 am on Wednesday mornings.
However, a proposal by Commissioner Jeff Eversole could change this.
He says that he has heard consistently from constituents in his district that the morning meetings make it consistently difficult for them to attend.
Most of the other city and county bodies in our area meet in the evenings.
Eversole said, “If you’re elected by the people, then you need to work with the people and their schedules, and if it fits the schedules for the community to come to a 4 p.m. meeting versus a 9:30 in the morning meeting. I think it’s not a better time than now to go ahead and start looking at those changes and as a commission recommend we do those.”
However, moving the meetings could require up to $50,000 in additional payroll for security and other courthouse staff, due to the Hamilton County Courthouse normally closing at 4 p-m on business days.
Commissioner Lee Helton said, “I don’t think you can keep the courthouse open at zero cost well into the evenings, but we’re going to do it as efficiently as we can… Whether we have 50 or 48 meetings a year, if we can get more transparency and public participation, I think a thousand dollars a meeting is worth it.”
Some commissioners wondered if this cost would ultimately be worth it.
Commissioner Warren Mackey said, “Like in my district, the midnight shift, the swing shift, what do we do with them? Do we just say “Sorry, you’re working the wrong shift?””
Others wondered if the Commission should consider a middle solution of only moving one to two meetings a months to evenings.
Chairman Ken Smith said, “Let’s find out what kind of impact we’re really having on our staff, on the public. Let’s make sure we’re making good assumptions.”
Eversole says he isn’t a fan of this proposal.
He said, “What if your local McDonald’s on the first week of the month was open at noon and the rest of the month was open at 9:00 a.m.? I think we’d confuse people more than we really need to.”
Those from the public voiced their support for the proposal.
Resident Andrew Jones said, “We the people are in charge of y’all.”
Resident Michaela Winter added, “No one I have spoken with says they believe the morning meeting time is good or accessible.”
The Commission will further discuss this proposal next week during a committee session.
