DOGE like taskforce in Hamilton County

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — The federal government has been operating a department of government efficiency or doge.

That has trickled down into other governments including our own county government.

Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp was inspired by DOGE to bring efficiency to the county.

Mayor Wamp said, “At the beginning of the year we created, in earnest, what we called the county efficiency task force. We wanted to assemble a group of people that gave us both experience and a broad view of county government and go through what I call the ultimate spring cleaning.”

While in operation they found almost four million dollars in savings.

Mayor Wamp said, “The recommendations that are coming out of this that we are announcing today are reflecting a budget that goes before county commissioners tomorrow is 3.7 million dollars in immediate annual savings that you will see in this budget.”

They found savings in five different categories.

• Frozen and eliminated Positions: $1,862,514
• Contract Renegotiations: $823,815
• Facility Utility Cost Cuts: $687,680
• Supply Reductions: $177,505
• Reduced Vehicle Cost: $157,766

If some county assets were sold it could increase the savings even more.

The Mayor said, “If the county sells what we call the MLK building, it is a building that we’ve been vacating for the course of the last year. It was an old Sunday school building of First Baptist that is no longer here.”

This would bring the savings to $14,008,112 in what the task force called a “Recommended One Time Savings.” It would include the selling of the MLK building and the downtown jail and other unused facilities.

The task force believes that if they continue their efforts in running an efficient government they could save millions of dollars.

Chief Operating Officer David Roddy spearheaded this project alongside Mayor Wamp.

Roddy said, “The part that I am really encouraged by is I don’t think that is where it stops. I think we’ve developed a change in mentality and culture where things that are walked past for a long time now aren’t walked past anymore.

The task force expects in 10 years the savings will amount to $50,542,912.

The County Efficiency Task Force broke down their savings and how they implemented them across their offices.

• Modernizing Office Practices: Discontinuing ink and toner purchases for desktop printers to reduce
  supply costs and accelerate our transition to a primarily paperless county government; streamlining
  internal mail service for County General Government by transitioning to a digital model.
• Facility Optimization: Launched a full review of county-owned buildings to identify and address
  inefficient facilities, reducing long-term utility and maintenance costs.
• Reduced Vehicle Costs: Pursuing grants to transition to electric vehicles, reducing long-term lease
  expenses; reducing the county fleet by seven vehicles.
• Streamlined Purchasing: Centralized departmental purchasing under one Amazon Business account
  to eliminate duplicative orders, improve oversight, and decrease shipping expenses.
• Smarter Tech Management: Tightened policies on county-issued phones and tablets, ensuring
  deactivated or unused devices are returned and not billed; 80 total devices eliminated.
• Public Works Consolidation at Cromwell: Follow through on consolidating operations from PLM
  III and White Oak into the Cromwell site—lowering facility and fuel costs and improving operational
  efficiency.

Part of the reason this task force began was to help with an upcoming tough budget season.

Mayor Wamp said, “I told everybody a year ago during budget season that next budget year is going to be a tough budget year. A lot of the planning that we did in preparation for fiscal year 2025 also had an eye for 2026. This allowed us to still make some important investments that we might not have been able to otherwise.”

The year’s budget plan and these saving recommendations will go before the county commission for approval.