Meeting time continues to be debated at Hamilton County Commission

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF)- As the Hamilton County Commission begins a new year, a familiar topic dominated the conversation.

Back in November, the Hamilton County Commission voted to move their meetings from 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday mornings to 4 p.m. on Wednesday evenings.

This was in order to hopefully drive up public attendance in meetings and give those who work during the day a chance to participate in their process.

However, some commissioners question if it’s working.

Commissioner Gene-O Shipley asked, “If our goal is to have more people in this room, where are all of these people?”

For each evening session, the county has to pay a little over $1.600 in overtime pay to staff.

For a full year of meetings, this would come out to about $50,000.

Some wonder if it’s worth it.

Commissioner Greg Beck said, “I see people out here now that I’ve seen in the morning so they will come in the morning or come in the evening.”

Commissioner Jeff Eversole, who proposed the time change in the fall, says he has gotten a lot of feedback on the topic.

Eversole said, “There’s no doubt at least 20 that I received in the last two weeks either emails or calls to the office were related to this topic …General public still wants us to look at our times.”

Others also said they were receiving interest on the time change, saying most who reached out wanted evening meetings.

However, others pointed out the group demanding evening meetings were relatively small.

Beck said, “Most of us have over 30,000 our district and for the life of me I can’t believe that anybody else is getting 30,000 emails about changing the day.”

However, some audience members pointed out that working people have the most riding on decisions made by the Commission, especially on education.

Resident Gary Boles said, “The people that work the ones that have children.”

The trial period for the time change lasts through the end of the month, and ultimately commissioners will soon have to make a final decision on the time.

Shipley said, “If the evidence backed this up I’d be in agreement. I’m not seeing anything.”

The commission says they plan to discuss this topic more at length next week