Chattanooga Pulse

After hinting for several months in speeches and public meetings, Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield spoke before the city council last week and called upon city and Hamilton County officials to sit down and seriously discuss the possibility of creating a consolidated metro government. While the announcement wasn’t entirely unexpected, the timing was intriguing, coming as it did in the middle of a very contentious round of city annexations.

“The current form of government inevitably breaks down on issues such as annexation,” Littlefield said. “I don’t really know why, because even though we have agreed to agree, when we act on those agreements disagreement emerges. I would like to see us get beyond that.”

And in an obvious step towards enticing the county to the negotiating table, Littlefield asked the city council to suspend the second phase of annexation, specifically the residential areas of Stonewall Farms, Hurricane Creek and Windstone, asking council members to take a “deep breath” before moving forward.

What he proposed was that the city and county form a charter commission, using the guidelines set down by the state covering such bodies.  The commission Littlefield would like to see is one in which the county mayor would appoint ten members, subject to confirmation by the county commission, while the city mayor would appoint five members, subject to confirmation by the city council.

In response to the request to make a serious study of the consolidating the two governments, County Mayor Claude Ramsey held a press conference a day after Littlefield’s bombshell, saying that he’s informally polled the members of the county commission.  They told Ramsey they are willing to work with the city on consolidating redundant services for efficiency but did not support a full consolidation.

Even so, Ramsey did leave open the possibility of metro government. “What we’re talking is efficiency, what we’re talking about is providing good services at a more economical cost,” Ramsey said.  “If we can do that, you can call it whatever you want.”  County Commissioner Warren Mackey also appears open to the idea of combining services. “We are looking for efficiencies of scale,” he said. “If you can combine services and cut costs, I’m all for it.”

There are obvious advantages to consolidation, such as eliminating duplication of services in departments as varied as Public Works and Parks & Recreation, and the more obvious ones involving law enforcement and fire protection.  The recent consolidation of the 911 center has been pointed out as a positive example of merging services.  On the flip side, though, no one is using the merger of the city and county school systems over a decade ago as a positive example.  Instead, it is serving as a rallying point for those who opposed metro government.

And while the early reaction seems positive, there are still many obstacles, some which appear nearly insurmountable, which would have to be dealt with before any consolidation plan gets in front of voters.  The most obvious obstacles are the other incorporated municipalities in Hamilton County.  While Littlefield feels that the other cities would eventually join with a metro government, it seems a bit far-fetched that Collegedale, East Ridge, Lakesite, Lookout Mountain, Red Bank, Signal Mountain, Soddy-Daisy and Walden will willingly give up their sovereignty and be absorbed into a Chattanooga-dominated metro government.

Littlefield acknowledges that it would take a lot of work and a lot of time, possibly years, before any form of metro government would come together, but feels that the time is right to work on the possibility.  He says he wants to have something before the voters before he leaves office in three years.  Whether that will happen remains to be seen, but it is still very early in the process, and if one thing has proven out over the five years that Ron Littlefield has been mayor, it’s the fact that he doesn’t shy away from thinking big. And what would be bigger than a single county-wide government?