Two o'clock, so welcome everybody to our city council strategic planning meeting today.

Um we do have a pretty full agenda, so if I can get a quick motion on the minutes from our last meeting will be approved.

Second, all right.

We do have a motion properly seconded, and our minutes will stand as published from our previous meeting.

Um to start off we have some folks from Chattanooga Tourism here to talk with us about the sports facility study.

I believe I said that right.

You've said it exactly right, Councilman, absolutely.

So the floor is yours.

Awesome.

Uh good afternoon.

I am Susan Harris.

I am the interim CEO with the Chattanooga Tourism Company, and we met a couple of months ago when I came and kind of gave you that 30,000 foot view of the work that we do.

And so today I want to give you more information about one of our more recent projects, um, and that is our sports tourism facilities study.

And that is um interestingly, I heard some of the folks who will be with you after us and looked at the agenda.

It is also uh it is funded through a grant from the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development that was some of the ARPA funds that the state shared uh with tourism.

So for uh research, so this is none of our tax money, none of our visitor money, this is coming uh from uh down from the state.

And and the purpose of our sports facility study was to take a look at what we call tournament ready sports venues uh in our area and basically do an evaluation of those.

So today I want to tell you what that we learned from that study, what some of the opportunities were that were identified, some of the potential economic benefits of those things, as well as some of our resident benefits from those things.

And the purpose of this, similar to um some of you were here when we did our convention center uh future study, right?

We we don't own any any baseball field, softball fields, soccer fields, much like we don't own the conventions, like we are providing data to those of you who have the input.

So we're using basically leveraging the department of tourist development to provide information so that as you are and I'll say that at the end when we finish, as you're looking at all the competing priorities, and as a uh as a city resident who lives in Councilwoman Hills district, I'm aware of all of the competing priorities.

So we are just trying to provide information for you to be able to use that.

Um as a reminder, our goal, big picture to market the destination to bring more visitors to the area.

And sports tourism is a huge part of that.

A number of uh the groups that come into place.

So we undertook this study um last year is where when we started it, and it was um really a great collaborative process.

And um, it was informed by community members uh here and uh particularly by some of our clients who bring some of our larger sporting events into the area.

Um we facilitated site visits with the consultant to 16 different venues.

We um surveyed hundreds of event operators for different sports facilities, and then we held a number of stakeholder sessions, including with you if you were able to participate.

So thank you for that if you were able to participate.

Um with uh city council, with the mayor, with our parks and rack department, and Greta Hayes is here.

We'll talk about um other great work that Greta and her team do through this, but she was really an important part of driving that forward for us.

Um same thing again with county commission, the county mayor, their parks and rack, East Ridge, folks at Camp Jordan.

So really kind of take a look at our whole sports tourism landscape.

And then we also included the new sports and events corporation, we included some of our local foundations who often like to invest in our community, um, as well as some local planning groups.

Sports venues in general, they drive economic growth by bringing visitors for tournaments from out of town.

And then they also positively impact our residents.

And when we released the study a couple of months ago, there were a lot of interviews with some of our local AAU operators who are like, oh, we would love to have a place to practice here in town where we don't have that.

So the recreational access of any investments that are made, and we see that at Summit, and we see that at Warner Park, right?

Both of those are huge venues for out-of-town tournaments, bringing you know millions of dollars of economic impact in the community, but they're also used by our residents and our rec teams.

And so that's one of the advantages of investments in these type of uh facilities.

Um out-of-towners may use them on the weekend, and then our residents may use them through the week.

Um, so we kind of started big picture, like why why is this the thing?

Um, so the first thing is that that sports tourism continues to grow, and the demand is greater than what we can handle with our existing assets in the community.

So we don't have enough fields, be they diamonds or rectangles, we don't have the indoor facilities to meet the demand of people who would like to bring events to Chattanooga.

Um that is really um larger scale events is what how the industry has evolved that allows the event operators to make money, like it's it's kind of within the business model, and so that scale, our ability to compete on that level is what will let us continue to be competitive in that market.

Um centralization, that third bullet.

So uh an event operator, when they bring a tournament or an event somewhere, they want they want everything as close together as they can have it.

And so if they have to spread out and use multiple facilities and multiple venues, that's it just doesn't lead to satisfaction for their attendees and the teams, the families uh in particular in the youth sports market would be families.

Um reliability uh increases volume.

What does that mean?

Well, if it rains, I heard an interview with Barry Corter this morning on the news talking about his Boneroo weekend and about all the mud and the rain and all of the thing, right?

So that happens in tournaments.

So if you're at an outdoor field and it's rained and the tournament gets sloggy, um, at certain at a certain point, some of our some of our rec leagues will say you can't you can't play anymore because if you do, you're gonna tear up what we've already invested in, right?

And we don't see that if it's artificial turf.

So that's a great advantage.

Um, so that reliability of being able to make it through weather dependency is a huge part of uh of keeping up with that, and then that allows the event operator to be really consistent and know what they're gonna get to not have to change schedules to change, right?

It allows them to be there.

Um, and then the other the other piece of that from a reliability standpoint, things that that operators are looking for, right, is good spectator areas, good restrooms, good concession areas, like lighting, all of those type things that make the venue something that families would want to come to and and participate in.

Um really familiar to you because you have invested at Warner Park, and we have seen the return on that investment, right?

So everything I just said, you should be like, oh yeah, that makes sense to me, right?

And so we know that because we've invested in Warner Park, and it has made a huge difference in again reliability, being able to complete events, um, the attractiveness of the facility, like everything that's about the NCAA Division 2 loves Warner Park and Frost Stadium, and that is the facility, it's also the execution.

So I'll point back to Greta and her team again.

It's also the execution of how all of that works.

And so, our goal again, we're trying to bring more visitors to Chattanooga so that we get an opportunity to grow that economic impact, and that economic impact benefits us.

There's over 30,000 people who work in the hospitality industry in Hamilton County.

So that is real people, real families, real lives.

Um, that includes small business people that are in shops and retails and restaurants and visitors go to all those places, much like we as residents do.

And then again, as a taxpayer, saves me money on my taxes, saves you money on your taxes.

Um, it allows, you know, the the lodging taxes, but a small component of the economic impact that uh visitors bring to the area, and again, sports tourism is a big part of that.

So that's kind of the how we got here.

We worked with a company called Kemper Sports, they are a third-party consultant, they do sports consulting facilities, developments, facilities operation across the country.

They uh consistent, concurrent with working with us.

They've also been working with River City, working with uh the folks with Head of the Hooch to continue to talk with them about how to adapt that amazing event with the Riverfront Parks investment and how that's gonna change what the regatta looks like.

So Kemper Sports is really a top-notch uh organization, really excited to work with them.

And they kind of broke their recommendations into new things and then some renovation opportunities.

Um we'll just kind of dive into a couple of the biggest ones.

So the the biggest kind of need in our market is a multi-purpose indoor court facility that can have 10 to 12 basketball courts, would be lined the same way for 20 to 24 volleyball courts.

You could use it for gymnastics, you could use it for cheerleading, you could use it for other any of those kind of events.

Some of those currently happen in the convention center, it is not ideal.

The convention center was purpose built to have an exhibition space, not to have a sports facility space, right?

Um, and so having that really is is the largest single recommendation that they are making, and you see on the slide.

Uh, they're looking for eight to ten acres, it includes parking, it includes the the facilities that would be around it.

Um, and assuming once it was up and running, we'd have 30 to 32 events annually that would generate between 18 and just under 23 million dollars of direct spending.

So that's not economic impact, that's direct spending, and that's always the smaller of the two numbers.

So, indoor facility, that is the one that got a ton of your local recreation and select coaches in town, really excited because we just don't have that in town.

The next thing is an outdoor multi-purpose field, um, and looking at a new development here that would add an additional nine to 13 full-size synthetic turf multi-purpose field to what we have.

Um, and that would be if you think rectangular fields, you think soccer, lacrosse, other outdoor sports that would be on rectangular fields.

Um we have Camp Jordan, which has a number of those, and the folks in East Ridge have begun to invest there, much like you did at Warner Park, but but we need more than what we have.

Nine to 13 just doesn't fit the demand with the way that the youth sports market continues to grow.

And so uh again, Kemper outlined cost for uh building a new complex for scratch, and then also for updating some of our existing facilities.

And um I believe we emailed you the report when it came out.

We do have hard copies if anybody wants it, so you can dig in and kind of switch back and forth between renovate, build new, right?

So different cost, um similar economic impact in some ways.

Um, so we'll let you all um look at that.

Obviously, we all know that it's more economical to um update something that we already have, um, which is a great move to diamonds to baseball and softball fields.

Um, again, we've talked about how wonderful that is at Warner Park.

There is still opportunity to continue to make those types of investments in our other particularly softball um fields at the summit of softball.

If those also were turf, if we had some of the other amenities that we've invested in at Warner Park, that would pay huge dividends for some of our uh larger uh tournaments, and again the competition in the market just is continuing to grow.

And and we think we have what a lot of the places, you know, some of the communities that have built purpose-built big sports facilities.

You think Alatoona um right there at Lake Point Sports, if you've ever seen that off the interstate.

Um, Rocky Top Sports was one of the first ones up just outside of Gatlinburg, and they're almost too small and not competitive anymore.

But we're just a better community than a lot of like we have everything else.

We just need to raise our facilities a little bit within that uh competitive uh nature, and again, modernizations of some of those things could get incremental impact of another five to eight million dollars, and that would again be really beneficial to local residents who also play there, and then just the juggling that happens with scheduling with things that are weather dependent within that.

Next area is tennis courts, um, and Kemper looked at um the Champions Club, which is a fabulous facility.

So it is a fabulous facility.

Like hear that, and their report details that really well.

Um, it is not quite big enough for some of the events that we could have, so similar to the other.

Luckily, we have right very adjacent to uh Champions Club where I grew up playing softball when it used to be called DuPont Rivermont Softball Field, those original six courts that are up there at the top that could be renovated and that would give that capacity.

Now Greta might tell you that we have also need for pickleball and some other things.

So again, we're providing information for you guys to be really thoughtful about like what makes the most sense.

But these are the kind of details that are in there to give us some opportunity.

And again, we have those courts that are very close.

They're in proximity to Champions Club.

And again, Champions Club is just really a fabulous facility, and that would allow us to continue to drive more spending there.

We do have a handful of other things in the study.

There were questions from some stakeholders about ice rinks, for instance.

So there's there's a detailed analysis of ice rinks.

I can give you the um the reader's digest version of that.

Anytime you have water, it's very expensive.

Um, and it doesn't have the same capacity that these outdoor fields or indoor fields do.

So it's very expensive, it doesn't have the same return.

But if you'd like to dig into the numbers, they're in the report.

Everything is in there about what it would take to do some ice rinks.

We actually do have some local residents who are traveling outside of our area to take advantage of ice facilities that are in other communities.

So again, it's something we listen to, they did the analysis, it is absolutely um there for you.

Um, like what's next?

So we do this and then what's next, right?

So again, our goal is to provide you guys and other stakeholders at the county again, the foundations, some of the event operators, others with information so that it gives you an opportunity to kind of all be looking at the same information if you're making choices as you're collaborating.

Um, it it gives you an opportunity to really kind of take a look at like what what assets does the city have, what assets does the county have, how or would we work together with those things?

How do which things align with the vision, right?

So, is there anything particular in the report that aligns with the one Chattanooga plan that other things that you all are doing within communities?

Is there anything?

And and again, so our goal really was to was to leverage that um those Tennessee Department of Tourist Development information to really take a look at it.

We bump into it from clients, much like we do with um with folks who are trying to bring meetings and conventions, and that's why we kind of did the detailed study at the convention centers because we hear those questions from our clients, and so we wanted to provide that data for you all to be able to take a to take a look at that.

Um, so everything else that's on that list, right?

Big project.

We're talking capital investment in all of these, and so you all know all you don't need me to tell you how all of that works within um within your purview, you know um all of those things.

So uh again, we just wanted to kind of run through that high level instead of just relying on the the email copy that you get.

Um, but Alison Wolf with our team, our director of community engagement worked um with Kemper uh hand in hand as they went through this process.

So either Alice and I are happy to answer questions, we can take questions today, we can meet with anybody one-on-one.

We're happy to provide any information.

Yeah, Councilman Harvey.

Yeah, um, I don't know if we can go back to the slide on baseball fields and softball fields.

Um, one thing that came to mind is in my district we have Batters Place, which has a ton of fields that honestly could could use a little work, and so I don't know if that's something that the city owns, to my knowledge.

We do not we don't own it.

I was told we did.

Oh, never mind.

I thought we owned it.

Okay, I was told we did.

Um that would have been an option in those site visits.

We did look at a lot of the recreational um association fields and those that are owned by uh like they toured not just Summit and Warner Park and Champions Club and uh Camp Jordan, but they went to all of the smaller rec league venues and kind of took a look at at what we have, and and really the the challenge again when we think of it from a sports tourism, but the biggest challenge is tournament ready fields being contiguous.

We have plenty of fee, like here that we have a lot of recruit.

Outdoor the only thing we don't have in town is the big indoor facility.

We have a ton of outdoor facilities, they are spread throughout all of your districts, and that's what makes it harder if a tournament operator is coming and trying to get that experience for their tournament.

They really want contiguous venues, so more fields closer together.

Would that is that something that would be an option like those privately owned uh places like Batters Place that you know has an already existing, I think they're contiguous fields.

Is that the old East Brainer?

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay, yeah, I have to date myself.

Like I feel like I know what you're talking about.

So East Brainer Union location.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Um, I think any time, I mean, right, like that.

So this is just me speaking off the cuff, right?

Public part private partnerships are how we in our community have gotten a whole lot of things done.

Yeah.

So absolutely, would we be willing to share this or set up a time for our consultants to talk with that operator and kind of share what's there and connect them maybe to some of the clients who could help them understand the economic impact?

Absolutely, we would.

Yeah.

If we've got some private operators who want to learn more and want to invest for the good of our community, we will happily collaborate.

I think that's a win-win there because our community uses that on a regular basis.

And you know, I think they would welcome the opportunity to turn eight or 12 of those fields into artificial turf.

And you know, I think that would be a great opportunity.

So uh yeah, just took that away.

That's a potential to invest right there.

It's a great connector, right?

Because the the tournament operators have expenses to rent the facilities to bring things there.

So there's definitely them back some pickup for the for whoever's operating the field.

Sure.

Okay.

Thanks.

Okay.

Councilman Henderson and then councilwoman who can you go back to the development cost on the somehow.

I missed um development cost on the indoor facility and the um outdoor multi-purpose.

Here's the indoor so the indoors 53 to 62, or if you're round 53 to 63.

Well, you might as well say it's 62 because you I've never seen something cost less.

I will not disagree with that in any way.

And then outdoor brand new is your 26 is the upper limit on that one on building new.

26 or 40.

Oh, I was looking at that annual impact.

Yep, 46.

Thank you, uh, Councilwoman Hill.

Um did um in the report, did it list any possible locations for any of these facilities?

No, it's location agnostic.

Location agnostic, except for the tennis one, because it was already on site right there.

So it was um it was open to wherever those would be.

Yep.

And we'll wait into something here.

Tell me how do y'all coordinate with and and like we were we're talking about collaborating with obviously with the county, but the Tennessee Sports Commission.

I mean, how do y'all tie together and make to bring this happen?

So with the the Tennessee Sports Commission is we I don't know that we do a lot of direct work with them through the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development.

There is an organization of organizations like ours, uh of destination organizations that's called Play Tennessee.

Well, I'm talking about the the events, the Tennessee Sports events and uh commission, sports community.

Oh, the Sports and Events Corporation Tim's organization.

Okay, I was thinking bigger picture state, and I was thinking I was lost.

So um he and I are are talking pretty um consistently right now.

Um, and so a lot of the clients, things that they are operating or things that have been previously operated with the Chinese tourism company, and so we are doing some great transition um with them.

I think we talked about when I was here before, really our goal, and it's a shared commitment, I think, with both organizations to have the clients not really kind of see that there are two different organizations.

So we give you a couple of for instances.

So with our recent Iron Man 70.3, um he and his team did some of the logistical work.

That's a contract that has been signed by the Chinese Tourism Company.

Um he and his team did some of the work.

We did some branding work with the airport within some of the hotels with destination branding, the things that are kind of within our bailiwick.

So it's really just a lot of communication very regularly between his team and our team to make sure that we're fulfilling all the obligations to our clients.

Um, same thing with um with softball, and again, Greta might um be able to speak to that, where you know, he and his team took the lead on the division two softball, and our team did a lot of work on the banquet and on their um hotels, and then we assisted Tim and his team in the operation of the events, and and again, I think we all have the same um mission, which is to bring events here to have the folks who participate, the event operators, um, the participants really enjoy our city and and provide those economic impacts.

thing with um with softball and again greto might um be able to speak to that where you know he and his team took the lead on the division two softball and our team did a lot of work on the banquet and on their um hotels and then we assisted Tim and his team in the operation of the events and and again I think we all have the same um mission which is to bring events here to have the folks who participate the event operators um the participants really enjoy our city and and provide those economic impacts so you know it it is still a little uh the word I've used a couple of times is clunky um it's still a little clunky as um as as some of those budget things are being figured out but on a practical execution level it's it's working pretty well I mean his team and our team um we have a a collaborative uh for instance a collaborative FIFA communication team which includes his communication folks our communication folks your communication folks the county's communication folks um where we're working together on on those types of uh of events so I think we're trying to make our way through something that that we didn't necessarily create we're trying to make our way through it in in a way that benefits our community and continues to highlight what a great destination Chad maybe is uh so Mr.

just to follow up um obviously the bigger price tag on the indoor facility uh then than well of course I guess if you combine all the outdoor facilities would be about the same but it's did they do uh analysis on return on investments which one would uh actually be a quicker return I guess um was that the I guess the the top two yeah so we we kind of put them in that order in what they think then generate the the largest piece um and the direct spending is that what what is the direct spending that you're referring to yeah the direct spending is direct spending by by outside folks visitors coming to take advantage so that is direct spending that is the economic impact um numbers that are coming there um within those um so it's you know back up to the um indoor facility this is the indoor yep oh there's an indoor and outdoor and then it's just okay so indoor because we don't have one is one slide outdoor has new development or renovation so there's two slides on the outdoor um the the full size course yeah those that's quite a difference in thir or 13 to 26 million and direct spending a lot of difference.

I'll answer that so it it says nine to thirteen fields the nine fields is the 13 and the 13 fields is the 26.2 million that's kind of the range so the range in the top left box so if you just invested in nine fields or more fields you get twice the amount of return yeah yes yeah because if you think over a three day tournament four more fields is more than four more turns right so they're turning in terms of how those fields are being used and you need 61 acres well that has a bigger impact than an indoor facility yeah that's when those two are first yeah those two are first for that those are the highest the tennis is the quickest because again it's what you already have it's not it's smaller it's confined it's already there um but it has smaller economic impact right it's it's the least investment but it also is going to pick up the least it's just not as it doesn't have as much opportunity okay so again we're we're happy to leave the hard copies of these again if you um uh if your email is like mine you may or may not know where it is where we sent it to you so we have plenty of them for you um and again myself or Alison Donna um Harrison our beast vice president engagement is here and she um talks with you guys like we are we want you to know we're we're available to answer questions right that's our goal is to provide information to answer questions and to be as helpful as we can be with you in this process.

I think we do have a couple more questions from councilman Hill and then Councilman Clark.

Yeah thank you all for bringing this to us today talking us through the study results um first question private ownership so matters place was mentioned but it sounds like that's really a youth rec league um are there examples of privately owned facilities that are running in the black doing this very thing running in the black is the caveat yeah that I know comparative in the comparative analysis they do in the full report do some comparative analysis of some of the competitors within about a five hour radius of us um so I don't know those off top of my head but they did the full on um competitive analysis of them so so they are in our full report the full report is about six times this big I'm happy to get that for we can we can email that or we can we can print that for you if we'd like that printed but um the summaries um don't have but it's gonna have all that dig in like for which sport right who are we competing uh against most directly because it is different for different right so if you stay in the south us and further south you get a lot of outdoor competitiveness when you start getting up into the Midwest in Ohio Cincinnati you get a lot more of the indoor competitiveness within the

I'm happy to get that for we can we can email that or we can we can print that for you if we'd like that printed, but um the summaries um don't have but it's gonna have all that dig in like and whether for which sport who are we competing uh against most directly, you know, we're because it is different for different right.

So if you stay in the south, us and further south, you get a lot of outdoor competitiveness when you start getting up into the Midwest in Ohio since I you get a lot more of the indoor competitiveness within the well, and I mean if the private sector has figured out how to make this make money and they own their facility, that's that's one thing versus uh looking toward the public sector to front the cost for a uh management contract or something.

Um I believe a couple of them that are in the report are that combination where perhaps the public sector provided the land, for instance, or something of that nature, right?

Right to lower those developments, yeah.

So um I'm glad that this looked at our entire region because land values and land availability and um and how what the return on investment is for 61 acres of uh Volkswagen versus 61 acres of soccer field, right within city.

Um can you talk to us at all about the pace of evolution for the competitiveness of these facilities?

And what I'm getting at is you mentioned that one of the first ones was Rocky something top, rocky talk, Rocky Talk.

I'm uh I'm a sports ball gal.

So I I will say I come to this table as a person who, when we even talk about bookouts, it took me a long time to get to the idea of government supporting sports facilities, right?

And I recognize it's gone back since the Romans, right?

And the Greeks, we've had government supporting sports facilities.

Um doesn't mean I like it, but Rocky Top facility you said has too small and not competitive anymore.

It has got it's it still stays full, uh-huh, but it it doesn't have the growth room, right?

Because of their capacity.

Okay, right.

So what I'm want to better understand is the pace at which business is evolving such that this facility, if we were to partner with some group or identify that you there was a project here that we felt like would benefit Chattanooga city limits, um how fast is it too old?

You know, because we face the same thing with the uh with the convention center.

Sure, absolutely, absolutely.

Um, and so yes, their competitive analysis, they are trying to look at those trends and look far enough out, and in some cases, that is where some of the range comes from, right?

In terms of what you need today and two years from now versus five years from now, eight years from now, ten years from now.

And so that's where some of that range comes from within that.

So they're again that's why that's why we hired somebody who this is what they do all over the country because they've got that base of knowledge that that we don't that we don't have, and so all of that I I don't have it off the top of my head, but it is things that they did include in the full report.

Okay, and again, we're happy for you all to have that.

Okay, and the final thing that I I will share just for my colleagues as I learn about this and and have been part of the study gathering.

Um there's a facility in my district um that has been used for community soccer, and uh it's North River Soccer Association, it is city-owned land, and they have a contract to use that, and it has become part of the conversation around facility availability, right?

And champion or not champions club, uh, but the Warner Park fields have come up at different points with folks in my community because they'll say, Look, our Rivermont ball fields are in deplorable condition.

We as this neighborhood youth association are trying to raise money for it.

Um, the same thing with some North River things of like we need a longer contract for us to be able to invest in this facility.

Um my baseball folks are saying we never get to play at Warner Park, you know.

That's for the tourists, right?

We they don't practice at Warner Park, they don't get to play at Warner Park, and to say that we would have all these practice fields available or courts available during the weekday.

As parents who have and family who have sat at games, they're on the weekend.

So to me, I I am looking pretty critically at what are we building for Chattanoogans to really enjoy if we were to to choose to move forward with something like this?

How does it complement the the lifestyle?

Because I do see at Champions Club, the tennis and then the tennis courts there, like people play on those courts in Rivermont Park all week long.

And so that wouldn't disturb if we were to invest some money to expand Champions Club in that way in the way that commandeering a youth sports in the form of North River or Soccer Association would displace hundreds of children who are playing rec soccer who aren't necessarily trying to be the next Spanish soccer.

Thank you.

They just want to play soccer, right?

And there's a real joy to just be able to go out and play a sport and not have to turn around and say you're gonna play in college, right?

Yeah, so that's all thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Yeah, and I I hear that, and I I'm a parent of two boys, one of which played in the select type thing for the sports he did, yeah, and the other that was the best hangout rec kid ever.

Right, they have they have two things in parent in common, blonde hair parents.

They're nothing alike other than that.

So, like I lived that piece.

Yeah, I think when we talk about that from the consultant's perspective, it really is talking about our children who are playing at that select level because they are leaving our community on the weekends.

So that's what that's what we're talking about, and and not and I think there has to be some real scheduling to think about right, is reclift playing at all the same time that these other tournaments are.

So whether that's all stars or select in baseball, where you know, after a certain point the rec season has ended, and then there's opportunity for sports tourism.

So I think we would I think that's an obligation, right?

That we as leaders would just need to be thoughtful about those types of things if there were public investments.

Okay, thank you.

Councilman Clerk.

Uh thank you, Chairman Davis.

Uh Susan, thank you for coming.

I just have enjoyed getting to know more about Chattanooga Tourism.

A question, my friend Donna, uh, who is a great advocate as your vice president of engagement because honestly, when I was in a grocery store, and Donna called me and was explaining things in Lane's term, but I didn't know as a council person regarding funding, and was able to use that conversation to move the needle with the administration for your funding.

So definitely utilize those relationships a little bit more.

Oftentimes you guys go to the mayor's office, which is fine, but use that engagement piece to have more conversations with the legislative branch.

So I would encourage you to do that.

So I just wanted to give her a shout-out.

Thank you.

Um, two quick questions, and I actually want to hear from some of our internal team Greta, because Greta is another um superstar in city government that oftentimes we don't have at our table giving us some of the best advice, but I call her for it.

Um my question, Greta, um, is that this temper sports is the consultant group, right?

And so internally, I know you're the director of some of our recreational sports.

What is the feasible had first of all?

Have you had time to dissect to analyze this study?

Yes, we looked at it.

Um I worked with Alison closely, our teams are involved in the study, and we are also in the process of finalizing our recreation strategic plan.

Gotcha.

And so coordinated those efforts.

Allison and her team also participated in our strategic plan and were able to share information with our consultant so that we're speaking the same language and operating as hours.

Okay, so there is a strategic plan about the feasibility of implementation of this.

And it also goes into a more in-depth dive of actual city-owned inventory for all sports and where we are seeing gaps, uh, where we're not being able to provide services.

Uh, rectangle fields is a major one, and pickleball courts are the two that really stand out right now, in addition to outdoor basketball courts.

I thank you so much because to his council Henderson's points that when we look at you you can only do with what you have, so it's great, you know, to consider all the private stuff, but I like to use public dollars to invest in public owned properties that I know you know our inventory better than anybody else.

So, my other question would be in regards to the tennis courts at the Chris Ramsey Center.

We have tennis courts.

Uh, what has the conversation been around using existing city owned property to renovate those six fields?

Honestly, no offense to anybody at champions, but that is just not a very I don't know what the word is.

We look at community access for all.

But when we have the opportunity to utilize more public spaces like the Chris Ramsey Center, has that conversation been in place for that site?

Because I look at some of the site and acreage recommendations, where you're gonna find six one acres.

Right.

So we've got to be feasible and use what we have.

So that's that's the thank you for the study.

I need the feasibility implementation strategy, right?

So talk to me more about the uh tennis courts at Brainerd.

And I have one follow-up question with you regarding Washington Hills.

So just to clearly understand your question, what are you looking for as far as the tennis?

The remaining so that they're recommending six renovated tennis courts at the champions.

Yes.

What my question directly is why are we not considering brainer tennis courts that has, in my opinion, has more public access that could use renovation.

Or maybe that's in the strategy is my question.

Right.

So we just had those um resurfaced the ones at Chris Ramsey last year.

We upgraded the lights and then plan to do future upgrades for Mesco Athletic Lighting at all of our outdoor courts.

Um I think what Susan was referring to and Allison in the report was the six that are closest to Champions Club.

If those were resurfaced and upgraded lighting, those would allow us to secure larger national tournaments.

So Chris Ramsey's not large enough, is what you're saying for not by itself.

Gotcha.

And so it's that volume issue.

And the central and because they're easy, because they're close, that's what made it a recommendation.

Yeah, they're like walking.

Yeah, yeah.

I just needed to understand why not brighter.

So if it's not contiguous, that's fine, just say that quick.

Yeah, um, but I do think the Ramsey courts, the Warren Park courts, the courts that we do have in our inventory, they are so useful for our community because our Chinese tennis association utilize these regularly.

Uh, schools that do not have access to courts, they utilize these facilities, and so those are on the top of our priority list for us to maintain those at a high level so that they can be used by everybody in our community.

They are vital in our study for economic impact.

No, I understand that.

Sure.

Okay.

Yeah.

My quick last question is in regards to Washington Hills.

There was a when Councilman Gilbert was in office, there was a uh plan that was put in place to expand some of the sports utilization of the acreage that we have out there.

Has there been conversation of how the study can be implemented into that particular area or pick up that plan that we have shelved.

Address any specific strategic plans that were put in place prior to the study be done, but I don't I mean that would be up to this administration to have those conversations maybe move that forward.

Okay.

I hope so.

Thank you.

That's uh Mr.

Chairman.

Okay.

Anything else, counsel on this topic before we switch ears?

Okay.

Thank y'all so much.

Yeah, we appreciate this.

All right, Vice Chairman Elliott, before I will be brief.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Council, before you, you have a um a proposal here.

Something I've worked on for a while uh since getting into office, and at the crux of it, it is looking to streamline and uh improve the efficiency of our efficiency and effectiveness of our standing committees.

So currently, as we know, we have nine committees, some that meet regularly, some that don't.

They're kind of inconsistent based on what we may need to pop up, and it kind of also defeats the purpose because all nine of us sit on each committee.

So it's really not necessarily a committee, it's just us focusing our time on one particular topic or subject area.

What this proposal looks to do, it will look to roll our council, our standing committees from nine to six.

Um we will no longer uh be expected to serve on all nine committees.

It will allow those committees to really pull back the veil on subject matter, provide oversight, um, to really provide that checks for uh on the council perspective.

Um, as it is set up currently, the chair will does appoint all nine committee positions, and that won't change.

What will change in this proposal is that they will also appoint committee assignments now.

Just because you're not assigned to a committee doesn't mean that you aren't allowed to attend according to these rules.

Any council person can attend any committee that they want, but they won't count towards quorum, right?

One uh additional caveat that this committee does provide.

Um, committees are going to be expected to meet on a bi-monthly make basis, it's just an accountability measure for us.

What your committee decides to discuss will be driven largely by the chair or those committee members, but also the chair of council has ability to refer items to committee for further discussion.

There are mechanisms in there to ensure timeliness of it.

There's like a two-week turnaround for the committee to kind of figure out a time when they can meet, and that is the beauty of this flexibility as well.

The committee can set their time based on the availability of their members, right?

Um, I'm gonna give you an example.

I think we had a pretty robust discussion a couple months ago around Carta and their parking piece, right?

As that is coming down the pipe, that is an opportunity for if whoever the chair may be to say, hey, this may need a little bit further discussion, need to be cooked up a little bit more.

We're gonna send this to the necessary committee for review.

Um, in these committees, legislation cannot die in committee.

They could come out of committee with uh favorable recommendation, uh, you can recommend it for denial, or if the committee needs a little bit more time to work on it, it can be tabled for a while, but it cannot sit on a table more than 60 days.

If it sits on the table more than 60 days, the chair shall then bypass it straight to the whole council or reassign it.

This also does not replace our current rules where to council members, if necessary, can place items on the agenda at any time.

That does not change it at all.

Um for the sake of time, I'm trying to make sure I capture the high level pieces.

There's one caveat before I talk about the actual committees that I want um you kind of put a pen in to think about.

I'm still need to work this through it, feel where we are feeling we are a part-time council, and many of us have full-time obligations or own our own business or have other obligations outside of this.

So, for the sake of trying to create flexibility to so we can still do the people's work, but also understanding things pop up.

I am seeking to see if we can add a virtual option for council members on an emergency basis for committees only.

This is not for our agenda sessions or a business meeting.

This is for committees only.

And Phil, that's what I'll need to help solidify with you, and that is only for emergency bases as well.

So we will outline what those criteria look like for council members to uh hit that, but still, majority of the council would still have to be physically present in order for that to happen.

So let's say for whatever reason, Cody, you're traveling for work, and for whatever reason you're stuck in Dalton, wherever you are, and you can't get back in time.

You can say, hey, this may be an emergency if it meets the rules, and if it's okay with that committee chair, you can come in virtually.

Let's say the other two members may attend in person, right?

Each committee must have a minimum of three members.

Um, I did not specify max of how many can serve on uh a committee, but at least three for each.

And really quickly, I want to highlight this piece here.

Here are the following committee structures, and the thought behind the adjustment of the committee structures is so these committees can capture the functions of government so we can also have some stability in our committee structure long term.

So, as the administrations, whoever they may be, if they decide to adjust departments as they see fit, that won't necessarily have any impact on us.

We're like, who's gonna represent this new committee?

You know, we have IDP IDB innovation delivery performance at one point.

Say, hey, we may be able to shift that around, save some cost savings, but now we kind of have this still lingering even on our piece, like on our current rules, it's still education, innovation, and whatnot, and that doesn't even exist anymore.

So, what this does captures the functions of government.

So, regardless of how the department's set up, they will always land in our bucket.

So the committees are as follows is budget and finance committee, and then you can read in the in the buckets in your own time what falls in each one of them.

You have planning, zoning, and housing.

The thought behind this is you know, all three of these things are interconnected, and currently they're a bit siloed, so it allows us to really look at this at a holistic perspective.

You have economic and community development, you have public safety, public works, parks, and infrastructure, and then you have one that is a bit unique, government operations.

Imagine this absorbing the functions of what our legislative committee does, uh, in addition to providing oversight over HR, IT, and becoming a liaison with uh internal audit.

Um, what part of this proposal does is asking internal audit to come at least once a quarter to present on their findings to this committee and for this committee to provide legislative recommendations at some point throughout that year on how to address those because I'm sure many of you all have seen it.

We get these audit reports, and there may need to be corrections, but we don't ever really publicly discuss them.

I know the administration may talk about them, but we never really discuss them.

Sometimes it may be legislative matters that need to take place to address these audit findings, and so that is at that at a high level.

In order to adopt this, it is an amendment of our uh rules of operations.

What you will see attached is a red line edit of our current rules and the proposed changes.

Um as soon as I get confirmation on uh the virtual option, I'll be including that portion as well.

But hopefully that wasn't too fast, and I'll take questions if that's okay.

No, I saw Councilwoman Hill earlier, and then Councilwoman Burrs.

Okay.

Thank you.

Um Vice Chair Elliott, thank you for this.

I there is a lot in this that I like a lot, and I have to say, just with regard to the how of this, I love that as I went through this and had questions that they were answered in the document, like it is thorough, and um, so like it the buy monthly would be six times a month.

I get confused with if that's twice a month or six times.

Six times a year.

Yeah, six times a year, not six times a month, sorry.

Um could you and you answer that later in the document.

Um I think what you've done recommending these different um work types all in one group is really smart.

I especially like that LDO falls into the work with planning and with affordable housing because we know there is so much just bureaucratic improvement that we could make that could really help move things along and I'm smart.

Um I did have a question about two things.

Number one, as I read the virtual participation, I didn't see the word emergency, and I liked the idea that committees could potentially be fully virtual.

Is is it a legal recommendation?

Is it legal that so that's where he's saying?

Yeah, no, the word emergency has to be the research I did didn't allow for okay.

So that would have to be, which I don't know how many committee emergencies we're gonna have.

Hopefully, no committee emergencies.

Um I remember a friend that was looking at becoming a dermatologist, and she's like, nobody ever needs to be on call to get a pimple pop.

I want to be a dermatologist.

Um the only question then that I have is uh around also I did want to compliment the fact that you have the entire order of we need to we need to pass this, then we need to change these rules, and then and then just all my questions.

Um remaining, which is ad hoc committees, because I do think it's important that when council people have projects that are city city work specific, not just district specific.

Um, I'll give the example of Operation Better Neighbor that is looking at code enforcement from multi-departmental uh view.

Um I'd like us to continue to have that ability.

Another example was when we did short-term vacation rental, and we had that uh that it could be described as an ad hoc.

So I'd like that to be preserved in some way, but also as it is now, our rules don't say anything about it, so maybe we just leave our rules quiet on that, and then we can just that was my thought.

You don't have to have a rule for everything, it just means we can do it because we don't say we can't do it.

Well, we have working groups like our homelessness working groups, that would be another great example, yes.

Yeah, um, thank you, councilwoman.

I really do appreciate it.

Uh, I have worked on it for a while, so I'm glad it was able to capture most of your concerns.

But that was my thought as well on the ad hoc or subcommittees.

You know, it's something we used in the past.

I didn't know the temperature about bleeding those in right away because I'm not gonna lie, some of these departments are I mean, committees are robust and they cover quite a bit, and we may want to break them up a little bit as far as hey, we may want to focus on something with OFE and um just throwing somebody out in economic community development and a council person may want to run point on that conversation, and that could be something you could peel off.

That's just that's an example, but I I like the idea of keeping it vague in our our rules as is and standing up where we need it.

Okay, thank you.

That's all Mr.

Chairs.

Councilwoman Burz.

Thank you.

Um Vice Chair Elliott, I agree with Councilwoman Hill that it's nice to see a proposed structure.

So thank you for taking the time to put this together.

I I went through and made lots of notes.

I'm gonna offer to put put them more formally in a question because I have more I have some nitty-gritty notes or recommendations or suggestions or questions, but then I have some kind of high level uh thoughts.

Uh, number one, I think it might be helpful, and this is just for me adding the word draft to this because I think at this point it's still in draft form.

Absolutely, and I think there's there's some tweaking that might need to be done if we decide to move forward with this.

I do like having a structure for our committees because I think at least from my perspective, I kind of figured out what planning and zoning was supposed to look like based on past history, and that was designed by somebody either through former councilman Ledford or prior to him serving as you know, so being able to go back and get information from the person that served in that committee in the past was helpful.

I think it's also helpful if it's not already out there to have some sort of formal structure that says this is the purpose of the committee, which we have here, but then this is the struct would be the structure, and that's either designated by the chair, or maybe we have a uh draft a structure that is kind of set for every committee and it's tweaked based on the topic.

So I appreciate you kind of bringing that to the forefront so that we can establish something if there's not always something in writing.

I would like to little know a little bit more about the history of the committee structure.

I didn't really I wasn't able to find anything because I think it's helpful to understand the the council members that came before it for me, and I don't know if it was before councilman Henderson how we got to this nine committees and the structure of it that it exists now, but I think it's I think that it was done for a purpose, and it'd be good to understand the purpose for that structure at the time to decide to make sure that we're not restructuring something that was done very intentionally for the broader scope.

I think we're looking at more long term, not just the next four years.

I think when we make decisions like this and change things, I think we're thinking further further beyond where we might serve.

At least that's what I'm thinking.

Some things I think are for the short term, and some things I don't I don't want to really jump in and make changes that are just gonna serve the next three years.

So I would like to know a little bit more about the history of how the structure came to be.

Um I also am very cautious about setting a precedent that might not impact just structure but other structures.

If we start looking at virtual options, I know things come up, and I think most of the time we're just looking at emergencies.

But if we have a set schedule, then I think everybody's gonna do their best to be there.

And if emergencies happen, then we just reschedule or we regroup.

I'm not as concerned as much about it at the committee structure.

I would be more concerned about it setting a precedent for other things that we do, and I think it's very important that we have that set structure for how we do our business, and that it's always considerate of the public's interest and serving the public, and stuff happens as we all experience in life.

Stuff happens in life that you don't have control over.

Um, and then the other thing that along with precedent is being careful to change the structure of um how things end up on an agenda and how things are approved to move forward because I think again, changing the structure and moving beyond what our current rules tell us, everything goes through the chair, again, it could muddy the waters for other things and set a precedent.

I'm just those are the things that kind of I'm very cautious about that, setting a precedent, not for what you're trying to do or proposing, but how it may the unintended consequences is I know that that uh can sometimes be used unintended consequence that might impact something else down the road.

Um so I think that's that's pretty much all I have right now.

Um I will put together kind of my questions and items that kind of stood out to me.

I um the other I guess the other question I have has to do with our our charter.

How is this line up with our charter?

Some of the things that you're referring to about um decision making, um, how does that align?

How does that align with what our charter says?

So I only um I'll start with that last piece.

As far as a charter piece, I only looked at it in pertaining to the rules.

Okay, right, the rules in which we can control, which um I have not referenced a charter or look at the charter because our biggest impact on the rules here, and these are things that we have tweaked in the past.

We've tweaked committees and everything else.

It just kind of puts additional parameters on us as far as operational rules.

So I and I think the the biggest thing that stuck out to me, and one of the things I made some marks in was you used the word oversight in a couple different places.

And I'm trying to align where this body has oversight, or where whether we are just in a position of making recommendations versus oversight.

So that's where I look to our charter for so that would be one of my questions too.

And I'll I will put that in my in my bullet points to you, but that that's another thing that just I'm trying to connect that piece to I think I'll say this.

Our roles and responsibilities.

And that's that's a good one though, right?

Um we don't really touch base on how it's spending going until we're talking about budget, but we don't even talk about past spending, right?

Until we capture something, but also any legislative rules that come about, I mean legislation that come about or rules that pertain to us that requires a vote, that's oversight, right?

And so it's just a the definition of how you look at the the definition.

I think it's kind of some it can be subjective.

Uh you can use whatever terminology you want, but in essence, we are practicing oversight.

And for previous, I'll I'll be quick on a couple things.

Can I make one more can I make a comment to that real quick?

I think that when we talk about oversight, we might need to flesh it out so it's defined, and maybe that's one of those things that in the final proposal it's it's defined a little more clearly because when you to me when you connect oversight with HR, are you talking funding or are you talking people?

And I see us as oversight for for funding, but not how it's spent, but not who it's spent on.

See, that's also I think sometimes we don't always have a clear picture of everything we have oversight over.

The entire employee information guide can't be changed unless we change it, which is our oversight.

That's a HR function, right?

Right?

That how everything that goes with the EIG in some form of fashion has to be approved by council, right?

Computation, that's oversight function.

That that is in uh HR, the pension that maybe I don't know, that may be you or HR, I don't know.

But that is that it's all interconnected, right?

And so it's broad, I would be open to hearing what that definition looks like, but I would be say cautious so we don't try to pigeonhole ourselves into a corner about what that looks like because right now our functions are broad, we just don't always lean into them.

You made one point as far as the agenda when the flow of the agenda, this does not change the flow of the agenda.

You know, things go on future considerations, then they come on the agenda meeting, and then they make it to the business meeting.

That flows is normal, right?

But if there's an item, let's say that goes on um future consideration, and it pops up on a 9 30 call, and the chair is like, hey, I'm I'm anticipating some of my colleagues are wanna gonna want to discuss this more.

Let's go ahead and have that robust conversation so they can flush that out in committee, and then that committee can send recommendations to go on to the two-week agenda and just go back to the regular flow of the agenda from there, right?

It doesn't change the current flow of the uh how things flow at all.

It actually tries to align with it as much as possible.

Um then I think you had another piece about the history of committees.

I'm not sure.

I'm gonna be honest, that may be something for a more senior council member chip.

You got a couple gray hairs, you may know.

I can share what I was talking about and so I don't I don't know to that point, but I think it's important to understand where we come from because I I think the people that designed this format had a good reason for doing it, and I I'm not saying that it need it doesn't need to change because we you know we can't grow and do better and make things a little bit better than we found them if we don't understand where we've come from.

So I think for me it would be important to be to understand why was it set up this way, you know.

Why did you know why were there non-committees?

Why were they divided this way?

And it may have just been because that just makes made sense at the time.

It but to understand to know that would be helpful.

Well, I would say over so over my tenure, we have changed committees.

We rearranged committees, and and and a lot of times it's uh based on the decision of the chair.

We've always had committees, but they have they have changed from time to time.

We used to have an HR committee, we don't have that anymore.

When I was first elected, we did not have a planning and zoning committee.

And like then, the the you know, the zoning cases just appeared before us, and there was always a lot of discussion.

And I was like, I feel like we need to have a planning zoning committee.

So it it sort of it ebbs and flows, I think, with with a council.

I think what the important thing is is that you have committees that address each of these items, and they're all addressed in and he basically all these I mean, all um councilman has done this is condensed it's into seven six, I think.

Um we we came up with a legislative committee just to give the vice chair at some point a committee to look at new legislation.

So committees have changed through the years that I've been here.

And so I mean, I think what's important is that you just make sure you address each of the functions of government in a committee.

It's not necessarily it's just kind of up to the council how they want to arrange those committees.

It's been my experience.

And I'll say this, councilwoman.

I the perspective I had after serving on here for a year.

Now, this is a thought I had coming in, but I wanted to sit with it to really get see how it works before jumping in and making any recommendations.

I think the beauty of our rules, which change frequently or as we need, is it changes based on what the council needs at the time and what may have worked for previous councils may look different for this one.

And I think this has been a very active year across the board, a lot of legislation, a lot of questions.

And I do believe this package could provide a lot more efficiency and effectiveness to our work.

Um, not only our work, but also transparency for government for our communities so people can pull back the veil and they can get a better idea of how is my government working for me and how are they doing it with integrity.

Um, so those are some of the principles that I came in to this process about.

And and to be clear, I'm I'm supportive of us taking a look at how we can do it more efficiently.

There's just a few things that I think uh I want to make sure that we're tight on so that we don't throw out the baby with the bathwater, if you will, if there's some things that are you know important to continue on with and make sure that always I've I've learned from several of you that how important it is to look back at our charter to make sure that we're doing what our charter says we're supposed to do and we're staying in our lane.

Yeah, so thank thank you again for this.

I will put together my notes so that they can be part of forward thinking.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chairman.

Considerwoman Donna.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you so much, uh Vice Chair Elliott for bringing that, and I look forward to the virtual meeting of research when you you know when you get going.

Um so uh for me, I I reviewed it and I do have a couple of comments and I have several concerns about it.

Um a lot of it actually uh uh councilwoman burrs was able to kind of hit the nail on the head in a sense of why do we have these committees and and councilman uh Henderson actually uh explained a bit of that.

So my first issue is uh workload.

So traditionally, and I think Councilman Henderson mentioned, you know, the legislative chair uh carries their responsibility related to uh you know legislative review and some other pieces that fall under legislation under the current proposal though, it falls under governance, so that workload is effectively removed from the vice chair, which currently is you, and distributed to another council member through the creation of the government operations committee.

So, in practical terms, this product this proposal, and I wrote everything I wanted to say to make sure I said it right.

This proposal reduces the workload of the vice chair while increasing the workload of other council members.

So I find it difficult to understand why a reform proposal brought forward by the vice chair will re result in less work for the vice chair and more work for everyone else.

My second one is committee meetings.

The proposal requires committees to meet at least once every two months, regardless of whether there's a business, there's business to conduct.

Uh, and I give you an example right now.

I'm doing community development.

Well, we don't need to meet right now because we're in the midst of some uh shifts and changes.

So uh it's been a lot of interference and things like that that's kind of prevented us from moving the way we need to move, but they persist on, and I'm very proud of that for them for that.

And I know and they're doing their best, and I can't wait to do the committee for y'all in August.

Y'all can be blown away.

Uh, but committee chairs already have the authority and responsibility to convene meetings when necessary, so we can have them when we want to have them when we find it necessary.

Some periods naturally require more meetings, so like budget, like we right now, you know.

Uh, I wouldn't imagine having another budget meeting in in August, you know.

So while others require fewer because departments are operating as intended, and there are no pressure issues requiring committee review.

So forcing me simply to satisfy procedural requirement just demonstrates in essence a lack of kind of operational understanding of how city government functions.

Meetings should occur because there is a mean there's meaningful work to be done, not because a calendar says let's check the box.

Good governance is measured by outcomes of oversight, not by checking the box on the meeting schedule.

So I don't think that we should be forced to have meetings because we just don't have a meeting today, and that's just not efficient government, and as you mentioned, we are part-time, so like we just have the meetings every other month because the calendar said it is it, you know, it doesn't, it just takes up more time.

Third, uh, which is one of my biggest ones, is exclusion.

The product the proposal reduces nine committees to six, while in essence, since we've moved legislative offering, because typically, I said I think when I was vice chair, every other vice chair had legislative committee, except maybe councilwoman heel, you had still kept affordable housing, if I'm not mistaken, um, which is some our pet, like I kept in equity.

I mean, we kept our things that we like, yes.

Uh, but for the most part, uh, so these this proposal reduces nine committees to six while excluding the chair, which it should, the chair shouldn't have to have the committee because it's a lot of work, and vice chair from the committee chair count, or at least it doesn't objectively say about the vice chair.

That leaves only six committee chair positions available for the remaining nine, I'm sorry, remaining seven council members.

As a result, at least one council member will be excluded from serving in the leadership capacity.

What concerns me further, and this is what I paid attention to in this, is that two committees I currently chair affordable housing and community development are specifically eliminated and absorbed into other committees.

Now, I've an example would be councilwoman Hill has economic development.

Community development has four divisions.

So what this is what this would do if we kept the same committee structure is quadruple her workload and take away mine.

That's not fair.

That's not fair to any, that's not fair to her, and it's not fair to me, and it's definitely not fair to my constituents.

As written, this proposal, and I'm just not I'm using an example because this is me and you, but housing, I also chair that that doubles her work, doubles the workload for councilwoman burst, and yet I still have no committee.

The last one is um, and even when you look at the vice chair taking that legislative part, it goes under government affairs.

Well, government affairs says innovation.

If I last I checked, councilman Clark has education and innovation, it's doubling tripling his workload because he's on vice chair budget, education and innovation, and now this adds an additional layer for even for him.

So as a result, at least one council member, like I said, will be excluded from serving a leadership capacity.

What concerns me further was the issues I just brought up, which, in my opinion, and it may not be, is clearly intentional.

It diminishes my voice as an elected representative.

It diminishes the voice of district seven, which is roughly 20,000 constituents who elected me to serve and lead.

It is my job to sit at this table and speak on their behalf, and it creates the appearance that some type of personal difference or something is going on influencing this structural decision, and that should never be embedded in governance.

Fourth, accountability.

You are the sole sponsor of this proposal that reduces your workload, increases our workload, and create structure that excludes at least one tenure council member from leadership opportunities.

Yet, if this proposal passes, the responsibility for implementing these changes falls on the current chair, who shouldn't have to bear the responsibility of that because he's already did his due diligence and did what he needs to do for the committees.

The chair will be tasked with determining committee assignments and deciding who is excluded from committee leadership on the disstructure, and that's passing the buck on to our chair, and that's not fair either.

In effect, the difficult and decisive consequences of this proposal will be shifted to someone else to administer while you introduced it.

This raises several questions.

Why would you create a proposal that is inherently exclusionary?

Why would you expect and my constituents and I, because I represent our district?

I deserve to know why you would do that.

My constituents in district seven deserve to know why you would do that because it's dimension diminishing their voices in in committee.

Why would you accept the position of vice chair if you if your first major reform is to remove responsibility traditionally associated associated with the office and transfer them to your colleagues, especially when you have more most recently, and this is just me, browbeat this council to effectively give you a legislative affairs position to assist you?

I just it's just a lot.

Why should this council support a proposal that asks other members to do more while asking the vice chair to do less?

There are a couple of good notes in here, but the inherent exclusion of council members is particularly egregious.

And most importantly, the major question is how does any of this improve service to the residents of Chattanooga?

So for me, council, I encourage you to reject this proposal on its face.

You can do whatever you want to do, but I'm telling you, as a as somebody sitting at this table and watching that, this is how things start.

This is a slippery slope.

Today assists committees, tomorrow's expanded appointment authority, the next day is fewer opportunities for elected members to leave your voices, shaping policy, and more decisions concentrated in the hands of a select few.

That's how the vision begins.

Not all at once, but one seemingly minor change at a time.

And we wonder why our structure in this country is like it is because of simple.

This seems so simple.

Let's just do this.

But as you do this and you begin to exclude people, well, so at the top, there that well, you're I know I know I know chair.

We got we know we work hard.

At the top, you don't have people, you know, you you giving everybody else more work to do, and that's not right.

That's not fair to council, and maybe you know, leadership should be about let me say my last list be.

Chattanooga residents did not elect us to create a hierarchy among council members.

They elected nine representatives to bring nine perspectives to the table.

Any reform that diminishes participation, limits leadership opportunities, or concentrates authority should concern every member of this body, regardless of who occupies a particular seat today.

Because we were here today, we may be gone tomorrow.

Leadership should be about empowering colleagues, not reducing their role.

It should be about building consensus, not creating winners and losers.

And for that reason, I believe this proposal moves us in the wrong direction for those reasons.

Again, I respectfully again urge this council to reject this proposal.

And back to something councilwoman burrs asked.

She said, All the committees, and I think Chair Henderson, not council.

I'm sorry, it just ain't going away.

Councilman Henderson mentioned it, the committees follow departments.

So each one follows a department, self-housing.

That's a new one, but it needs its own thing.

It follows the department, and what committees do is give every single person in here an opportunity to chair.

So if you decide you want to be vice chair, if you decide you want to be chair, they give you a leadership opportunity to chair a meeting and go through those processes.

Then you can come back later and say, you know, how did I do?

How did it go?

You can get advice from your other council members, but that's that opportunity.

When you remove when you have six committees, especially when you have some heavy ones like community development, you have some heavy committees on here, it's hard to do that.

Now, my recommendation to the council, because I would never say reject something and not have something on the side, is rather than adopting a proposal that concentrates authority, increases workload disparities, and limits leadership opportunities.

I believe we should make a take a collaborative approach.

As council, we should establish our legislative priorities, which I don't think I think we did a couple of work sessions under councilwoman um uh heel, but establish our legislative priorities through the strategic planning process and then align committees, departments and resources around those shared goals because when all us come to the table, that's what a difference comes.

Yes, committees meet committee meetings should be driven by purpose with chairs providing updates on council priorities, departmental initiatives, emerging issues, constituent concerns, and policy needs.

This approach keeps committees engaged and accountable while preserving the flexibility necessary for effective governance rather than creating additional layers of bureaucracy, we should shrink and coordination between the legislative and executive branches because we should because that's what people expect.

The best outcome occurs, best outcomes occur when council, the administration, and community stakeholders work together towards shared objectives with clear exceptions and measurable results.

This model reflects collaborative leadership rather than centralized authority, it values the contributions of every elected member, respects departmental expertise, and keeps the focus on delivering results for the people of Chattanooga because at the end of the day, that's what they expect us to do.

So those are my comments, and I will I was email you my questions.

But the first one was why would you create a proposal that is inherently exclusionary?

And my 20,000 people, just like all of y'all deserve to know why.

Why would you take their voices?

Why would you take the voices of Chattanoogans from this table?

Why would you accept the position if the first thing you're gonna do is take away your responsibility, and then why should this council support a proposal that asks other members to do more while asking the vice chair to do less?

Uh and most importantly, how does any of this improve service to the residents of Chattanooga?

And I know it's 320, Mr.

Chair, so I can email those questions to you.

Thank you so much.

Sure, Mr.

Chairman.

Just very briefly.

Yeah, at least I need to get my time.

Yes, yes.

Councilwoman, I do appreciate your uh input.

I don't know where the uh presentation may have gone to make it seem that it was looking to stifle anyone's voice or work on this council.

It's in here.

It's literally the proposal.

Uh the intent for it was to really kind of streamline efficiency and effectiveness.

And my this was a thought I had coming into this term.

That's the chair.

This is an idea I had coming into this term, but it is something I wanted to wait on so I can get further experience and exposure firsthand on how these committees worked to really help define my uh my opinion going into this.

Now, councilwoman, I'm gonna start with a piece you said about um workload.

You know, the way I've seen it thus far is we've kind of set up these committees as is we give it each body, each person a uh a committee, and largely they have been like the subject matter persons to report on that solely.

But honestly, it's not stopping any council person from doing the work.

Um I uh currently don't I I've I don't only have a meeting when council people want to present something from a committee, but that doesn't stop the numerous projects I have in my district.

I have three large community development projects.

I got one going on the glass street, I got another one launching the Eastale right now that doesn't stop me at pushing out a senior tax freeze increased legislation that hasn't stopped me from pushing out an uh initiative to clean up the city with our new litter program.

Me holding a position does not stop me from doing the work as a council person.

And that's not what I said.

No, I'm I'm not saying that's what you said.

This is why are you saying it?

Well, let's because it's my opinion.

If I could ask you, Mr.

Chair, you are chair, yes, sir.

I think councilwoman Noel had a comment.

We are short on time, so I want to allow her to make her comment if we could.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, actually, Councilwoman Burris and Councilwoman Dolly, they just they took all my little ID open my phone to get my notes off of it because you hit all the bases you hit on with all of it.

And the feeling it gave me is that um you're taking away the collaboration that we have as a council as non-council individual.

It feels really clickish.

It feels like you're gonna put it in a position for the chair to which right now they appoint us to uh what committee to chair, but then also to decide what committee, and then have the council people report to the chair as to whatever you need to report to him or her for.

Um that's not good.

It's is it seems like it's about power and control, and no one individual or two individuals should have that kind of power and control over seven other individuals because at the end of the day, nobody sitting at this table is my mama, my dad, or my husband that can tell me what to do and when to do it and when to report to.

Um, when you decide that you want to pick the committees, and then you decide who what three you want on that committee, that's too clickish for me.

You can lead people out, you can have people that you want in that group that you know was going to vote the way you want them to vote and do what you want them to do, and that is not what this is about.

My constituents as well as everybody else's constituents voted for us, our 50 plus one, which some of us got more.

But the only people that should be given that type of authority should be the constituents to tell me that I'm gonna have to pick up two or three other things because somebody else you want to cut it down to six instead of nine.

And it's just not a good look for us as a council.

This is true.

I want folks to understand this structure has been set up.

And one other thing, let me say this.

Hold on, hold on.

One other thing, let me say this.

And councilwoman Darling, it's personal.

It was singled out.

You were singled out.

Then seriously, it's it's a problem.

Okay, go ahead.

I want to let y'all know this is a proposal.

It does not earmark one person going to one committee.

Nobody knows what the assignments look like.

But it also is built so anybody can participate in any committee that you want.

Now, for those who are looking to have a committee title and a position, by all means, you can have it.

But it kind of goes back to something similar to what I said the council in verse.

It's all about how you see the role.

Or whatever that may look like, if it touches a committee or if it doesn't.

So if one second, Mr.

Chair, if you all uh have taken this as feeling like a personal slight, I want to let you know that is not the intent.

And I hate that the tension has bulled up to the point where we feel like it's a personal assault because I see you as colleagues who represent a constituency that I love just as much as my own.

I want you all to succeed just as much as I want any other Chattanooga to succeed here.

It is simply about making sure that we can be a more effective and efficient council as a whole, and honestly looking to create a workspace of collaboration where we have to come to the table with one another, put our heads together and say, how do we show up for Chattanooga today?

Nothing about being divisive at all.

And if if this does go through and you would like a committee position, I already said, like I don't need to have a committee because I will still continue to do the work.

If I'm appointed to one grade, if not, that's okay.

But I'm sure you can continue to talk to the chair if you need a committee to continue doing your work.

We've got Mr.

Chair to get next door.

We've got the mayor continues at the beginning of our meeting.

Thank you.

Okay.