- For ELEVEN YEARS managers of the Champions Club (a complex of tennis courts, showers, pro-shop, etc OWNED BY THE CITY OF CHATTANOOGA) who are employed by the City of Chattanooga, have been using city property, the city website and city employees on city time to host events from which they received "tens-of-thousands" of dollars while the city never received a dime.
- Parks & Recreation Department Head Larry Zehnder publicly defended this activity by saying that it was part of a contract that the auditor could find no evidence of having ever been approved by the Chattanooga City Council, was never signed, and officially expired ten years ago. According to the CTFP Zehnder said "he does not know why, but the signed contract has been lost prior to his arrival."
- City employees working on the tax-payer dime were selling the private merchandise of their city-employed bosses out of the pro-shop located on city property.
- Parks & Recreation Department Head Larry Zehnder said that this entire arrangement is "standard practice" and that EVERYONE from Kinsey to Corker to Littlefield knew about the for-profit activities of city employees being financed on tax-payer monies - everyone except the City Council which seemingly knew about none of this and approved none of it.
But don't worry everyone! City Attorney Mike McMahon, who until the recall last summer was himself the target of an audit showing tax-payers subsidizing his private legal practice, has the audit "on his desk". Rest assured. Everything will be A-OK.
UPDATE 1: Remember when Larry Zehnder was hired back in 2006 to head up Parks and Rec? He was hired to replace Rob Healy who claimed that Mayor Ron Littlefield hired Zehnder because Healy refused to "play ball" and because Healy was not "political" and would not turn a blind eye to the cronyism that was rampant in the Department (while Healy was Department Head he outed Parks and Rec employees who used city credit cards for thousands of dollars in personal purchases). Healy was so outraged by this incident that he would go on to run against Littlefield in the next election when no other serious political opposition stepped forward.
UPDATE 2: MORE HISTORY - Mayor Ron Littlefield awarded a contract of $98,500 dollars to Barge, Waggoner, Sumner and Canon, Inc. to purchase the services of Larry Zenhder as acting Department Head of Parks and Recreation for 30 weeks. Barge, Waggoner, Sumner and Canon, Inc., according to The Pulse blog from the time was:
UPDATE 3: The following is a copy (provided from an old Chattablogs post) of Harry Austin's Times Editorial related to the "banning" of Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Mike Weber by Mayor Ron Littlefield:
The following is an excerpt from Rob Healy's statement to the City Council in response to his firing as Director Parks and Recreation and replacement with Larry Zhender:
UPDATE 7: Deborah Scott weighs in on the issue with an opinion piece in the Chattanoogan. Of particular interest is her conclusion:
UPDATE 1: Remember when Larry Zehnder was hired back in 2006 to head up Parks and Rec? He was hired to replace Rob Healy who claimed that Mayor Ron Littlefield hired Zehnder because Healy refused to "play ball" and because Healy was not "political" and would not turn a blind eye to the cronyism that was rampant in the Department (while Healy was Department Head he outed Parks and Rec employees who used city credit cards for thousands of dollars in personal purchases). Healy was so outraged by this incident that he would go on to run against Littlefield in the next election when no other serious political opposition stepped forward.
UPDATE 2: MORE HISTORY - Mayor Ron Littlefield awarded a contract of $98,500 dollars to Barge, Waggoner, Sumner and Canon, Inc. to purchase the services of Larry Zenhder as acting Department Head of Parks and Recreation for 30 weeks. Barge, Waggoner, Sumner and Canon, Inc., according to The Pulse blog from the time was:
one of two companies hired to develop an initial site development plan, layout features, division of parcels and planning of infrastructure components for what is nowEnterprise South.A Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter of the time, Mike Weber, was banned by Mayor Ron Littlefield from having access to public records after he began investigating these business connections and other instances of cronyism within the Littlefield Administration. After the ban, Mayor Littlefield then went on the attack, publicly belittling Mike Weber on radio interviews with comments that Times Editorialist Harry Austin described as both "anti-Semitic" and "anti-Yankee". Even Joe Lance, hardly a reactionary political commentator, was deeply disturbed by these actions. Tom Gresham was renowned for his capitulations to those in power - apparently he refused to take any significant steps towards defending his reporters (instead reminding them to keep to their Southern manners) and they, in turn, became despondent.
UPDATE 3: The following is a copy (provided from an old Chattablogs post) of Harry Austin's Times Editorial related to the "banning" of Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Mike Weber by Mayor Ron Littlefield:
The Mayor’s Wrongful Ban
The paramount role of a free press in this nation is to serve as the public’s watchdog and to speak truth to power — particularly to the political elites and bureaucratic lords who control public policies and taxpayers’ dollars. Unfortunately, Mayor Ron Littlefield either does not understand that, or wishes to subvert and chill press coverage of his administration.
There’s little other reason to explain why he so rashly and wrongly attempted last week to intimidate a reporter for this newspaper — and by extension, all other members of the media in this community — by publicly announcing that he was "banning" Times Free Press reporter Michael Weber "from interaction with city officials or employees."
Of course, Mr. Littlefield cannot really ban a reporter from covering his administration. He can only attempt to embarrass or intimidate the media by saying those words. The mayor has no real moral or legal authority to forbid a reporter from entering the city’s public facilities and asking questions. Reporters, like all American citizens, have a constitutionally protected right to public access and to public records.
City employees also have a constitutionally protected right of freedom of speech which entitles them to speak to reporters, as well as a public responsibility to treat all reporters, and all citizens, equally and fairly under the law. Mayor Littlefield is wrong to pretend the authority to nullify these public rights and responsibilities. Small wonder that India’s Hindustan Times, for example, was one distant newspaper that took note of the obtuse anti-democratic gambit by Chattanooga’s mayor.
So why would Mayor Littlefield issue such a public edict, particularly one that used such defamatory and inflammatory rhetoric and that depicted such deplorable bias against the person and background of Michael Weber?
Well, it could be because Mr. Weber was seeking records to document the lobbying contract by which Mayor Littlefield has managed to steer a $90,000 sweetheart fee to an old friend, Duane Smith, under a $180,000 contract to the Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm of Akerman Senterfitt, which the city hired last September.
There’s nothing wrong with the city hiring a lobbyist. The previous two city administrations spent about $50,000 annually on lobbying contracts. There is reason, however, for this newspaper to report how much Mr. Littlefield is spending on lobbying, what his lobbyists are doing for that money, why the city’s lobbying-related spending has gone up so much, and how and why the mayor’s friend ended up getting what appears to be an insider, sweetheart deal.
Mayor Littlefield may not like such questions. But he should be prepared to deal with them forthrightly. Trying to kick a reporter out of city hall, and attempting to do so in such a humiliating fashion, was not the correct response. It reveals more about Mr. Littlefield’s character and judgment than anything it says about our reporter.
Mr. Littlefield’s news release announcing the "banning" of the reporter, broadcast by local television and radio stations, notably came without any prior consultation with this newspaper’s management over the conduct alleged by the mayor against Mr. Weber. The mayor’s news release said his office had tried to accommodate the reporter’s various requests for information and records but that he thought it was "time to stop taking Mr. Weber’s threatening and accusatory phone calls."
He said he had "instructed city personnel they are to have no further contact" with the reporter, whom he said was "obviously on some personal mission and is chasing ghosts and goblins that don’t exist except in his own mind." He deplored his reportorial methods by crudely citing Mr. Weber’s background: "Perhaps this is a tactic that worked for Mr. Weber in Brooklyn, but it won’t work here; it won’t work for me. My guess is that it really didn’t work for Mr. Weber in Brooklyn, and that is why he is here in Chattanooga." He then went on to allege that Mr. Weber wished to publish "irresponsible and inaccurate information," and suggested that "when (he) learns to behave in a more professional fashion as a journalist in the future, I’ll reconsider this ban."
Yet it is not a reporter’s, or this newspaper’s, pursuit of facts that is unprofessional. Rather, it is Mayor Littlefield’s defamatory public statements and his egregious reference to Mr. Weber’s work "in Brooklyn" (Mr. Weber worked once at Newsday in New York) that are wholly unprofessional and contemptible. That slur can be read both as anti-Yankee and anti-Semitic, since attacks on the Jewish community in New York traditionally referred to the acts of people "in Brooklyn."
Mayor Littlefield’s action managed, in a single stroke, to offend all responsible journalists here, to draw coverage to the anti-democratic attitude and thin skin of Chattanooga’s mayor, and to demonstrate his bias against northerners and Jews.
Unprofessional, over-the-top, abrasive, threatening, unmerited conduct? Yes. But far more so by Mayor Littlefield than by Mr. Weber. Indeed, the reporter’s subsequent story with Times Free Press Nashville correspondent Andy Sher on Tuesday revealed Mr. Littlefield’s well-hidden sweetheart lobbying fee for his friend. Mayor Littlefield owes a public apology not just to Mr. Weber and news reporters generally, but to the city’s residents. The mayor should behave less abrasively and more professionally, and leave public access for all uninhibited.UPDATE 4: Coming full-circle, I found the following editorial penned by Tom Griscom in response to Littlefield's "ban" of reporter Mike Weber from City Hall. Griscom actually connects the Rob Healy firing to the ban of Mike Weber in that both were trying to expose cronyism in city government:
Mr. Littlefield referred on talk radio to the local reporter as being “dangerous.” The same label was hung on Rob Healy, former head of Parks and Recreation for the city who challenged the mayor’s decision to reassign him to Outdoor Chattanooga.
Mr. Littlefield again is within his rights to move or remove Mr. Healy, but the tag of “dangerous” appears to be synonymous with anyone who disagrees with City Hall.
Why is this important?
There is a chilling effect on public discourse if a fear exists that persistent questions, probing for information, even being somewhat abrasive will result in being shut out from those who make public decisions and allocate public tax dollars.UPDATE 5: The following is the story about the lobbyist who did not lobby, the story that was broke by Mike Weber, earning him the distinction of being singled out by the Littlefield Administration for "special treatment", the most interesting pieces have been highlighted for your consideration:
Mayor defends city’s lobby firm contractUPDATE 6: In perhaps one of the greatest and most synchornistic ironies, I have uncovered that the City Council meeting in which the City Council approved a resolution for the Mayor to execute a contract with Barge, Waggoner, Sumner and Canon, Inc. for the management of the Department of Parks and Rec is the same that they approved a resolution for the Mayor to negotiate the purchase of the 11th Street Farmer's Market - one of the most blatantly corrupt land transactions that took place during the Littlefield administration. Several of us would go on to rename the 11th Street Farmer's Market "The Ron Littlefield Memorial Dump".
By Angie Herrington Staff Writer
Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield said Tuesday the city will cancel its contract with a Washington, D.C., lobbying firm after one year if it is not successful in influencing legislation that benefits the city.
"We will not carry on into the second year if it’s not productive," the mayor said during the City Council’s Legal and Legislative Committee meeting.
Mr. Littlefield presented the committee with a report authored by him concerning the city’s one-year contract with Ackerman Senterfitt that began Oct. 1. The city is spending $15,000 a month, or $180,000 a year, for the firm’s services, and at least one member of the council had questioned the expenditure.
City Councilman Leamon Pierce last year questioned the contract and asked for a six-month progress report. Last month he said the contract called for a report "on or about March 15," but the council had received no report.
Mr. Littlefield said in early April that he had given the lobbying firm a "grace period" to file the report.
The two-page report Tuesday, typed on Mr. Littlefield’s letterhead stationery, listed examples of money and projects the lobbying firm is working to bring to Chattanooga. Those included $1.5 million for a technical training center for the Enterprise South industrial park and money for digital cameras in police vehicles.
Mr. Littlefield cited as a prime example his visit to Washington, D.C., on Monday when he and Richard Spees, the firm’s Washington lobbyist, met with the head of the President’s Office of Faith Based Initiatives. Mr. Pierce, now the council chairman, told the mayor he is not satisfied.
"I thought we would have some results from the lobbyist, and I don’t see any results," Mr. Pierce said.
He questioned why Duane Smith, who is working under a subcontract with the firm to lobby the state on behalf of the city, is being paid $90,000 a year. "How can a Washington firm give a state lobbyist half of the funds?" Mr. Pierce asked. The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported in a story on Tuesday that Mr. Smith is not registered with state officials to lobby. Mr. Smith, a longtime Littlefield supporter and friend, was quoted in the story as saying he had mailed his registration form last Thursday.
Mr. Littlefield said he had not known how much Mr. Smith was paid. And he said Mr. Smith has not been working in Nashville because his mother, 88, and father, 91, are extremely ill.
Mr. Smith has been active on the telephone and has talked to officials with the Tennessee Municipal League and others, Mr. Littlefield said.
"He has kept me more informed (on legislative matters) on many days than I wanted to be," Mr. Littlefield said. In a telephone call Tuesday after the meeting, Mr. Spees told the Times Free Press that city officials visiting in Washington on Monday "made it plain that we are not to talk to you. The city really wants to control this."
Staff writer Pam Sohn contributed to this story.
The following is an excerpt from Rob Healy's statement to the City Council in response to his firing as Director Parks and Recreation and replacement with Larry Zhender:
“I am assuming by the resolution presented by Mayor Littlefield to executea contract with Barge, Waggoner, Sumner and Cannon, Inc. to performprofessional management services for the Department of Parks andRecreation that I have been fired from my position as the Administrator.Over the last 9 months I have been told many times to be more political – Ihave come to realize that this means that I must compromise my valuesand ethics so to appease separate interest groups. I have beenencouraged to look the other way when people are misusing City funds. Ihave been pressured to hire people that are not the best candidates forthe job. Continually I have been told one thing in private and when thereis public opposition these private commitments are not honored orvoiced. I was hired by Mayor Littlefield to be the Administrator of Parksand Recreation. It is an organization that is broken- I have started toorganize a department of people that are committed to restoring it, justas I am. I believe you hire great people and then you give themguidance and encouragement and try and provide them the tools theyneed to be successful.”
UPDATE 7: Deborah Scott weighs in on the issue with an opinion piece in the Chattanoogan. Of particular interest is her conclusion:
It is important to remember that city tennis programs are financed by taxpayer dollars. Operation is governed by state and local laws. It would be wrong to confuse the public financial requirements with private facility habits. Because the Champion’s Club Tennis Facility is not a “country club,” different rules apply.
Various people have suggested the city should draft a new contract with the city employee manager which would essentially circumvent the original intent of the laws and policies created to protect the public. I fail to see the wisdom of using a back door approach to exempt a city tennis coach from the laws that bind every other state and local government employee. Another person suggested Council bending the law (aka “leave things way they are”) to save tax money on the salary. That idea is thin on substance. Another stated, ”but we have always done it this way!” That argument is true, but flimsy.
Our laws should control when tax dollars are at stake. Personal friendships, admiration of tennis skills, and old habits are not firm foundations for managing finances.