Volunteer fire department discusses transparency
The Dallas Bay Volunteer Fire Department wants to set the record straight on its stewardship of taxpayer money.
On Wednesday, Mitch McClure, a former Hamilton County commissioner who serves as chairman of the fire department’s nine-member board, presented an accountability report to the Hamilton County Commission.
He said social media discussions after the commission’s recent 6-3 vote to enact new financial oversight rules for certain nonprofit organizations spurred his presentation.
“In the last few weeks there have been discussions in the media, social media and several places about accountability and stewardship, and the resolution that you all passed,” McClure said. “I agree that there must be stewardship of every taxpayer dollar that is spent.”
The new oversight rules call for nonprofits receiving county dollars surpassing 25 percent of their operating budgets to adopt county purchasing and travel expense policies. The measure also requires each of those organizations to give a seat on its governing board to a county commissioner and provide all financial documents to the county.
The Dallas Bay Fire Department received $67,877 from the county in the fiscal 2018 budget, matching what it received the year before. It is one out of about two dozen civic and charitable organizations that receive contributions from the county, a number that includes about a dozen other volunteer fire departments.
When commissioners passed the new financial oversight measure, a number of them questioned which nonprofits it would impact. Except for the Chattanooga Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Humane Educational Society, the rest seemed to be up in the air, pending research by county finance officials.
Both the CVB and the Humane Educational Society have pushed back against the oversight rules.
The CVB has undergone months of scrutiny over its spending by Commissioner Tim Boyd, who sponsored the oversight measures.
Boyd has also criticized the humane society’s funding levels.
“There shouldn’t be any problem” with organizations adopting county spending polices if they receive “that significant amount of money,” Boyd has said.
McClure said he wanted to provide some “clarity” about the fire department’s reporting and transparency, even though county funding falls below the 25 percent threshold of the agency’s operating budget.
In recent years, county dollars amounted to 16.6 percent of the department’s total operating budget dollars, but that figure is now closer to 9 percent, he said.
The Dallas Bay Volunteer Fire Department regularly provides numerous reports — financial and otherwise — to at least 10 agencies or groups, according to the report.
The county performs an audit on the department every other year, McClure said. The fire department also has to adhere to its own standards and those of Hamilton County Emergency Services, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Internal Revenue Service.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is we are transparent,” McClure said. “I want to provide this to you because we partner with you. When 911 gets a call, we go.”
Commissioner Greg Martin, who voted against the measure, said last month he didn’t feel comfortable voting on something about which the commission did not have all the facts.
“I don’t have a problem with transparency, but I believe we have added another layer of government to these nonprofits with this resolution,” Martin has said.
Mayor Jim Coppinger has repeatedly cautioned commissioners about possible “unintended consequences” resulting from the new nonprofit organization oversight rules, and he told them the county did not have the staff or resources to serve as a watchdog.