Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp (R) and others argue that the civil service measure recently passed by county commissioners bestows excessive protections on bureaucrats.
The legislative body approved the policy and another resolution extending County Attorney Rheubin Taylor’s contract, which Wamp tried to terminate earlier this month. The civil-service resolution would require a dismissal of a protected county staffer to undergo review by a special commission.
Speaking to members of the Pachyderm Club at the Chattanooga Masonic Center this week, Wamp noted that Republican former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam repealed civil service protections for state workers when he served in the 2010s. He said civil service policy has traditionally been a priority of progressive lawmakers who want to empower the bureaucracy.
“In modern America, conservative leaders have fought tooth and nail to roll back, if not eliminate altogether, civil service,” he said. “What it has realistically led to is propelled, entrenched, strengthened bureaucracy, and I can certainly say as the chief executive of county government, it sent chills up the spine of our administrators, who go to work every day trying their best to serve this county in a very difficult job market.”
Other center-right voices in the region are speaking up for Wamp’s perspective.
Clint Cooper, an editor at the Chattanooga Times Free Press, penned an editorial this week rebuking the board’s unanimous resolution setting up the government-staff protections.
“This is the type of system that has made it so difficult to fire bad employees in state and large city governments,” Cooper wrote. “Indeed, the United States federal civil service system has perpetrated what has become known derisively in Washington, D.C., as ‘The Swamp,’ where unelected bureaucrats stay on for presidential administration after presidential administration, gumming up the works for those who want to put governmental reforms in place.”
He characterized civil service reforms as having made a positive difference when they were first enacted in New York City in the late 1870s. But he opined that as they have become stronger and more pervasive since then, they have lessened employee quality and accountability.
Cooper further criticized the commissioners for passing their resolution seemingly in response to Wamp’s attempt to dismiss Taylor even as they wrote the policy in such a way that exempts the county attorney from the civil service protections.
Before firing Taylor, Wamp complained that the lawyer, who previously served as a Democratic county commissioner and became a county attorney for nearly three decades, had accumulated too much power via his government job.
Commissioners Chairman Chip Baker (R-Signal Mountain) objected to the mayor’s attempt to terminate the counselor’s contract, suggesting that the unilateral move did not bespeak the “partnership” that the mayor ought to have with county legislators.
Taylor continues to report to work at the county as Wamp seeks legal recourse so the firing can become effective.
Wamp said he believes the Republican majority of commissioners will eventually vote to rescind the civil service policy, noting it was proposed by the panel’s sole Democrat, David Sharpe of Red Bank.
“This was a ploy from the single left-wing member of the commission,” he said.
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Bradley Vasoli is a writer for The Tennessee Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Weston Wamp” by Weston Wamp. Background Photo “Hamilton County Courthouse” by Brian Stansberry. CC BY 3.0.
