Mayor Littlefield's State of City Focuses on Consolidation
Mayor Ron Littlefield outlines an agenda for the next four years at his State of the City address Thursday night.
He set tonight's stage talking about where Chattanooga has been, but quickly laid out a strict plan of where he wants the city to go.
"Annexation is still out there it's still the tool we can use to expand the city but I would much rather expand the government and combine city and county government," says Mayor Littlefield.
The first step he says is not placing boundaries on public safety. That means, a consolidated countywide police force and 50 more officers. Plus better fire equipment, and new stations in Lookout Valley and Enterprise South.
"I think it will help Chattanooga as a whole to grow a little bigger," says Terry Davis who attended the address.
Littlefield says sewage overflowing into the Tennessee River last week, proved the need to do away with small utility districts and get an industrial water and sewer utility.
He also says the key is spending two billion dollars on a central interceptor sewer system but when it comes to water quality fees, that's a personal problem.
"I think he is trying to hold us accountable for our own problems, which makes sense because this is our community," says Caroline Johnson, a city worker who also attended the address.
For many of the city's water problems, Mayor Littlefield blamed on egotistic board members and calls the Chattanooga Housing Authority, a problem child he'll fix Mayor Littlefield
"I have a chance to appoint new members of the board of the housing authority and I'll do that in due time," says Mayor Littlefield.
"He was pushing the agenda pretty hard. He's got three more years so we'll see we will hold him accountable if not," says Terry Davis.
Now some city and county positions could be merging soon. Mayor Littlefieled intends to merge some Public Works departments. He also says the county trustee and city treasurer positions could be combinedsoon, along with both county and city court clerks.
