Staff Photo by Sofia Saric / Community organizers met Aug. 27, 2024, to discuss ongoing bond issues in Hamilton County. The nonprofit advocacy group CALEB has organized volunteers to watch Hamilton County court hearings after county officials allegedly failed to meet its demands for constitutional bond practices.
Dozens of criminal justice advocates rallied last week with protest signs and chanted slogans such as "no justice, no peace" and "power to the people" on the steps of the courts building. "It's our responsibility to speak on their behalf," CALEB member Zac Settle said. "The current process is unjust." Earlier this year, nonprofit legal organization Civil Rights Corps and CALEB sent a memo to Hamilton County officials that alleged many people accused of crimes are jailed for up to 14 days without legal counsel or due process if they cannot afford the bail set by a magistrate judge. General sessions judges, magistrates, the sheriff's office, the public defender's office, the district attorney, the mayor, the county attorney and county commissioners were asked to respond with their input by May 31. General Sessions Judge Lila Statom did not respond by the deadline. Criminal Court Judge Amanda Dunn said she was unable to comment, as it is an issue for the county attorney to address. County Attorney Rheubin Taylor did not respond to a request for comment. Read more
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Opinion: Community benefits agreement worked out for South Broad stadium district after all8/31/2024 Contributed rendering / A rendering released in January shows the planned Chattanooga Lookouts ballpark along with potential new development. Officials broke ground on the new facility in July.Four-and-a-half months ago, a community benefits agreement between builders and developers constructing the new Chattanooga Lookouts baseball stadium in the South Broad District and a coalition of community organizations appeared to be dead.
A spokesman for Chattanoogans in Action for Love, Equality and Benevolence (CALEB), which was heading the coalition, said in April the organization was breaking off talks because it was unable to get "meaningful safeguards" for the community on contracting for the stadium construction and other area development. However, Jermaine Freeman, chief of staff for Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly, said at the time he believed an agreement still could be reached. But radio silence ensued until Tuesday when — bang — a full agreement was announced, with Bethlehem Center serving as the community partner. Read more A local group says too many people in Hamilton County are being held in jail before trial because they can't afford bail and they want to change that.
Watch the news coverage here Staff photo by Matt Hamilton / On March 5, Deborah Lubell, right, checks a voter's driver's license at Meadow view Baptist Church in Georgetown. ...Potential voters can face issues with going to the polls and casting a vote, local organizers said. Small things can add up and stop people from exercising their right to vote, Angélica Acevedo, an organizer with the advocacy group CALEB, said by phone.
"It's actually really difficult to vote — if you can't get off work, if you can't get short-term child care, if you don't have a ride, if you can't read," Acevedo said. "A lot of people don't know that you have the right, as a disabled person, to vote ... regardless of your IQ and your accessibility needs." On Saturday, CALEB is set to hold a "Vote Together Day" at the Chris L. Ramsey Community Center in Brainerd, one of six early voting sites around the county. The group received a $15,000 grant from Civic TN to help with voting efforts for the August election, organizer Alondra Gomez said by phone. CALEB and other organizations plan to offer translation and interpretation services, child care and disability support. "Language should never be a barrier to participating in democracy," Viri Marin, an organizer with the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition Votes, based in Chattanooga, said by phone. Voters can ask for accommodations like brighter light or a quiet place to fill out a ballot at any polling place, Acevedo said. All polling places are also required to meet federal disability accommodation requirements. On Saturday, CALEB plans to offer rides to the polls from meeting points at East Lake Park, RISE Chattanooga, Grace Episcopal Church and the South Chattanooga library. Acevedo said they hope the event helps normalize asking for assistance and supporting others. "If we don't tell each other what's going on and what we need, how are we supposed to tell government officials and counties to budget for these things?" they said. Read more... Staff photo by Olivia Ross / Key Bonding Co. is seen on Thursday. When a Hamilton County magistrate judge told Allen Shropshire his bond was $89,000 for a series of alleged nonviolent offenses, he said he was in shock.
Although Shropshire has never been convicted of a felony, he has lost upwards of about $50,000 bonding out of the Hamilton County Jail during his lifetime, he said. "I can't afford to go get a house for me and my kids because of money I've lost to the system," Shropshire, 37, said. "The bond system has taken so much from me." This month, the nonprofit legal organization Civil Rights Corps and nonprofit Chattanoogans in Action for Love, Equality and Benevolence sent a memo to Hamilton County officials in an attempt to combat situations such as these; it outlines allegedly unconstitutional bond requirements for those awaiting trial. It doesn't appear that the county's bond system is always consistent when considering the accused crime. ___ DOCUMENT ___ Shropshire was allegedly stopped for driving left of the center line and arrested on charges including possession of a firearm and various drugs when he was given that $89,000 bond. On the other hand, Luis Abraham, who is accused of rape and incest, has a $75,000 bond, according to the Hamilton County Criminal Court docket this month. Audrey Johnson, who is accused of attempted first-degree murder, has a $5,000 bond. Asked whether county officials were discussing the concerns raised about bond practices, Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp did not respond. Read more... Staff photo by Matt Hamilton/ Supporters gather Sunday for a photo during a rally for the upcoming Volkswagen Chattanooga union vote. The rally was sponsored by Chattanoogans in Action for Love, Equality and Benevolence and was held at the at IBEW Local 175 Hall. Union supporters rallied Sunday ahead of what they called a potentially historic election at Volkswagen Chattanooga this week to organize a foreign automaker in the South.
To do so, the United Auto Workers will need to overcome the union's own recent history of corruption, with one group saying the UAW spent millions of dollars last year on travel, country clubs and entertainment. But Sunday afternoon, more than 200 people packed a union meeting room at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers' office in Chattanooga in a raucous rally. Volkswagen workers and their families, community members, clergy and others joined the effort to see an outcome in which the automaker's employees vote to select the UAW as their bargaining representative. VW assembly worker Billy Quigg told the group that employees are proud to work at the plant and know the company is "a good influence" on Chattanooga. Still, he said Volkswagen is making billions of dollars and "all of us in this room know why we should vote yes." "We can make sure issues are heard and resolved," Quigg said. Over 200 rally for organizing Volkswagen ahead of potentially historic election this week He said other auto plants are unionized in the South, such as the General Motors factory in Spring Hill, Tennessee, which he termed "a shining beacon." Michael Gilliland, organizing director of Chattanoogans in Action for Love, Equality and Benevolence, said at the rally there's a lot of momentum and more energy than in past elections, when the UAW was voted down at VW. Gilliland, whose group helped put on the rally, said in an interview the new contracts the UAW won after strikes against the Detroit Three automakers is one reason... Read more... The South Broad Community Benefits Coalition is a group comprised of The South Chattanooga Community Association, The Community Association of Historic Saint Elmo, The Mary Walker Towers Residents' Council, The Bethlehem Center, The Chattanooga Building Trades, The International Association of Bridge, Structural, Architectural and Reinforcing Ironworkers Local 704, The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 175, The Chattanooga Area Labor Council, green|spaces, Service Employees International Union Local 205, and Chattanooga in Action for Love, Equity and Benevolence.
For over a year, our Coalition has been negotiating a Community Benefits Agreement with the Chattanooga Lookouts and the developer and property owners for the new Lookouts Stadium to address how construction of the stadium and surrounding development will benefit the South Broad community in Chattanooga. A Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) is a legally binding agreement generally between a developer and local community groups that serves to ensure residents impacted by large infrastructure projects and other types of development share in the benefits of such developments in their community. CBAs have been used across the country, including in Nashville, Atlanta, San Diego, and Las Vegas, among other communities, to secure benefits including commitments to hire directly from the community, contributions to economic trust funds, local workforce guarantees, environmental initiatives, affordable housing, and more. After more than a year of negotiations, we have been unable to obtain an agreement with the developer, property owners, and Lookouts on issues of critical importance to the Coalition. These issues include local and diverse workforce and apprenticeship guarantees, affordable and equitable housing, funding and benefits for local schools, diverse business enterprise requirements, and various community services. In a final analysis of the CBA, the scale of the enforceable benefits offered by the developer was not commensurate with the scale of the disruption this development will bring to the South Broad community. While we were given verbal commitments from the developer on several of our requests, the Coalition is not willing for the CBA to be simply unenforceable promises. Accordingly, we have decided to end the negotiations for what would have been Chattanooga’s first CBA. In the last couple months, we have also been working with the City of Chattanooga to obtain a Memorandum of Understanding to address specific issues and benefits surrounding construction of the Stadium by the Sports Authority. Unfortunately, due to budgetary restraints and state contracting restrictions, many of our requests, including commitments for expanded safety standards and worker training, have proven impossible. This process has been frustrating for the Coalition and we believe will be disappointing for the community at large. The negotiation process has involved an immense commitment of volunteer hours, but our negotiators have held to our commitment to obtain real material benefits for the South Broad community. We have never been interested in a CBA merely for its own sake. We are interested in the benefits themselves. If the goals we laid out in the winter of 2022 can be achieved by other means, we support the full exploration of those avenues. A CBA is an accountability mechanism, by which we hoped to give communities long accustomed to broken promises a robust legal recourse; however, its absence does not mean that these goals are unachievable or that the community should give up on accountability and transparency. Our advocacy is needed more than ever. At this point, only negotiation of the Development Agreement between local government and the developer remains to clear the way for this project to break ground. We are calling on the City and County to ensure that the Development Agreement includes significant provisions for workforce housing (a commitment of at least 30% of units to be permanently affordable at 60-100% area median income), sets environmental standards for construction similar to those recently established for new development in The Bend's tax increment financing (TIF) district, requires the involvement of disadvantaged business enterprises in construction activities, and requires the donation of two acres of land in an appropriate location within the development for the creation of a CARTA mobility center. Despite the end of the Community Benefits Agreement process, we will continue to advocate for the stadium development to provide meaningful benefits for the South Broad community. Leaders of a coalition of local organizations that has worked for the past year and a half to negotiate a community benefits agreement for the new Chattanooga Lookouts stadium said Thursday they are ending talks with officials.
A city official, however, said it's still happening. Geoff Meldhal, of the nonprofit Chattanoogans in Action for Love, Equality and Benevolence, said a committee formed to negotiate with the South Broad District landowners and the baseball team has decided to break off talks. He said in a phone call the group was not able to get "meaningful safeguards" for the community on contracting for the stadium construction and the larger development on the 120-acre former U.S. Pipe/Wheland Foundry site. The minor league team is proposing to move there from AT&T Field on Hawk Hill, its home field since 2000. Meldhal said the budget for the stadium has also been a factor. Earlier this year, officials revealed the cost of the project had increased from an initial estimate of $80 million to approximately $120 million, although the public exposure has since been reduced to $115 million. The coalition of community groups includes the South Chattanooga Community Association, Iron Workers Local 704, Chattanooga Building Trades and others. Read more... Hamilton County bond practices are allegedly violating the law and in need of change, advocates say3/27/2024 Staff Photo / A van is received by a guard at the Silverdale Detention Center, since renamed the Hamilton County Jail, in 2020 in Chattanooga. Hamilton County residents discussed bail reform Tuesday night. Many who are accused of crimes in Hamilton County are allegedly having their constitutional due process rights violated when bail is set — keeping more people in jail for longer stretches of time, advocates and a civil rights attorney said.
"The law as it's written is pretty great, but we all know that is not what is happening," Kiah Duggins, an attorney with Civil Rights Corps, said at a community meeting. "Even if you're found innocent, your whole life has been destabilized." Nonprofit Chattanoogans in Action for Love, Equality and Benevolence hosted Duggins and other advocates Tuesday night at the Camp House to discuss navigating bail reform in Hamilton County. Duggins has been speaking with General Sessions Judge Larry Ables, Chief Magistrate Lorrie Miller, the public defender's office and county Commissioner Warren Mackey, D-Lake Vista, about changing allegedly illegal bond practices, including not providing attorney representation when bail is set and long pretrial detention periods, she said. Recently, a federal court in the Eastern District of Tennessee ruled defendants are entitled to certain protections prior to trial. Since Hamilton County falls within that district, Duggins and other advocates said they hope stakeholders will fall in line with the ruling without the threat of a lawsuit. Those accused of crimes are entitled to assistance of attorneys, a finding on whether bail is unaffordable and a barrier to release, a finding on whether the bail amount is necessary to ensure the defendant's appearance, disclosure of the evidence, and the ability to confront and cross-examine witnesses, according to the federal ruling. Read more... Staff photo by Olivia Ross / Mai Bell II, an affordable housing complex in Highland Park, is seen on Friday, March 1, 2024. The lack of affordable housing has exploded into one of the most challenging problems facing America's cities.
Mayors across the country are being pressured to address the lack of affordability in the housing and rental markets. For a number of reasons, that task is easier said than done. According to home and apartment search engine Zillow, Tennessee rental prices in February averaged at $1,733 a month and inched up to $1,740 in March. That monthly cost is too burdensome for many families; remember that the average household income in Tennessee is a little more than $60,000, according to Census data. According to city data, Chattanooga is expected to have a shortfall of 7,000 affordable units by 2030. And between 2016 and 2021, one out of every four rental homes became unaffordable to households earning $35,000, according to data from the group Chattanoogans in Action for Love, Equality & Benevolence. Since 2021, the cost of rent has increased 30% — outpacing the 13% growth in household incomes. In 2022, Hamilton County saw the largest annual rent increase in the past decade, the Chattanooga Times Free Press previously reported. Chattanooga officials have heard the demand for more affordable housing, and after months of work, have developed several strategies to incentivize development of these housing units. Read more... |
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CALEB is an institutional coalition of faith-based, labor, and community groups working to build power to affect change in Chattanooga, TN. Archives
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