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.

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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.

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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.

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Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly and his staff are celebrating what they consider to be a big win in their push to boost housing supply.

After working intensely for three years to build support for rewriting the city's decades-old zoning laws, Kelly's staff watched new zoning regulations pass the city council unanimously on Tuesday without fanfare or open criticism, at a time when mayors and governors across the country have struggled to get similar efforts off the ground.

The "historic zoning reform" will be "transformational," the city's news release after the vote said.

By allowing for different housing types within the same zone and reducing lot size requirements for a single house from from 7,500 to 5,000 square feet in the urban core — 7,500 to 6,000 in the suburbs — the new regulations could encourage the construction of more houses on single-unit lots and more townhomes and apartments wherever the new multifamily and mixed-use zones are eventually applied, Chris Anderson, who spearheaded the project for the mayor, said in an interview.

"Everyone who wants to live in Chattanooga should be able to live in Chattanooga. That has been the guiding principle for changing the zoning code," he said. "People are moving farther out. Firefighters can't afford to buy a house in the city."

With the new zoning regulations, nobody's lots or rights change, Anderson said. Instead, the new zones will give the same or greater entitlement by allowing more uses.
Still, the application of the new zones is yet to be determined, he said.

Homeowners who have been following the process closely don't yet know what it will mean for their neighborhoods, but the city has assured them that no property will be automatically rezoned as a result of the new laws.

"I am not really fearful, but I think it will mean different things to different people," said Janice Gooden, an East Chattanooga neighborhood leader following the process. "The intent is supposed to be more options."

​Read more here.

...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.

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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.
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• Read the memo

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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.

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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...

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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.

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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.

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