Order this ad hoc committee.

I'll order the ad hoc committee for the uh FY26 amended budget.

Um let me thank all of my colleagues for being present coming to the table.

Uh let me just kind of briefly lay out the purpose of this meeting is to finalize and to set an alternate version of the budget compiled by Chairwoman Hill and sponsored by Councilman Davis and myself and hope hopefully gain the support of at least five of our colleagues.

Um what we're striving to do is find some cuts or reallocations in the budget while considering a modest tax increase in order to fund a much needed fire police pay raise.

So with that, uh if you'll look in your folder, uh you'll find several materials this afternoon.

One, I want to draw your attention to this Tennessee code annotated uh basically saying that the council does not have to approve a line item budget.

We can approve a budget that funds each department.

And so uh there is a uh paper uh in your uh budget book as well as in your folder that looks similar to this, and this is what we would replace the operating budget with a page that looks very similar to this that just allocates dollars to uh each am I trying to say each department and then um I had asked for uh many many of you were concerned about uh individuals or people losing their jobs.

I had to ask for a list of uh budgeted but unfilled positions in the city, which it currently there's uh like 18 million dollars worth of budgeted but unfilled positions and what I've done is gone through and we have highlighted in yellow uh positions that are currently uh in the process of of being filled or at least applying to be filled, and then I made a few more additions uh of things that uh I felt like we would want to pull out uh with everything pulled out of what I think uh may need to be pulled out, that still leaves about three million nine hundred thousand dollars, somewhere between three and four million dollars of uh budgeted but unfilled positions.

So that may ease some folks' minds about uh people losing uh their jobs for being cut.

So um you tell us the difference between these two versions.

Okay, so one more one.

So the version that's if you'll notice the little highlighted one down here at the bottom.

I went back through and highlighted positions that I did not feel like we needed to pull out of that.

That makes sense.

Which which this the one that's the there's a little high of one that's highlighted in the bottom.

The page number.

Okay, that that is the that's the one that I manipulated to come up with the three million nine hundred thousand dollar number.

That makes sense.

So everything that is highlighted in that version is pulled out of the $18 million.

Council Clark, you look like you I will just try to follow.

So everything that's highlighted that you have highlighted.

Well, everything that's highlighted.

Well, I'm some that the some that the administration highlighted that is that are currently in the process of hiring, and then there's some more that that I have highlighted.

I'll see if I can find one here.

Um page four.

out of the 18 million dollars council clerk you look like you I will just try to follow so everything that's highlighted that you have highlighted well everything that's highlighted well some that the some that the administration highlighted that is that are currently in the process of hiring and then there's some more that that I have highlighted I'll see if I can find one here um on page four there's under uh community development uh aquatic aquatics there's about three lines there that I've highlighted and the things that I didn't think need to come out of this which ones are your highlights council mine or mine are just the single proposal just like I took a highlighter and went through I see it's like that faint it's the faint blue that you notice it's yellow right here it's the yellow so had lifeguards from if it's try to make it easy if it has yellow on it it is pulled out of that 18 million dollars no it's staying if it's yellow it stay oh yellow if it's yellow it's stay in stays I was about to say okay well what I'm saying so there's 18 million dollars of budgeted but unfilled positions so positions that nobody's working in right now nobody's working in 18 million this is the highlight size but I boiled it down yes to about three million nine hundred thousand and that includes some of my markers does that make sense now yes can I have a question okay yep but you do have a phone she can go okay I have a question so I this is for me I I need to level set myself for this meeting because I need to understand kind of where we are and I got a lot of questions from constituent and things like that so I just need to level set this okay so in June we passed unanimously a budget correct am I correct you all nine of us okay so it was the budget that was passed it was flat no tax increase included all services what this is doing is going back wrenching back grabbing that budget open it back up and saying these are some cuts that we can make in here so that we can supplement the pay or supplement the uh fire and police plan fire and police plan okay and in that because in that original budget my my district got all the services so my concern is coming into this budget and making cuts I would say um and I'm gonna ask madam chair because she said because we'll never sit next to each other uh in this so you are proposing 10 million dollars well let's let's let's get into that just to get it I'm gonna I'm gonna turn it over to Chairwoman heel okay and I want her to explain this how we got to 10 to the 10 million dollars worth of reallocations okay then it's but all I'm but let me reset it you're you're correct okay we're gonna reach back simply because it was my understanding and this is this is on me this is this is a uh a I guess a uh something that I want to see an amended version that I want to put on the on the agenda that councilman Davis and I respond but yes it reaches back into a budget that we just passed because it was my understanding that we were just going to pass a budget to get us something to the cop troll so that we could then look at fire police pay and as councilman davis pointed out from this table we were told that the administration was going to roll up their sleeves and they were committed to finding half that correct that's right from the diet as well and and so what I'm doing since since they didn't follow through on that commitment that's what I'm trying to I'm attempting to do.

I'm rolling up my sleeves and trying to find half okay so so half of it will come from a property tax increase and half of it will come from cuts in the budget or or thereabouts.

Thereabout in so but I'd like for I'd like to kind of turn it over to councilwoman heel to to at least let's get into the meat of it and then if we have questions about what we're doing we can follow up from there because what I really want to leave here with something that we can place on the agenda that says alternate versions that has all of the numbers on it that we need.

Okay that include fire police pay raises so I'm gonna turn it over to councilwoman heel and councilwoman if you want to explain the two pages the um kind of the budget sheet and then the worksheet so we got budget amendment sheet and then we got budget amendment worksheet council one you'll take it from here I appreciate it.

Okay councilman I have a question for you and then you so we just got this information about the no line item the we don't have to pass a line item budget we can just pass a general department budget department budget and so the plan here is to pass a general department budget with the cuts and then allow the mayor to take the cuts that's correct or the department has to uh allocate that's the way to how they how they feel since they're the ones but okay so just again that's the that is the plan the proposal that we're making so they've done the work from January to May to bring us theirs and then we're gonna go back in that's right and cut it that's right but not tell them what to cut.

So just again that's the that is the plan, the proposal that we're making.

So they've done the work from January to May to bring us theirs, and then we're gonna go back in.

That's right.

And cut it.

That's right.

But not tell them what's a cut.

That's right.

That's right.

Does that seem reasonable?

I guess it does because we hear seem reasonable to move.

Okay, all right.

So I'm gonna give it all to look.

If if it doesn't seem reasonable to five of you, then we'll go on about the business one.

Okay, well, I just well, I will say the reason it doesn't seem reasonable is because it doesn't account for what is being cut.

Um because for me for districts that and I just want to say this out front at the beginning as Madam Chair gets into her details.

And I said yes in June to the budget, which was passed unanimously.

My people expected to get every single service that was inside of that budget, inside of that flat budget.

If you're going back and cutting out of the budget, and your district is okay, and that's okay, you gotta do what your people told.

We know we gotta do what our people told us to do.

So if districts one and district three and district two decide, hey, they need to cut the budget, then when I see this, I need to see line item deep cuts out of your district.

Okay, that's right.

That's right.

Let me let me go back.

Let me go back and reset this meeting.

Yes, please.

This meeting is to set um alternate version.

Okay, and that's the purpose of this ad hoc committee.

So set an alternate version.