The Chattanooga City Council met on Tuesday, February 10, 2026, for a business meeting that included a special presentation from Police Chief John Chambers on immigration enforcement and data, followed by a budget committee meeting covering financial policies, a bond update, and a budget research presentation. The meeting also included public comment periods and routine approvals.
Good afternoon, everyone. We'd like to call to order the meeting of the Chattanooga City Council for Tuesday, February 10th. I'd like to invite Councilwoman Dotley to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance and invitation. Thank you. We have uh we have quite a few folks here today. There are many days when we have a lot of people here, and I want you all to know if you don't regularly attend council meetings that we don't have a way to know why people are here. We are um considering uh we will be considering it strategic planning, adding an element to collect information on why people are here so that we can fill you in. Um but we understand that last week we had a lot of people who joined us for the meeting who wanted to talk about immigration enforcement and were frustrated as first-time council attendees at the way that our meetings uh work. So I want to just briefly let you know if this you're here for your first time. Um today we do have a special presentation from our police chief, and I believe our mayor is going to speak. Thank you, Mayor Kelly, for being here. But after that, um we will do a uh review of our agenda for today, then we will look at our agenda for two weeks, and then we will look at our agenda for three weeks from now, three to four weeks out. We are a council that works far in advance so that we are able to make very thoughtful decisions. Also, today we have a budget committee meeting that has a great deal of information on budget policies that um we've been working on for quite some time that I think that by the time we finalize them are going to be uh a smart choice for fiscal responsibility for our three. So we will work through all of that, then we will take a recess. Typically, our recesses are about 45 minutes long. Um when we leave here, we typically keep working. We've some of us have been in meetings since 9:30 this morning. Um meeting, meeting, meeting, meeting. So we will um be meeting um on some legal matters, and then we will come back. So that is how our day will go. We are glad you are here. If you are here and would like to speak, please know that this council does stay until the last person is finished speaking. We want to hear from you. Um public comment is a time for you to share how you feel. Um it is not uh set up to be a back and forth, but every one of us represents a district in the city and is available in a not just in this meeting today, but um in in other ways uh via email, personal meetings, phone calls. Um so please do take advantage of all of those opportunities. That said, I would like to get us started with our special presentation brought to us by our police chief John Chambers, and I believe that Mayor Kelly is going to introduce him and introduce this presentation. Thank you, Chairwoman. Um yeah, before you hear from Chief Chambers, and he's got a good presentation, I think we'll be very informative for everybody here, but I wanted to address some comments that were reported in the Towns free press about this complex legal landscape that we're navigating regarding state mandates and immigration enforcement. Um comments were from a much broader discussion with the editorial board there and without full context. So if I was unclear there, let me clarify. Like you, I've been deeply disturbed by the aggressive and violent nature of ICE tactics that we've seen in other parts of the country, and I never want to see that here. Any locally governed scenario is preferable to that, which is the point that I was trying to make to the newspaper. But these times just underscore the fact, frankly, that our country desperately needs a functional immigration system. We are in local government stuck in the middle until Congress acts to create meaningful immigration reform. The vast, vast majority of immigrants simply need a clear path to legal citizenship so that employers and immigrants don't have to continue to skirt the law in order to get by. And I sincerely hope this becomes a major topic in the upcoming congressional midterm elections and that federal enforcement efforts return immediately to peaceful and civil and constitutional methods. And as you'll hear from Chief Chambers, the Chattanooga Police Department is not and will not be an arm of federal immigration enforcement. Our officers are trained as guardians, guided by compassion and governed by the Constitution of the United States. Their job is to keep our neighborhoods safe, which depends entirely on building and maintaining trust throughout the community. But make no mistake, we are navigating a very thin line. We will fulfill our state legal obligations because we must, but we will do so without compromising the community trust that has taken us so many years to build. Our principles have not changed. We remain committed to constitutional policing, to transparent reporting, and to one Chattanooga where every resident, no matter where they started, can live with dignity and without fear. So the bottom line is this. And that means a city that is both economically vibrant and fundamentally decent. For those goals to be met, we must remain a welcoming and diverse community, and I will do everything in my power to make sure we live up to that goal. So I think now we want to hear from Chief Chambers. He's got a presentation to share with you.