Chattanooga City Council Meeting - April 28, 2026
Chattanooga City Council Meeting - April 28, 2026
The Chattanooga City Council met on April 28, 2026, for a regularly scheduled meeting. The agenda included a special presentation from the Risk Management Department, first and final readings of ordinances, resolutions, purchases, committee meetings (Affordable Housing and Legislative), and public comment. Key topics included the creation of a new Southside Cowart neighborhood parking district, a proposal to amend landscape architecture requirements, and updates on affordable housing programs.
Consent Calendar
- Minutes: Approved as published from the previous meeting.
- Ordinances on First Reading (8A, 8B, 8D): Closure and abandonment of right-of-way segments on Azalean Drive, Stringer Street, and a third location were approved. Item 8C (Truant Street) was deferred to May 5, 2026, after Councilwoman Dotley requested additional time due to concerns about potential landlocking and steep grades.
- Ordinance on Final Reading (7A): Closure and abandonment of the former belt railway right-of-way and 200 block of Northworth Avenue was approved.
- Resolutions (9A–9E): Approved, including CDBG/HOME funds (~$3.1 million), American Battlefield Program grant sponsorship, a change order for softball concession stand ventilation, and appointments of special police officers.
- Purchases: Four purchases approved: grounds maintenance increase, risk management software, a citywide wireless services agreement with Verizon (3-year, $1M annual), and a vehicle disablement system for police ($65,107).
Public Comments & Testimony
- John John Musolowski (District 9): Suggested a parking benefits district for the Southside area and proposed a revolving loan program for accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to increase affordable housing.
- Joshua David Capellish: Advocated for a shelter for the homeless, noting that many unsheltered individuals are disabled, elderly, or veterans. Urged strong leadership and action.
- NIPS (District 4): Shared personal experience with homelessness and criticized systemic barriers such as lack of ID, unaffordable rent, and conditional shelter services. Called for solutions like accessible ID programs and rent stabilization.
- Emily Vyland (District 7, PTA President at Battle Academy): Thanked council for the parking ordinance consideration and expressed relief that the school community would not face ticketing under the proposed plan. Remained open to future compromise.
- Jenny (District 7): Supported the Southside Cowart parking program, describing the multi-year community process and noting safety and enforcement benefits. Encouraged council to reconsider.
- Graham Hartness (landscape architect): Opposed the proposed amendment to allow engineers to prepare landscape plans, emphasizing the technical training and accountability of licensed landscape architects and the city's sustainability goals.
- Joe Sawyer (landscape architect): Testified about his 36 years of experience and argued that landscape architects provide value and that multi-discipline firms already offer integrated services.
Discussion Items
- Risk Management Department Presentation: Greg Wisnap presented achievements including $243,000 recovered in subrogation (2024), $126,000 (2025), $262,000 in insurance premium savings, and plans for fleet cameras, digitized safety programs, and a citywide online training platform. Councilwoman Hill questioned the budget ($4.2 million) and ROI, noting the numbers seemed small relative to the investment. Wisnap explained subrogation recovery timing and camera costs (~$200 installation + $2.65/month per vehicle). Discussion also covered workers' compensation claim trends and cybersecurity coverage.
- Southside Cowart Neighborhood Parking District (Ordinance 8E): Councilwoman Dotley introduced an alternate version with accommodations for Battle Academy: the school would cover costs for parking tags and up to 20 paid parking spaces for teachers; no intent to ticket school visitors between 6 AM and 6 PM. The Southside Cowart Neighborhood Association supported the program, while the Battle Academy PTA and several business owners opposed it. Council members expressed mixed views, with concerns about impacts on the commercial corridor and enforcement logistics. Councilwoman Burrs proposed an amendment to delay enforcement to August 10, 2026, which was defeated (the chair abstained; amendment failed). The main ordinance then failed on first reading (the chair voted “no” with other opposition).
- Landscape Architecture Ordinance Amendment (Legislative Committee): Councilman Harvey proposed to allow professional engineers to prepare landscape plans at the discretion of the Director of Land Development, reversing an intentional change in the 2024 zoning code. Discussion focused on competency assessment, cost savings, and potential impacts on design quality and city review processes. Council members raised concerns about relying on the director’s sole discretion and suggested an appeal process or waiver committee. The committee took no vote but continued discussion.
- Affordable Housing Committee: Megan Miles provided updates on three programs funded through the budget amendment:
- Eviction Prevention Initiative: Launched February 2026; supported 89 families with average assistance of $3,000. 44% of recipients were employed; common crises were job loss and health issues. Program includes legal aid, rental assistance, and case management.
- Critical Home Repair Program: 27 homes repaired, 29 in process, targeting low-income seniors. Repairs include roofs, HVAC, and accessibility upgrades.
- Down Payment Assistance Program: Up to $15,000 deferred loan for first-time homebuyers earning ≤120% AMI, to be used in Chattanooga. Layered with THDA state funds (up to $6,000). Onboarding lenders in May. Councilwoman Hill encouraged longer-term affordability measures such as community land trusts. Councilman Clark noted the $400,000 home price cap may not work in all districts. Councilwoman Burrs asked about equity across city departments.
Key Outcomes
- Ordinance 8E (Southside Cowart Parking District): Failed on first reading. Councilwoman Burrs recommended further negotiation among stakeholders.
- Ordinance 8C: Deferred to May 5, 2026.
- Ordinances 8A, 8B, 8D, and 7A: Passed.
- Resolutions and Purchases: All approved.
- Next Steps: The administration will present the FY2027 budget at the May 5 meeting. The landscape architecture amendment will continue to be discussed. Affordable housing programs will be implemented with further information sessions.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon, everyone. I'll call to order the April 28th meeting of Chattanooga City Council and recognize Vice Chairman Elliott to lead us in our Pledge of Allegiance and invocation. Please join me. So they're probably for which it stands. All right. And welcome to everybody. For anybody who might be new, just a reminder as we get started here, please check your cell phones, make sure they're off or silenced. And I'll just give kind of a brief overview of how our meetings run so everyone knows. We do have a special presentation that we'll do right off the bat here in a few minutes from our risk management department. And then after that, we'll go through and approve our minutes from our last council meeting. From there, we'll look at the agenda for this week's meeting to answer any questions or concerns, address any concerns anyone might, any council members might have. And then we will look at our next week's agenda and do the same thing, addressing any questions and and comments as they arise about items on next week's agenda. Following that, we'll look at the purchasing items that are on our agenda for tonight. And then finally the future considerations items. So ordinances or resolutions that are coming up three weeks from now. So we'd like to work ahead and make sure we're well prepared. And so we go through that process every week. After we do that, we do have a couple of committees that will be meeting today. And then the legislative committee, which will be led by Vice Chairman Elliott. From that point, we will take a brief recess. During our recess, a lot of times we'll have an attorney client meeting with our city attorney. After all of that, at the end of our meeting, we do have a period for public comment. We're happy to hear from anyone and everyone who might be here to talk to us about any given issue today. So when we get to the end of our meeting, I'll just ask for folks to line up at the podium down here up front. We'll have our city attorney read the rules for our public comment session, and each member of the public will have three minutes to talk to us about whatever they would like. So from there, let us start with our presentation from our department of risk management. Greg Wisnap, uh City Risk Officer since December 1 2025. So I've been in it for a while and I'm enjoying it. Can't wait for more. And some of the tools that I'll talk about today will make will make an impression on how we're going to be able to do that moving forward. So we want to do everything we can to make sure those things are happening. The rest team pursues subrogation. Make sure I keep up with my slide here. Subrogation aggressively. In 2024, we recovered 243,000. In 2025, recovered 126,000. And remember, sometimes these accidents are not fully developed. So that means recovery from 2025 will still be coming in as we move forward. So sometimes it's six months, sometimes it's a year before we recover some of those funds. So we'll see that as we continue on. In 2025, we negotiated lower insurance premiums with the savings of 262,000. So when we go to market with our insurance, we've got our broker, and we sit in there and we talk about he helps us work on all the different types of insurance carriers that are out there and let's just come in with the lowest cost so we can uh save money in that area. For example, one settlement negotiation included $53,000 auto claim. The demand was $53,000, but we were able to settle it at $45,000, which is it's a fair and consistent process of how we go through handling those claims. And they they do uh my team does a very good job, I think. Currently, COIs are handled by each department. Risk management is proposing to bring them all into one digitized system. Uh you'll hear me talk about digitizing the enterprise. I uh I want us to I'd love for us to move more and more closer to using electronic uh programs uh that can that can help us share all this information across the board. The COIs uh basically certificate of insurance.
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