On June 16, 2026, the Chattanooga City Council convened for its regular meeting, highlighted by the unanimous approval of the Fiscal Year 2026-2027 operating budget and capital improvements budget. The meeting also saw approvals of a lease for a new senior center at Eastgate Town Center, a property donation for homeless services, and several other resolutions. Mayor Tim Kelly delivered remarks emphasizing the budget's focus on public safety, road investment, and no tax increase. The council also heard public comments from seniors, city employees, and others.
I call to order the June 16th, 2026 meeting of the Chattanooga City Council, and I'd like to recognize Councilwoman Dotley to lead us in our pledge and invocation. Timothy one and seven says thank you. I'm so sorry, Mr. Chair. Did I get my leg? Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you, Rick too. Second Timothy 1 and 7 says, For God, for the Spirit of God gave us gave us for the spirit God gave us, does not make us timid, but give us power, love, and self-discipline. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we love you so much. Thank you for walking with us today, working with us today, Lord. And we pray for this meeting. We pray that it is done in decency and in order. And God, we pray that your love reign over this council and over this city, that we can treat each other with love, care, and compassion, God, and without fear, God, do what you've called us to do. God, we love you so much, and we thank you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Okay. Um, as we get started today, we are honored to have with us Mayor Tim Kelly to give us a few words about our budget, I believe. So, Mayor. Thank you very much. And then again, um, thank you for your hard work and forbearance through this process. Chairman Davis, budgetary Henderson, and budget vice chair Clark, uh, everybody involved, and each each and every one of you. Uh, and thanks also to my staff, Kevin Roig and and uh Mandy Green and particularly Weston Porter and his team in finance for doing the heavy lifting. Uh, this is the sixth budget of my administration, and it delivers on the core promise of the one Chattanooga plan that we introduced back in 2021 to put our money where our mouth is and focus relentlessly on our key priorities. Uh, this budget makes good on that promise. And together, we are building on our shared vision of the kind of city we believe Chattanooga can be a city where opportunity exists for everyone and where prosperity is plentiful. Uh last year we worked hard to calibrate property taxes to ensure we could appropriately invest in our first responders and essential services, adjusting for massive macroeconomic headwinds, including, of course, that staggering surge in the cost of municipal materials of over 30 percent since 2020. And notably the sunsetting of all that pandemic era federal relief. Uh yet, through lean discipline operations, this fiscal year 27 budget balances the scales and manages our momentum without a tax increase. With this budget, we will demonstrate our belief in the people who serve our city. Since 2020, we have increased starting salaries by 46.5% and average salaries by 43%. So maintain that wage competitiveness and close the workforce gap. This budget delivers a citywide 3% cost of living pay increase across the board for all civilian and sworn city employees. Uh this budget will also honor our commitment to invest 10 million a year uh in road quality, building on more than the 50 million dollars my administration's already invested into paving and improving our roads. Uh we will also prioritize our core responsibilities and essential services. It is notable that public safety and public works comprise nearly 60 percent of this budget. We're also showing our commitment to partner with each of you and advance the goals of the constituents we share in each of your council districts. Uh look, no budget is perfect, as you well know, but every budget reflects our true priorities, and we've made the tough trade-offs to protect core municipal services through a relentless pursuit of efficiencies and internal uh administrative savings, including significant reductions to uh the mayor's office budget. The bottom line is this. We're we're running, as we've repeated here uh many times, we're running a lean operation that keeps our property tax flat at a buck ninety-three despite ongoing inflation, so Chattanoogans can keep more money in their pockets. Despite inflation, we've produced a balanced budget by tightening our belts that takes care of our first responders and civil servants, fixes our roads, and protects the high quality of life that makes Chattanooga the best city in America. So I respectfully ask for your vote tonight to approve the fiscal uh 27 budget so we can continue moving forward towards one Chattanooga. Thank you all very much. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Okay. And again, welcome to everyone who's joined us this evening. Um, as we typically do, we'll just provide kind of an overview of how our meeting will run, as you'll know what to expect. Um, so our meeting is broken up into two sections: the uh agenda session and then the business session uh during the agenda session, um, which will begin here in just a minute.