Good morning, colleagues.

We're calling together the meeting of the Jackson City Council Finance Committee meeting.

It is 11 a.m.

on Monday, July 27th.

I'd like to begin uh by thanking uh Councilwoman Tina Clay for leading the finance committee over the past year.

Um she's done uh a tremendous job, including getting us uh closer to be up to speed on our audits and uh helping us navigate some uh budget uncertainty.

So I thank her for all of her leadership.

Um colleagues, any other opening statements to speak in our meeting today.

Okay.

Um right.

Well, colleagues, Mississippi Code Section 213525 uh calls upon us if we as a governing body uh notice a um an expected shortfall in revenues.

Um it calls us at any time during the current fiscal year, but not later than the regular July meeting of the board uh to to basically rectify that situation.

And so um uh we've worked to do that, um, and a lot of that work I appreciate was was done uh under my predecessor.

And uh as she has shared, um, under the great work of Mr.

Tawasane and Ms.

Caldwell and others, uh we we've known for a while that there was an anticipated shortfall, and so they've been communicating with department heads and asking department heads to be as as conservatives and as prudent as possible within their spending.

And so the because of all of that wonderful work, the the work that we have left to do uh for tomorrow is simply codify the um the conservative spending that the department heads have already been operating towards.

And so um the agenda that you will see for the council meeting tomorrow includes item 49, which amends the fiscal year municipal budget, and it um uh does so in accordance with what we've been discussing.

And so the purpose of today's uh council or committee meeting is to just have an opportunity to dive into this to discuss this, to ask our uh CFO any questions that we have, make sure that we are all comfortable with this and uh and really have a chance to dive in before we vote on it ultimately at tomorrow's council meeting.

We don't have a deficit, so we don't necessarily have to do this, but I'm glad you're deciding to do this.

My next question is where are you uh proposing to take or how are you proposing to get to the one toil that we know we're at?

Thank you very much.

So uh Miss Caldwell has provided uh uh she she must have been burning their midnight oil because I got this email at three in the morning.

Um but if you look in the agenda packet, the first couple pages are the agenda item as it will appear on the uh council meeting tomorrow, and then once you get to a page that has a note on it that says report 727 26, that indicates the revised budget as well as the proposed amended budget and any difference.

So uh we can go line item by line item if anybody wishes, but this indicates where those uh amounts will come from.

Mr.

Chair.

Yes.

Good morning, Peter Taylors and CAO.

I want to um respond to councilwoman's first statement and refine the language slightly.

We do have a statutory deficit, and so this action is necessary because on paper we adopted a budget that was more than our revenues.

Everything else that both councilwoman clay and you have said about how we have controlled revenues is uh correct.

So I just want to say, and again, that's that's a very small refinement of the language, but I think it's important since we have a record being made.

So yes, we do have a statutory deficit, and the action we're taking is to codify everything that you two have discussed and bring us on paper in align with what the statute requires.

Thank you.

No problem.

We 112, we're good to go.

We'll look at it.

We appreciate your work.

Thank you both.

Uh no, no, good.

Thank you.

Any questions, Mr.

Foot?

Thank you, Mr.

Parkinson.

Thank you.

Um setting this meeting up and asking for some information from the administration.

And I've got this report I just locked in about 10 minutes ago, so I haven't had a chance to go down it in detail.

So we have this report here that goes about seven or eight pages.

And if you could, if someone could go through this and explain the different um items, uh I would appreciate it.

Well, the first column on the on the right hand side, it's got um revised 2025-2026 budget.

So that's the budget we're living under.

What when the revised is it the revival?

Was it revised?

Uh what when was the revision take uh happen when did it happen that we end up with a revised budget instead of just the budget?

Gillian Caldwell, CFO, during the course of the fiscal year, you have approved um multiple amendments to the budget.

Wow.

And so this revised budget reflects the amendments that you have already.

So it's that that's the budget we're living with, and it's been revised by the council.