The Mobile City Council Finance Committee held its second meeting in two weeks to continue reviewing the proposed FY2027 budget. Council members questioned administration officials on specific budget items, discussed potential amendments, and debated priorities such as public services, municipal enforcement, transit funding, and performance contracts. The meeting lasted approximately two and a half hours and included detailed explanations of revenue streams, expenditure trends, and federal reimbursement processes.
Thank you, sir. All right. So thank y'all for coming again today. Um, this is our second f uh second finance committee meeting uh in the past two weeks. Um obviously the budget is on the agenda. Um it was laid over like uh for one week. Um it'll be back on agenda next week. Um uh the members of the finance committee, um, it would be me, uh the chairman, um, council member Reynolds and Councilmember Ingram, and then uh everyone else um is is joined us here today. Um since last week we we obviously uh just kind of recapping we we heard from uh from the finance department um uh regard the budget questions were asked. Um we did kind of run out of time last week. Um so in the effort to in an effort to try to streamline the process, make sure that everybody's time is efficiently used and appropriately used. Um council members submitted questions uh over the past week. Um I remitted them and I know uh Keisha remit them as well to the finance department, and we've gotten um we've gotten answers on that. Um and uh I'll uh we'll we'll talk about uh potentially posting these um at least on the council web page, um, so that at least um you know the the questions that were submitted in writing, uh everyone would would have access to review them uh once they're posted as far as uh over the next week or so since we're we're coming on a budget vote. Um uh last week uh council member Reynolds and Councilmember Ingram um asked questions. Uh there was a couple spot questions that brings us up to today. Um so that being said, uh I will open the open and turn it over. I would ask council members obviously we've scheduled or set aside two hours for this meeting. Um obviously want to make sure that questions get answered, but uh if we can uh concise questions, um that way we can uh we can kind of to have more directed questions, and then I guess um also as a favor on the on the administration side, um if we could keep answers uh pretty concise as well, and then um that way we'll maximize our time together. Um I do have a gavel today, and um I will use the gavel. But uh but anyways, but I I do appreciate everybody's time last week. Thanks for the good questions. I thank you, Logan and your team for all y'all have done so far on this, and thank you for getting these these uh questions answered. Um with that, I'll turn it over. We'll start with council member Penn. Um let him if he if he'd like to kick kick us off. We'll get your turn. Yeah, you took all the time last time, Mr. Runnels. Um thank you, um chairman. Um I did submit some questions and majority of my questions um were answered. Um I understand I want to make sure that the the public kind of understand the one of my questions was about the metro jail, um the increase from 10 million to 15 million. Um can you just share the reason why um it shows that increase page nine. Um that increase is in line with the trend. I put the numbers in this question, so not the amount that's gone to the jail. The past years, I think it's like 13, 14, now tracking toward 15. The county runs the jail. If I say anything wrong, Robert can jump up and uh but the county runs the jail, and then we get an invoice each month for the detail of the cost for the month, and then our bill for 35% of the cost that deal tracks back to 1989 when before the jail is built. And that was that was just the deal. So the it was budgeted 10 million last year. I wasn't here last year. I don't fully understand that. Um it was under budgeted. I think part of it, there was a new ankle monitoring program, which the city put in $800,000 for last year. The continuing annual cost for that is $170,000. I heard there was some hope that that would help temper cost. I'm not sure by four or five million, but um, I mean, we haven't seen any any decrease since, but you know, possibly it was budgeted lower with some hope that that might help temper the cost. But in total, it's trending towards 15 million this year, and that's what we budgeted. So when you say trending is um is it expectations that every year is gonna go up? Is it based on a percentage?