City Council Committee - Regular Meeting

Are you able to move the slides forward? Okay.

Thank you. Amen.

Just FPL.

Oh, yeah, sorry. Federal poverty limit. Okay. So it's 400%. I don't know the newest ones, but I want to say it's around $100,000 for FPL. We're not getting too high, but what's unique about our program is the water is cut off at 200%. We're going up to 400%. We're capturing a little bit of the middle class. And folks that are still in my community, the plans are moving.

Thank you.

I know it went a little bit quickly. I was asked to give it five minutes. I just wanted to .

Thank you for that. And I hope you can see why I'm so excited about being able to hopefully use my grant funds in this manner. It impacts our whole city. It impacts over 12,000 residents. It requires no application from them. We were just going to be able to send out a letter and relieve them of that debt. The thing that I like to say, there's, you know, a lot of people talk about different kinds of ways you get in debt. Medical debt is never your fault. You know, it's not a moral failure. You got sick, someone you love got hurt, and You know, medicine is just the prices out there are skyrocketing. And as Dr. Warren spoke of earlier under the big beautiful bill, we're seeing people's benefits being cut back or eliminated or them not being able to afford to be on the ACA anymore. And all of that is leading to higher and higher medical bills. And in my travels across the state, I will tell you that I've met multiple people who have been bankrupt, who have lost their homes. because they had an asthma attack in a rural area and they had to be driven by an ambulance all the way into region one, or they had micro preemies. Met a man, he had two micro preemies. One of them had to be air flighted three times. It was $75,000 for each flight. He's just trying to keep his babies alive. So those are the kinds of things that can lead to you, especially if you're retirement age and you don't have any way to stretch the dollar. it being really impactful. If you are, as you say, people who are at or below, right above the poverty level, what that means is the difference in being able to continue to make your rent, continue to make your car payment. The last statistic I saw in Tennessee was 60% of Tennesseans cannot afford a $300 emergency. you can't have an emergency room visit for $300. Dr. Warren will tell us, I'm sure. So I'm really, I'm hopeful that you will support me in being able to use my grant funds this way. As you know, we get about 200,000, I believe we've all given some to the Hub North, and I plan to have the rest of mine go to MLGW's Plus One program, again, so it can be used throughout the city. But I just think this is such an incredible program and will help so many people immediately. But if you have questions, Dr. Warren and then Councilwoman Cooper-Sutton, you're in the queue.

Thank you. When I saw this, I was trying to figure out how $200,000 was going to help the $1.2 billion or however much this was. And I guess the business model of this is that you're buying debt from people who already bought the debt for the collections. Is that right? So you're paying the collections off, and when you do that, it relieves them of their bill?

Can we also purchase that directly from health care? Yes.

You've got to get close.

We also purchase that directly from. So as they sell their debt to you, right, they sell it for pennies on the dollar, correct? Yes.

Just the way that they normally do to all these other guys who are trying to get all your money. So that's one of the things to realize is when they sell this debt to these collectors, the collectors get most of the money if someone's able to get it, and the hospitals get very little, or they get some of it, or the doctor's office. It's pennies on the dollar. So this is still a real debt that this person's got in the back of their head. So this is huge. So, I mean, in my mind, if this is going to Memphis residents, I see no reason why this as a charity shouldn't be used other than you didn't apply in time. So this is one of those that didn't apply time, and Councilman Ford will back me up that sometimes things come after our dates that we got to take care of and we got to think about. So this would be one that I would be more than willing to say, thank you for bringing this, Jerry. It's a great idea. We should have this every year. And maybe instead of you having to spend all of your $200,000, is if all of us gave $10,000 to this, or however much it would take for each one of us, you would still have some other things to be able to give out if you'd like. So I'm willing to volunteer some of my funds for that purpose if you're interested. All right, thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Councilman Warren. I'm trying to be very careful this year in where I give out money, so you save yours this year. Councilwoman Cooper-Sutton.

Thank you, Chair. The question that I have is I think if I'm not mistaken, as I walked in. So no one has to apply. So what is your debt amount what determines who gets paid and who doesn't? Okay, so you're gonna buy all the debt files from our hospitals here in Memphis? So in particular, which hospital, which clinic, which area, which hospital have you determined?

Right, so for this particular program, work with philanthropic organizations It just requires a little bit of an investment from a city and a municipality.

Maybe if we can pull up the heat map again so you can see where.

Yeah, because I missed that because I want to know what area, you know, who is going to be eligible because I know you don't have to apply for it. But where in Memphis and what zip code?

So there's the zip code map. And maybe you can explain the poverty level again.

Yeah, so we purchased that for anybody that's 400% FPL. So who are you partnered here with now, nationally? Okay. Okay. Okay.

And so the earning is four times the federal poverty level, right?

Okay.

All right. Thank you.

Thank you. Are you? I'm done. Thank you, Chair. Councilwoman Walker, you're in the queue.

Thank you. Quickly, I just wanted to add, you mentioned something about bankruptcy. Actually, nationally, bankruptcy is, excuse me, medical debt is the number one reason for bankruptcy in this country. Thank you. Are you on the floor?

Yes, and I've also read that it's the number one thing in Tennessee that we set up a GoFundMe for. Councilman Ford, you're in the queue. I am fine with using my grant funds. I would prefer this year, if the council agrees. As you know, I have other things going on, and I want to make sure that I am being as upfront as possible with the grant process. I understand that more. Yeah.

When nobody but two people did. I'm glad he was here.

Me too, Councilman Ford. Me too. Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman.

I'm not running for nothing else, but I might run for mayor. I'm going to put it out there right now.

Breaking news.

I don't want to be the mayor, but don't make me.

Councilwoman Logan. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for your presentation. Do you all keep demographic information, and is that available to the public? Do you have demographic information from other municipalities or cities or projects that you've done that is open to the public? Okay, thank you. You can send that via email. I said you could send that via email. I'd appreciate it. Absolutely.

And they have a great website, too, where you can go see the other cities and places that they've done this across the country. I am not sure.

Because that's something that is a part of our contract. So the city has that. So we don't make that public ourselves at this time. But different cities have. So I'll share with you a couple of dashboards of different cities that put together that highlight it.

Councilman Warren.

Just very quickly, I'd like to point out that this is one of the great ideas that Councilwoman Green will bring to the state as governor. I mean, this type of thinking is the type of thinking we need in Nashville. Thank you very much.

I bet. I'm a councilwoman today, wearing that hat. Okay. Well, with nothing further, I am going to close down this committee, and then we'll reconvene for budget. Thank you.

Good morning, I hereby call the budget committee to, okay. Good morning, I hereby call the Budget Committee to order. Ms. Dearborn, will you please call the roll? Thank you. Councilwoman Green.

Present. Councilwoman Walker. Present. Councilwoman Swearengin-Washington. Present. Councilwoman Cooper-Sudden. Councilman, that's Dr. Warren and Councilwoman Chair White.

Present.

Thank you.

First, we have a resolution to approve the allocation and appropriation of FY27 Memphis City Council Community Grant Program funds to support medical debt relief through undue medical debt and to allocate the remaining funds to MLG&W plus one program, all council districts sponsored by Councilwoman Green, request for same-night minutes. Can I get a motion and a second? Got a motion from Chairwoman Swearengin-Washington, a second from Councilwoman Green.

Councilwoman Green, you're recognized. Thank you. We just had a presentation on this, so if there are further questions, we still have our representative here. I would like to make a motion to make this same-night minutes so that we can get this done quicker for the people who are in need. But again, I am hoping to allocate my grant funds to be able to pay off $17 million of medical debt for Memphis residents who live at or near poverty level and the remaining funds to go to the MLGW plus one program as utility costs continue to rise.

Can I get a motion and a second on the request for same night minutes? Well, yeah, thank you with that objection. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed, say nay. The ayes have it. This will go down with a favorable recommendation. Easy for you to say. Right, with the request for same night minutes. Thank you. Next, we have a resolution to allocate and appropriate $2,587,000 in city council community grant funds to non-profit agencies for FY27, all council districts, sponsored by the Memphis City Council. That item will be held until September 1st. Next, we have a resolution transferring FY27 capital improvement program budget allocations from CIP project number IT01006, continuous improvement cover line of $300,000 to CIP project IT01007, operational infrastructure fix, all council districts sponsored by the administration. Can I get a motion and a second? Got a motion from Councilman Warren and a second from Councilwoman Walker. Who do we have from the administration here to speak on this?

Good morning, my name's Augustin, a deputy chief of IT. So this is just the cover line that we use for emergencies. So when there are fiber breaks or any emergency network equipment, that's where we use it for. So it's just to move it to the IT-006 because we cannot spend from the cover line and just appropriate it and use it, start spending it on the network infrastructure equipments, so.

Okay, so what is the fix? What is it that's being fixed?

So, you know, when there are fiber breaks, right, so if a community center has a fiber break and they cannot get to the internet, we have to have some funds that we can use for emergencies, and this is what we use for that emergency.

So you're saying this is the transfer of $300,000 to the fund to be available when such emergencies arise.

Yes.

How much is in that fund now?

about 90,000 remaining from last year's 300,000. So these are ongoing that we use because we cannot sometimes determine where we're gonna have breaks. So we use this as a cover line for that.

Okay, and what cover line is it in now? It's in the... I thought it was moving from...

So it's moving from six to seven.

Right, and that's what I guess I was confused about, because the continuous improvement cover line for operational infrastructure fix, like what's the, because it seems like what you're saying is the continuous improvement.

Continuous improvement. So from my understanding from the finance division, we cannot spend from that cover line. We have to move it. We have to, when we are doing the request, we can request in the cover line, but we cannot spend from the cover line. So when we are ready to spend, we have to transfer it to the operational, yeah. So that's what we're doing now.

Okay.

Point of information, Madam Chair.

Go ahead.

And my understanding that what he's saying is that this is money that's been allocated for emergencies, but it has to be moved to a different cover line to be able to spend it. Yes. So it's already an emergency allocation, but it's not in a place that you can actually spend it without our permission. Yes, sir. Okay, thank you very much.

Right. All right, we got Councilman Ford in the queue, then Councilwoman, oh, they joined. Councilman Ford, senior joined, Councilwoman Logan joined, and then we have Councilwoman Swearengin-Washington in the queue and then Councilwoman Cooper-Sutton in the queue.

Is there a way that you could give us the specific need and then we approve it accordingly as opposed to just moving $300,000?

So the specific need, you know, so as I explained earlier, it's For most of our city facilities where we support IT support, the emergency breaks that comes, like contingent breaks that comes, we cannot project how much we're going to spend. So that is what we use. So if, say, Leicester Community Centre, there are fiber breaks. We don't put it on the parks department. We have to spend the money to repair it. And these fiber breaks do cost. Just maybe half a mile fiber break can cost about $60,000. So we put in this money just in case there are any breaks. Then we can immediately spend that money without having to maybe put it on the divisions. So that's what the needs are for.

And is your team the one that's repairing the fiber?

We work with other, because we don't repair fiber, but we use third parties to do that. So ProTech is one of our third parties that we use for fiber repairs, and there are other local companies that we use also.

Thank you. Councilwoman Cooper-Sutton, you're recognized. Thank you. I think...

So there's an emergency right now. Is that what you're saying? First, there's an emergency?

No, not right now.

All right, not right now. So you're taking it from project number 06 and you're putting it in project number 07. Yes. That's correct?

Yes, ma'am.

So if there's not an emergency, why are you moving it?

Well, so that we can have access to the money so that when there is an emergency, because if a library, like the Central Library, has a fiber break and citizens cannot get online, we need to immediately, we don't have a week to come and request for the money, right? We need to immediately get with a third party to have it repaired. So we want to have the money available so that we don't, yeah. Okay.

So you want to have the money available. So if emergency never happens, is this money moved back into project number 06? Or are you just going to keep it there?

We don't move it back, no, ma'am. Okay.

And so you all don't do the work yourself? You hire a vendor or someone local? Yes, ma'am. Okay. All right. Well, there's something else I want to ask, but I'm just trying to make sure that I word it correctly. So if it breaks and you have to fix it, we are not aware of it. You all just go ahead on and just do what needs to be done? Yes, ma'am. Okay. That's what I wanted to know. Thank you. I yield.

Thank you. Councilman Warren, you're recognized.

Yes, I just wanted to make sure, like, had you exhausted this line? Is that why you're coming to ask to move the money? You used to have money in this line, or you never had money in this line before?

So this is 90,000 from last year's $300,000 that we requested.

So it makes sense to me. So what's going on is this is their emergency line. It's their day-to-day checking account. And we know they've got a certain amount of emergencies that happen, and it's in the budget, and we budgeted that. Now they're saying we spent our checking account. We need to move from the savings account to the checking account.

Absolutely.

Okay. And so we need them to be able to do it because we don't want them to wait two or three weeks while our system is down to come and ask us for approval to fix it. All right. So I'm content. Thank you very much.

Thank you, we got, okay, that's everyone in the queue. I think everyone understands, it makes sense to me, that you all need this money and available for immediate use for when there is an emergency, because we don't know if maybe a week or two before we come back and those things, so we understand. Go ahead, Council Member Cooperstead.

So we. Yeah. Yeah. So every year we come for $300,000 just to have money available. And I can give you instances where a truck run over one of our fiber lines. And then the truck, they're not going to pay for it, but it's on the city to repair it. Well, sometimes the citizens don't really care who repairs it. They want to make sure they get online. So, for me, I just want to make sure that we have the funds available to call our third party vendor that we have a fiber break. It's been down for about an hour. I don't want it to be down for two days. So, we can get to it quickly and repair it. Yeah. Yes. So we do maximum request every year, $300,000, right? So 300,000 for a year. The 90 that we are talking about is we are currently spending that right now because we have another emergency that we are going to use that for, but we are out. And so we just need this to continuously support some of our community centers and really any city facility that we have.

Thank you. Seeing no other council members in the queue, all those in favor of this item, say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed, say nay. The ayes have it, and this will go down with a favorable recommendation for our next meeting on September 1. Thank you so much. Have a good day. Lastly, we have an update on motor vehicle registration fee increase for matter funding. All council districts requested by Councilwoman Cooper Sutton. We don't need a motion since it's just an update. Councilwoman Cooper Sutton, you recognize.

Thank you. I just wanted to just kind of. understand, and oh, you're there, because when this was done, it was done in our budget, and it put a hardship on most of our citizens and community. It went from, I think, 130, I got there, to 160-something dollars, and with me being in the car tag place yesterday, I saw a lot of people that was really struggling. So I wanna know where this money is, how much is in there, and if the fees, The auto fees, thank you. Are the auto fees collected by who and who are they remitted to? Yes.

Sure. Art Davis, CFO, City of Memphis, 125 North Main. You're being handed right now a... bar chart that shows the adopted budget and actual collections for FY25, 26, 27, and also for FY24, just as a matter of comparison. So you'll remember back in August of 24, Council approved coordinates to increase the fees. And the expectation was that the revenue would double. Well, you can see at FY25, there was a significant increase over 2024, but it was only to $16 million, leaving a $10 million gap. So the question is, why did that happen? Again, just as a reminder, the Shelby County Clerk's Office didn't implement the change until March of 2025. So we didn't get the full benefit of the year for that increase. Again, expecting to have an increase of double the amount from FY24. In FY26, the adopted budget remained at 26.6 million. So, after a year of having the new fees in place, again, we see a significant increase in the amount of collections. It went to 21.4. However, it still did not double the anticipated budget. However, if you look at the 21.4 compared to the year before the ordinance was done, it's about $2 million short from doubling the actual. So there has been a significant increase. It just wasn't the $26 million that was expected when the ordinance was written. So understanding the trend for FY27, we lowered the adopted budget to 21.4. or just $21 million, and of course we'll be monitoring the collections against that. I think the next question that is asked is, what are we doing to make sure that we get all of our money? So the money is collected by the Shelby County Clerk's Office, and each month they remit to us the previous month's collection. We get two different reports from them, one from a company called I3, verticals, which is the processing company that provides us all the details of the transactions being processed. And then we receive an internal document from the clerk's office. We then reconcile those two reports to look for any deficiencies and to confirm that the amount being remitted matches these two independent reports. We will continue. You heard me say a couple of weeks ago that one of the efforts of my tenure here will be to make sure that we collect all the money that is due to the city. We began doing that with the tax. I've sent y'all an email about some of the efforts we're doing that. And this will also extend to making sure that any of the agencies that are collecting money for us are reporting and that we're collecting that as well. We'll continue to reconcile the two reports. I've asked our team to start looking at monthly collections, both in number and in dollar value, so that we can see for trends over the last three years. And we can use that to monitor trends in FY27 moving forward. So are there any questions that I can answer at this point?

Yes, I have three. Okay. The first one is, did the city recoup any fees related to the six-month delay in implementation?

Not that I'm aware of.

Okay, so we need to find that out. The second question is, was the impact of the increase codified for matter benefits? If so, where and when? Okay.

So are you talking about the ordinance was passed for AFR 27?

Yes.

Okay, so.

The ordinance, was it codified? Specifically saying that this money will be, well, I don't have to explain to you what codified is. The question is, was the impact of the increase, and if you cannot answer, you can come back, or you can send me an email to let me know. Was the impact of the increase codified for matters benefit? If so, when and where?

I can't speak to any of the codification other than what was in the omnibus resolution that was passed for F-127.

So we need to look at that to see if it was codified. And my third question is, how has the additional revenue added the pursuit of matters operational stabilization?

So in the resolution that was passed for the FY27, the first $10 million for collections from the auto registration fee was to be used to fund MATA. It was not in addition to... or replacement of the $32.6 million that was in that. So we have set up the accounting procedures to move that first $10 million for the support of that, $32.67 million support from the city for MATA.

Okay.

And this is kind of strange to me. Even when this was brought up and done, I just had some time to meditate on it. I got my own paperwork here. I got my own research done. If this is a Shelby County, because if this is Memphis, and Shelby County, Memphis is Shelby County, this should have been done on both sides. Because who's taking the burden? Unincorporated Shelby County, it did not happen. increase anything for them but the poor citizen on memphis city side i was in the driver's license place yesterday and most of them were elderly people because this is kind of around the first of the month and the hardship that i saw them taking that amount of money and we talk about we want to relieve our people of any kind of burden or hardship this is a huge hardship I didn't agree with it when it happened, and I understand MATA is not a revenue generator. And we understand, and I understand that MATA has a lot of work, and it has come to a point where I'm just relieved and excited about what's happening with it now. But I'm just asking my colleagues, we're gonna have to review this increase, look at it again, because it has caused a burden with food, medication, DAS, and everything, when I went in that, in Whitehaven, in that despicable place yesterday, and I sat in there, with the constituents and heard their complaints about how expensive this is, and I don't even know if the trucks, because that was another thing that I was asking about back then, were the trailers and the trucks and all of this, what does that play a part in? Was it an increase for them? Where is that money going? And so it's a lot of unknown and you don't just burden one group of people and you don't burden the entire Shelby County. And this has been it's just it's just very disturbing to me, especially what I experienced and what I saw yesterday to go pay a tag. And you got three and four and five cars and someone like me that has three vehicles left. And so I really want the originator and us as the city council to really look at this and to really think about what was done to the people here and how it has impacted and affected them and to really reconsider what has been done. I'm not trying to throw shade, I'm just talking about facts, what's happening in our country. And we're talking about all this and preaching about all of this and we're wanting to reduce. This here is a hardship on the registration fees. And so we need to, those three questions, I need you to find out about the second one. And I will... Really want my colleagues to think about what happened and what has been done to the citizens here in Memphis with this registration increase. And then I need you to find out on the trucks, delivery trucks, all those other items that were on there, I want to know where they impacted and what that increase looked like. And I need a dollar amount on that as well. Thank you, Chairwoman.

Thank you. I yield. Thank you. Let the record reflect that Councilwoman Green has joined us. Councilwoman Logan, you're recognized.

Thank you, Chair. Brief question. Thank you for this presentation. Update, rather. Would you say, or do you think it's premature to say that the $21 million is a trend? And I'm asking because I see that we reduced it to $21 million. and the original And the only reason why we didn't reach it in the first year, FY25, is because they didn't start collecting. The second year showed a significant increase. It seems like it is trending up toward that 26, but to bring it down to 21 because it's trending, I heard you say it was trending, it seems to me it's a bit premature to determine how it's trending after just one year.

I think that's a very good point. And typically, when we're looking at a budget, we're looking at a three-year average. Obviously, looking at a three-year average here would not be a good right, because we don't have, we really had one, and it really wasn't a good year to do it. So I think for the FY27, we picked the 21 as where to land, because we thought that was the most conservative since we had collected But I do think that as we begin to look at this on a monthly basis, we'll be able to compare to the trend that we had last year to see if it is trending up. If we start seeing some trending up, then we can consider full impact in the fiscal year of that trend. But I do think it's a little early to say whether we're going to have another increase, but I am very comfortable that putting it at the 21 million was the most conservative approach for the budget process.

Thank you. Seeing no other members in the queue, thank you so much Councilwoman Cooper-Sutton for requesting this presentation. We have no other matters before the Budget Committee and this committee is hereby adjourned.