Metropolitan Council - Regular Meeting

If you are looking for the printouts of the wish list, those are being printed as we speak. So we're going to move forward with our finance presentation. So we will go through the finance presentation first, and then we will dive into the wish list items. I know there's at least one council member that won't be here tomorrow. Oh. Here we go. Council Member Suarez. And so she will go first when we get into the wish list items so that she can defend her state. No, just explain her items that are on her wish list. So I will turn it over to the finance folks. If y'all are ready. All right. And if you could introduce yourself, you have the floor.

Hello, I'm Aaron Pratt, the budget officer. And with me, I have Ken Hartlidge, who is the assistant budget officer and of course, finance director Reed. We're going to walk through just a very high level presentation that's supposed to give a little bit of grounding to the work session. IN REGARDS TO SOME OF THE AVAILABLE FUNDING SOURCES, SOME OF THE ONES THAT ARE KIND OF, WELL, ONES THAT ARE RESTRICTED AND THEN SOME OF THE ONES THAT WE WOULD PROBABLY WANT TO BRING SOME CAUTION TO. IN ADDITION TO THAT, YOU KNOW, WE WANT TO TALK ABOUT SOME OF THE STRUCTURE AND JEANINE, DIRECTOR REE WILL DEFINITELY TALK ABOUT SOME OF THE FUND BALANCE AND SUSTAINABILITY AND HOW THAT'S PLANNED FOR THIS YEAR AND THEN IN THE FISCAL YEAR 28 AND FORWARD. So we're going to start out with just general budget objectives, things that we try to do each budget year, try to improve upon, sort of our guiding principles in each budget year. I'm going to stand up because I can't really see that. So the objective of our budget mostly is just to evaluate all kinds of funding scenarios, requests, transitions through the department's lens and also through the fiscal lens. What we're trying to do is evaluate those scenarios to maximize community benefits, you know, policies, making sure we are adhering to the policies of Metro, making sure that we are fiscally sustainable, And then as well as, you know, just trying to mitigate, you know, organizational and operational risks. We just want to make sure that what we're putting for before leaders is the best value for the request that's being made and that we can actually defend or advise upon the long term impacts or changes to our impacts of that request. It does work. Again, this is just kind of a framework that we use just asking ourselves questions, some of the evaluation areas of community impact, you know, what's the benefit good or what's the gain of the public. Fiscal sustainability is always one we constantly question, constantly evaluate. Is the funding source recurring at one time? How sustainable it is? You know, the operational impact, we work with the department not only in the budget process, we work with them on an ongoing basis to understand what was funded in the prior year, how does that add on to the current year request, and whatever that may, whatever the request that they are asking to for in the current fiscal year, how is that going to benefit the long-term goals of that department? And then other things we look at, of course, is, you know, legal. We work with our legal department to make sure that, you know, some of the requests or some of the changes that are being proposed in the budget modifications by departments can be allowed and then exposure and then, of course, always risk tolerance because we understand that there's a lot of needs around the department and around Metro. So we always got to figure out, you know, what's the maximum benefit that we can get out of the request versus the limited funding sources we have. I ALWAYS LIKE THIS QUOTE, A BUDGET IS TELLING YOUR MONEY WHERE TO GO INSTEAD OF WONDERING WHERE IT WENT. IT GOES PRETTY FAST WITH ALL THE REQUESTS. THIS YEAR, THE BUDGET ALLOCATIONS KIND OF HIGH LEVEL. It's actually funding the compensation package. A lot went to safety, schools, housing. We understood in fiscal year 26 this year's budget that there was going to be an ARPA transition that needed to be funded in fiscal year 27 because those funds are going to be rendered obsolete 630 of this year. And then transit, of course. And this is just a slide that was in the previous presentation that we made to council. But it just tells the growth of revenues over the last couple of years, especially if we're looking at 26 to 27. 27 is that last bar. You know, the limited revenue sources we have for this fiscal year, this projected fiscal year, and the amount of need that there was, this mayor's recommended budget put the maximum amount of benefit into this year's budget with this limited revenue source. And this was also a slide in the presentation we did. I just wanted to make sure that from Apple's perspective, I took the just six tax supportive funds to make sure that from the 26 current year budget at 3.79 or 3.8 rounded up to this year's budget, the projected budget 3.84, THIS IS THE BUY FUND CHANGE FOR EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE FUNDS, THE SIX TAX SUPPORTER FUNDS, AND IT DOES INCLUDE SUSTAINABILITY AND RESERVE REPLENISHMENT AND OR USE. WITH THAT, I'M GOING TO TURN IT OVER TO DIRECTOR REED SO SHE CAN TALK THROUGH THE NEXT TWO SLIDES, WHICH IS ABOUT THE FUND BALANCE AND THE SUSTAINABILITY.

Hello, everyone. I feel like I've worn you guys out on fund balance and budget sustainability. But just as a reminder, our fund balance policy, we originally approved it in 23, re-approved it in April of 2025 last year. does require that we keep operating reserves at 17%. That's on the general fund, schools fund, and the general fund in the USD as well. And then on our debt service funds, we do keep 50% in those reserve funds. Why do we do a higher percent in the debt service funds? Well, that's because you have to pay debt service, right? Like you have to pay debt service in the event of some kind of economic downturn. So we set those fund balance levels there. This budget that's before you maintains those levels at the 17 and 50% and does let us use quite a bit of fund balance in the budget this year. During the budget presentation, we did talk about how this is the fund balance appropriation is a one-time use, and we have matched those up with other one-time use to make sure that our budget is structurally balanced, meaning that recurring revenues will equal recurring expenses on a go-forward basis. So I want to reassure you that that fund balance appropriation there is really for one-time uses. If anyone wants a refresher of those numbers, please let us know and we'll be glad to send that around or it was in the budget presentation deck as well. And then on the budget sustainability, we held these flat year over year from last year to this year. We did 2% in all the general service district funds and 4% in the urban service district funds. The reason we are keeping budget sustainability here is that we envision using budget sustainability next year in FY28. We're assuming that our revenue growth is going to be similar to this year in terms of FY26 to 27, and then 27 to 28 revenue growth will be pretty consistent, which means we will need to use budget sustainability next year as we try to continue to grow the budget. So I just wanted to point that out. All right, Aaron.

Thank you. I know this is a very busy slide. I tried to add it on here as best I could, but I really wanted to just call out that this year's budget included a 1.5% budget efficiency reduction to all departments. The need to do this was important because in order to sustain and make sure that this was a sustainable, in order to sustain the current level of service and also make sure that the budget is fiscally sustainable, we had to make sure that we did reductions to permanent expenses across all departments. So this actually lists out by the department and how we work through the methodology. So if you look at the top columns, fiscal year 26 budget, that's kind of the projected ending budget for each one of those departments. In fiscal year 27 adjustment, we removed any one-time expenditures from those departments to come up with a total new amount. And then ANY FISCAL YEAR 27 MAYOR ADDITIONS OR BUD MODS APPROVED, THOSE WERE ADDED INTO THE ACTUAL TOTAL GOING ACROSS TO COME UP WITH THE FISCAL YEAR 27 DRAFT EXPENSES. AND THOSE ARE THE EXPENSES THAT WE BASED THE 1.5% BUDGET EFFICIENCY REDUCTION OFF OF AND IT'S NOT INCLUSIVE OF PAY PLAN BECAUSE THAT HASN'T BEEN GARNERED OUT YET AND OR THE INTERNAL SERVICE CHARGES. THESE ARE DEPARTMENT REDUCTIONS TO THE GENERAL FUND GSD AND THEN THE TOTAL WE REDUCE ALL DEPARTMENTS BY IS $20.6 MILLION IN THE GSD. SO NOW THE SUBSTITUTE BUDGET. I WANTED TO JUST THROW THIS SLIDE UP HERE BECAUSE I WANTED TO MAKE SURE, AND WE TALK ABOUT THIS EVERY YEAR, SOME OF THOSE ADMINISTRATIVE ACCOUNTS THAT ARE NORMALLY TARGETED FOR ANY KIND OF REDUCTIONS TO FUND OTHER ITEMS IN THE BUDGET VIA THE WISH LIST, SOME ARE REALLY RESTRICTED AND THEN SOME ARE VERY CAUTIOUS. um so the health and health and life health and life insurance amount that's the total combined amount that's the amount that we actually need to a restore fund balance for some of those for the funds and also make sure that we have enough per the benefit for an increase to fund at least top level um the current employees for metro Also, the injury on duty claim, that is actual restoration of fund balance, but also that is an amount that is to fund projected costs for fiscal year 27 based on our fiscal year 26 experience, which is high. There are charter related contributions. Those are like a Venture Science Center symphonies to make sure that those amounts, those are restricted to make sure that those amount meet the charter requirements. The 4% allocation is 4%. Normally it's a little bit above, it has been above, but that is 4% and that's charter. We have to maintain 4% of the revenues in that fund. So those are restricted. Our tax increment payments, those are the MDHA and IDBs. We have to make sure that those are maintained as we've gotten those from those organizations. Satellite city payments, those are restricted based on the resolution, based on the contracts with those satellite cities. We gotta make sure we make those payments. Tree canopy, that's restricted at 1.5. I believe that was a resolution that upped it from 1 million to 1.5. Economic incentives. Legally, we have to budget those economic incentive amounts. Used or unused, we have to budget those amounts. Legal reserves, the legal reserves have been built up over the last couple of years and there have been use of those reserves within the last two years of being built up. This is to maintain the confidence ratio that the actuaries who work with the legal department state that we should have in order to weather any known or unknown claims. So we are budgeting that amount that's in administrative account. And then lastly, correctional healthcare, that is restricted. The current contract is $41.7 million. There is nothing to, there's nothing there that is excess. And that was a contract that was up from 32 million this past year. And it was negotiated with a new vendor. And that new vendor amount is $41.7 million for fiscal year 27. So I wanted to put this slide up here because I want to recognize the work that my team does and that the finance director and leadership have to go through. These are the amounts of the requests, actual modification requests that we see year over year. And as you see, it doesn't go down. It fluctuates a little bit, but it doesn't go down. So from 2023, we generally get $100 million of requests in the general fund. GSD only does not include MNPS, and this does not include the administrative accounts. This is just department GSD. 2026, we spiked at $248 million. AND THIS YEAR WE SAW ABOUT $167.5 MILLION WORTH OF REQUESTS. AND THE BOTTOM PORTION IS THE ALL OTHER FUNDS. AGAIN, DOES NOT INCLUDE MNPS OR ADMINISTRATIVE FUNDS, BUT THOSE ARE THE INTERNAL SERVICE FUNDS. THOSE ARE SOME OF THE FUNDS THAT WE TRANSFER OUT TO WASTE. AND IF YOU SEE THAT SPIKE IN 27, THIS ALSO DOES INCLUDE CHOOSE HOW YOU MOVE. SO THAT'S KIND OF WHY IT WAS STEADY FOR A COUPLE OF YEARS AND NOW IT'S STARTING TO SPIKE BECAUSE IT HAS ITS OWN REVENUE SOURCE. But I wanted to convey this as the amount of requests that we have to work through every single year to make sure we understand what the request is, how does it impact the general fund, GSD, which is our most flexible funding source, and then how does it affect all other funds. And then for this, I wanted to just provide an example currently of the budget, two budget scenarios. One is the budget as an employee of $50,000 receiving a proposed compensation package of 3.7% and then benefited through medical, dental, life, pension at 21%. What these projected increase would be for that staff at $50,000. And then also I did want to give an example, a specific example of I CHOSE OUR COMMISSION BECAUSE, YOU KNOW, THEY HAVE A VERY TIGHT BUDGET, BUT HOW THE EFFICIENCY REDUCTION WOULD IMPACT THAT DEPARTMENT BECAUSE THEY HAVE A TOTAL BUDGET OF $5.7 MILLION AND THEIR BUDGET IMPROVEMENTS FOR FISCAL YEAR 27 IS SLATED AT $141,000. But the 1.5% reduction scenario or efficiency scenario is 88.1. So based on that, they're above the line. Personnel amount is $2 million. That's all they have for above the line. They have maybe a vacancy, but they don't have much vacancies. But they're below the line, which is a lot of their grants that they distribute to the community is $3.7 million. So in this scenario, they'll have to make a decision of how to achieve the efficiency reduction and still maintain the level of service that they think is adequate. And we'll work with them throughout the course of the year, or the seven months, Right now what we're doing is there is a question and answer session on June 1st where I'll be doing a host for those departments to talk about the efficiency reductions. What does that look like? What are their amounts? And pretty much we're going to work with those departments to understand the potential plan and the impacts. But this plan will not take effect until after the budget is passed because with the wish list and with any other floor amendments that may happen, we don't know what the final budget by department will be. So because of that, we have to start the conversation with the departments to allow them the flexibility to move and maneuver. But this will be an ongoing plan. And then after true up, which is July, we'll have a documented plan with those departments and offices that will monitor over the course of the fiscal year, because attrition happens or vacancies happen over the course of a year. And we would want them to be as flexible as possible to adhere to those vacancies without impacting personnel as much as possible and without impacting the community services that they provided. And again, this is just a calendar. Right now we're heading up to the public hearing session. Right now we're in the first work session. Again, I just wanna say I appreciate all the work that you all put into this process. This is a very intense process and the work that you guys do is really important. I really appreciate your thoughtfulness on this. And with that, thank you.

All right, and thank you, budget officer Pratt and director Reed and all your staff for the hard work that you do put into the budget to the council office staff and really appreciate y'all getting us to this point. So colleagues, it is time for us to dive into the budget wishlist request. My goal is to between today and tomorrow to get through all of the wishlist requests so that on Thursday we can start prioritizing THOSE REQUESTS AND REALLY DIVE INTO DISCUSSION ON WHAT SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN THE SUBSTITUTES. MY GOAL IS FOR THE SUBSTITUTE TO BE A COLLABORATIVE DOCUMENT SO THAT FOLKS DON'T FEEL THE NEED TO DO AMENDMENTS AND OTHER SUBSTITUTES. SO THAT IS THE GOAL. SO IF YOU ALL COULD DIG IN AND WORK WITH ME ON THIS SO THAT WE CAN PRODUCE A GOOD BUDGET FOR THE CITY. Council Member Suar will not be able to be here tomorrow, so I've told her that she can go through her budget, her wish list items first. So we will start with you, Council Member Suar, and feel free. We have page numbers, so you can go through the entire document. Just tell us what page you're on so we can follow.

Thank you, Chair, and thanks to the finance team and everybody else, and thanks, colleagues, for being here. And tomorrow is a religious holiday for me. Muslims have two main holidays in the year, the after-fasting one, Ramadan, and then this one that we're going to have tomorrow, which technically commemorates the story of Abraham and Isaac. And they're cleaning up the RAM and all of that stuff. So we'll be eating a lot of RAM tomorrow. So I don't want to be here. So thanks for letting me go first. I do want to say that in putting this wish list together, there are two things that I try to do. Officer Pratt. sent me the list that I requested of the budget for the last five years. But one of the things that I also asked for was the actual as of March 2026. And so I took the actual out of March 2026 for all the departments and I prorated where I thought they should be as of March 2026 compared to where they actually are. And so if I see that there's something that is less than where I think it ought to be, then I feel comfortable saying, okay, you're not spending your 2026 money all the way, so I think I'm comfortable trying to take a little bit of it. Now, again, the budget chair and the finance will make that determination, but that is how I came up with some of the allocation. Same thing for the benefits, Officer Pratt. Thank you for telling us not to touch those places that we usually go. But when I look at the March 2026 spending, the administrative account, which has the benefits, right now sits at about $311 million out of a $470 million budget. I prorated that to be that if I'm doing it nine months at March, it should be at $352 million, giving me about $41 million unexpended. That is just administrative. I'm not going line by line. And so for me, when I look at that to say I have $41 million left in March 26th and the budget is grown from $470 in 26th to $536 in 27th, That's the thought process. You may not agree with it, but I wanted to let you know how I came about being comfortable stealing money from all those accounts. And so for my wish list, the first one will be on page one. And this is $25,000 that I'm requesting that we add to the budget for the fairgrounds. This came out of the Youth and Local Government Day. Last year, we have students from MLK. This is when students actually are trying to be entrepreneurs. They have crafts. They make jewelry and things like that. They try to sell it at fairs and things like that. But there's a barrier to entry because they have to pay boot fees and things like that. And so I spoke with council office and we're trying to figure out what can we do about this. It's not something we can legislate, but how do we help them? So I've had a conversation with fairgrounds, and they're willing to take this on. What this $25,000 will do, basically, we sit in the fairgrounds budget, and when we have students that want to participate in farmers market or any of the fairgrounds events, this money will pay for their boots or vendor fees. so they can participate. I did look at fair grants budget. The budget went down, the subsidy went down a little bit from last year. That's why I did not feel comfortable telling them to try and find this themselves. And so I thought, I look in contingency utility and that one has some money in it that was a whole lot more than last year. And that's where I'm proposing that we take that from. So I hope you all will support this. This is supporting our youth and our students. And then my next one is on page three. No, sorry, four. This is $60,000 for the museum study. As some of you may remember, we actually had this in the budget last year. This is for the Museum of African American History, Civil Rights, all of that together. And so we put $60 million. That would be great. Okay. I would love that. We'll build the museum. That would be great. So this is supposed to be for a study as to where we need to put it, what we need to do. And as you may remember, the historical commission office, we went through a lot of transition for that office last year while we were moving into planning. And then the director also left. So we never got to do anything. But towards the tail end, He had introduced me to Mr. Gross, who actually did a study a while back for PACS. So the Black Caucus met with him. We had a conversation with him. The work is continuing. The conversation is continuing. But this $60,000, since we did not spend it last year, I'm hoping that you will allow us to put it back this year so that he can fund that study. The next one that I have is for GH. It's a $7.8 million. And basically what it is, is this is conversation talking to even the labor unions and everything. As some of you may realize, we did not get a lot of push from labor this year with regards to color and races and all of that. And so I called them and I'm like, you guys typically call us by this time. And it's because the union and everybody is doing like a... What's the word for it, Tamika? Solidarity budget, where everybody's looking at where is the most need. And the most need was identified to be GH. 2% of this is to retroactively take them back to where they should have been since 2005. And then 5% is the cola race for this year. I did ask the question, why are they getting 5%? When Metro is only getting 3.7, because we have 1.7 plus two marriage races to be 3.7. And the reason is because GH typically do five flat. They don't have marriage races. And so when we give 6%, they still get five. When we give three, they still get five. And so that's where that numbers came from. And I took the liberty to take Mr. Pratt's... BENEFIT ADJUSTMENT IS WHERE I STOCK THAT IN BECAUSE THAT AMOUNT LOOKS TO HAVE ABOUT 21 MILLION FROM LAST YEAR AMOUNT. THE NEXT ONE THAT I HAVE IS ON PAGE 7. THIS IS A NEW THING THAT WE'RE LOOKING AT. I can't remember her name. She's sitting right in front of me. Sandy Ewing. So I've been talking to NLC, LP Housing, and looking at some of the programs that they do. And so at the last conference that we went to, we had some more conversation with them. And they have this program, which is a Compass program. It basically helps cities look into how to make policy in an holistic way, making sure that everybody's brought in from the beginning so that whatever departments we're looking at, how does it affect another department? My frustration sometimes is that Sometimes when we try to pass bills, we get on the floor and the department didn't even know that this bill is coming. We've not done our work talking to everybody that is impacted. And so how do we make sure that this is done well? So Council Member Sandy Ewing and I were talking and she said, look, I would like something that helps. How do we put this together and how do we do something better with it? So in talking to NLC, they do have this new compass program that basically will train not just elected officials, but everybody involved in how do we get a good policy that gets everyone buying. We've had a meeting with the vice mayor and Mr. Wilson and Ms. Orell here have been part of that conversation. The amounts that they quoted for us was $36,000, but the vice mayor was very cautious and so was Mr. Wilson because we do not know where we're going with the state on whether we'll be sliced or not. So we put in a request to them to give us a mini version that we can just try out this year, and then we can go full force next year when we have a new council. So that's what this is. Now, they did not give me the amount for the condensed version yet, but I wanted to talk about it and have a placeholder. It's most likely the amount will be less than $30,000. But this is a good tool that will help all of us. My goal is... We try that now, but next year when we have new cancer people in, from day one, they get trained on how do you make a good policy, how do you put a bill together that looks at every aspect of it from day one. That's what this software will do for us or this training will do for us. And so I hope I have your support on that. Taking it from utility, but I don't care where my damn budget chair takes it from. As long as it gets done, I'll be happy with it. And I'll give you the final amount. Going quickly. There's a 580 on page 8 for MNPS environmental program. I see a lot of my colleagues are supporting this as well. I had a conversation with a bunch of people about this. It's very important. There are two things that I'm looking into. One of the things that I asked them to get for us before June 2nd The compost impact, we're looking at how much will it cost to have fridge or refrigerators in schools, maybe even do a pilot at Bellevue and try that out to see if we can do that piece. We're wasting a lot of food from the schools that are going to the dump instead of being taken care of. So this is one that I support. But I do think the money should come from MNPS. I did not try to find money from anywhere else. I think that MNPS should. fund this. Now, if they come back with a smaller amount that is just the food waste part of it, then I'll be more than happy to adjust the next wish list that I have. But I am in support. But I think I just didn't look anywhere else. I think MNPS should do this. It's something that I support. Where am I? I'm almost done. Yeah, I had 12. I know. And then I'm on page 11. This is for the National Office of Entertainment, $250,000. And in looking at my analysis of the May 2026 spending compared to where it should be, I saw some money in the mayor's office. And so I asked the mayor's office to consider funding that. Again, wish list. I'M ALMOST DONE. RED FROGS. RED FROGS IS A PROGRAM THAT IS VERY GOOD DOWNTOWN AND IT HELPS WITH THE SAFETY OVERALL DOWNTOWN. DURING THE BUDGET HEARING, I ACTUALLY ASKED CHIEF DRAKE WHAT ARE SOME OF THE PROGRAMS THAT WE CAN DO THAT CAN ALSO HELP WITH SECURITY THAT IS NON-LAW ENFORCEMENT. AND RED FROGS WAS ONE OF THE ONES THAT HE ACTUALLY MENTIONED AS AN EXAMPLE. AND SO I'M HOPING THAT WE CAN FIND A WAY TO FUND THIS Again, looking at my analysis as of March 26, looking at departments that have leftover funds, and these are programs within those departments that I think could be funded. So I hope that the MMPD can, if this is a program that works, that helps, that is security, that the MMPD can fund this to $50,000 from their budget. It's my ask. And then, I think that's, no? Oh, no? 15? 16, oh, thank you all. 16, this is, oh, so this one is a program that is currently happening with the Office of Homeless Services. We actually talk about this during the budget, during our meeting last time, where they have these tiny homes by villages at Glencliff. Metro is using three of the homes, and it houses about 12 people throughout the year. It's $250 a year, and I remember during that conversation on the floor, Council Member Kupina talk about somebody else that need it. So there's more need for this. And so I found that talking to Reverend Ingrid, that they actually have 12 units, Metro is only using three. And they're okay with letting Metro have an additional three. And I talked to Director Calvin today just to get her take on it and what she thinks about it. She's open to it, which is great. And I think it's a program that will continue to help our homeless services. And in terms of funding, it's a great program. I THINK OHS CAN FUND THIS FROM THEIR MONEY. AGAIN, GOING BACK TO MY 3-30-26 ANALYSIS, IF I THINK A DEPARTMENT HAS MONEY, RATHER THAN PUTTING NEW MONEY, I'M JUST SAYING CAN YOU REALLOCATE OR REPRIORITIZE AND THAT'S ONE OF THEM. SO IF WE FIND NEW MONEY, THAT'S GREAT, BUT I THINK OHS, I'VE ASKED DIRECTOR CALVIN TO PLEASE MAKE THAT A PRIORITY IN SPENDING FOR 27. 18. Thank you, Chair. 18. Oh, I have two. I have two here. The first one is $500,000 for the specialized social housing staff. We have a $7 million in the budget for the new loan, revolving loan that the mayor has put in. Very grateful. But there is a conversation about going towards not just working with developers, but city-owned social housing. I know that there's conversation with director of finance. I know there's things tied up with our loan. What's that thing? the bond rating. Thank you. See, I talked to everybody. I can't remember who I talked to and what I said. And so there's still so much going towards getting that done. But in the meantime, there's a request that we have a specialized staff for this that will be working towards that. So that's something that is a reality, just getting ourselves towards making that happen. The second item on there is you got... $8 million for bonds fund. I support bonds fund. I believe it should be funded at $30 million. Council Member Allen and I had the pleasure of being on the task force and the suggested amount was at $30 million. And I do believe that for every dollar that we put in there, it is actually leverage to get additional funding. And so it's not just the money that we put, the money goes and get more money. And so I want the $8 million. I did not put a funding source, but I'm hoping that But I want folks to know we need to fully fund it, so I want to keep it on my list. And then the eviction right to counsel program. Thank you all so much. I see a lot of my colleague putting this on there. So I'm hopeful that we'll get something done. There will be a presentation to the planning department, to the planning committee next week, where we will present in the start report that shows the impact of this great program. It's a very good program. It's helping a lot. And the mayor has been very generous to actually include in the budget. So we have 2.4 million in the budget, but to fully, fully fund the program is 9 million. and for it to be able to have the impact that it needs to have. And so the difference between the $9 million that is needed and the $2.4 million that we have is the $6.6 million request that you have there. And in terms of where I'm taking it, I know that I'm being bold. We have a subsidy for the East Bank development, which is one of the subsidies that Mr. Pratt talked about. But I'm thinking in terms of the $300 million that the state has allowed us to divert to East Bank. I know most of that $300 million is for a special project, but it also includes staffing and all of that. So East Bank will be getting $300 million this year due to the state law. I think we can take that $2 million that we have and put it in housing. That's what I think. And so if they will let me, that's why I wanted to take the 2 million for the eviction right to cancel. And then 250 from Office of Homeless Services. Director Calvin told me she's not going to let me have it because I did tell her I was going to take it, and she said no, but I gave her the heads up. And then the rest of it is coming from contingencies. And then Chief? Ma'am? 23, thank you. I'm almost done. Sorry, everybody. I'm not even asking if you have questions, but I'm just going out to it. 23 is the program we saw. This is with the contributor, and they're losing their benefits. And so I believe this is, again, everything that we do that is preventive, proactive, so people don't end up on the street. We spend more money when people are homeless, when they can't pay their fees. So anything that we can do to prevent that I think is a good investment on our part. I did have a conversation with Dr. Arreola about this. He agreed that it's a very good program. He agreed that it should be funded and said he would do everything that he can to support this effort if we so choose it. So this is 350, asking for it. Consistent, I'm very consistent with my analysis. I go back to my 326. I saw some extra money in the health department and I called Dr. Arreola and I said, I would love for you to fund this within your program. And I hope that he does. And so that's why the funding source is still the health department. And that's about cover. That's all of it for me. If anyone has any question on any of them, I'll be more than happy to answer them. Or you just say, hi, hi, I'm in support. Thank you.

ALL RIGHT, THANK YOU. COLLEAGUES, FOR THE SAKE OF TIME, WE'RE JUST GOING TO GO THROUGH THE WISH LIST ITEMS AND THEN WE'LL BE DISCUSSING ON THURSDAY, STARTING ON THURSDAY. OKAY? SO WE'LL CUT OUT ALL OF COUNCILMEMBER SORROW'S ON THURSDAY. OKAY, SO GOING BACK TO PAGE ONE, UNDER FIRE DEPARTMENT, WE HAVE COUNCILMEMBER EVANS. I know there are a lot of duplicates, but if you have a duplicate item when we get to you, I noticed that the funding sources are different. So just for the viewing audience, I would still like you to repeat your wishlist item and what your funding source is. And also if your cost is different from a colleague, if you can explain where your cost is coming from. All right. Council Member Evans.

Madam Chair, I'm also supposed to speak for the Women's Caucus today. Do you want me to talk about Women's Caucus as I go through or come back to me later for Caucus? There's overlap, so I can reference it.

Okay, if you come across a Women's Caucus item, if you could talk about that as well.

Okay, thank you. So the first item on page one under Fire Department, I have adding $75,000 to Nashville Fire to add one mental health care professional with EMS to be focused on the downtown core within the entertainment district from Thursday to Sunday for $75,000 and the funding sources, judgments, and losses. On page two under Health Department, I have... Sorry, was there a question? My apologies, Councilman. I see you're grouping it. Got it. Okay, never mind then. So I'm done speaking now. You'll come back to me later.

Council Member Coopin.

Thank you, Chair. I believe only one of us gets the Councilman Suara treatment, so the rest of us will go in order. Thank you for that. So mine is also the $75,000 for REACH, and I know Councilman Suara has also been working, as I have, with Nashville Downtown Partnership for downtown. The REACH program, for those who don't know, for the viewing audience, works with mental health co-op. to have a mental health trained professional to go on fire EMS and PD calls. I spoke to mental health co-op and they shared that they often find themselves, especially downtown, three, four, five calls behind needing a REACH individual. And they have calls that don't get responded to by REACH because of lack of staffing. And so that's obviously downtown has been a big challenge. But it's also important to me that the downtown partnership is part of this. And so their discussions underway to see if perhaps they can put some funding into it. So we're trying to set up a matching grant where Metro would allocate 75,000 for it. And then downtown partnership would allocate a matching grant of 75,000. Discussions are still ongoing. I know Councilman Suarez has been hard at work with them as well. But I think this would be really important addition to our downtown, especially from a community safety perspective.

And what's your funding source?

I was taking it from self-insured liability, but open to whatever we figure out.

All right. Council Member Spain.

THANK YOU, MADAM CHAIR. MY ADDITION FOR FIRE IS 395,700 FOR ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR MEDICAL SUPPLIES, EQUIPMENT, AND MAINTENANCE. AND THAT AMOUNT BASICALLY BRINGS THEM BACK TO THEIR FY26 BUDGET. AND THAT USE WAS THEIR NUMBER ONE PRIORITY ON THEIR REQUEST LIST. IT'S, YOU KNOW, IN THE FACE OF A $238 MILLION BUDGET, $400,000 an overwhelming amount, but it's at least a recognition of the vital service they provide, and we're not asking them to do more with less than they are in the current budget. And I propose taking it out of judgments and losses.

Thank you. Council Member Webb.

I'm going to ditto what he said. My 1.5 was part of the $400,000, and then the other 1.1 was for the PPE safety equipment. You know, not only putting... The PPE safety equipment is the last line of defense for any fireman. It's for the fire, the heat, the chemicals. And with Nashville growing and everything, these firemen need the best equipment. And we don't spend a lot of money on keeping that maintained and keeping that up to date. And along with that, if we maintain the better equipment, that will cut down on workman's comp claims, that will cut down on injuries that some of them have because they have the best equipment. SO THAT'S WHERE I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THAT GO, AND I AGREE. I DON'T THINK WE OUGHT TO ASK THE DEPARTMENT TO DO THE JOB THEY'RE DOING WITH LESS MONEY THAN WHAT THEY'RE ALREADY DOING FOR 26. WE'RE WAY BEHIND IN WHERE WE NEED TO BE ON THE SAFETY OF THE FIRE DEPARTMENT.

AND WHAT'S YOUR FUNDING SOURCE?

YEAH. ACTUALLY, LIKE YOU SAID, IT COULD EVEN CUT DOWN ON CANCER RATES. THERE'S A POSITIVE TO HAVING THE BEST EQUIPMENT FOR THE FIRE people that put their lives on the line for us every day and of course I had to pick a pretty big source I picked the Barnes Fund which I had mixed emotions about because everybody knows I like the Barnes Fund but and they need it but we're just putting it out there right now and then we'll see what we come up with everybody starts throwing stuff at me Councilmember Gamble

Worker at the general sessions. Oh, thank you. I'm not talking on the speaker. Let me start over. Thank you, chair. I have one item under general sessions court, uh, for a social worker. Judge Robin Kimbrough-Hayes came and talked to the Black Caucus a month or so ago about the need for a social worker at the court. Apparently, we did fund one social worker at the General Sessions Court last year. However, they really need another one. What this social worker does is after a client or somebody comes through any of the courts, all eight of the courts, so it's not just her court, and they have a judgment, whether it's, you know, whatever the judgment is, a lot of times they don't know what to do next. And the judges and the attorneys end up trying to figure out for them what to do, where to go next, what to do next. So these social workers help navigate. They're like navigators for people who come through the court. So they really need one, an additional one. It would be $60,000. My funding source is the contingency account, admin contingency account, which It really, it was a list on the options of to draw from, but it really, I couldn't find in the budget where it says exactly is in that account. I did see on the administrative glance that last year there was $500,000 that went to a public private partnership thing. So that's the 500,000 that I was identifying could 60,000 could come out of that for this. Thank you.

Okay.

Council member Evans, we're back to you.

Thank you, Chair. Under our health department, I have a request for $60,000 for the Pet Community Center from the Self-Insured Liability Fund. And this is to provide 20 additional spay and neuter slots a week for dogs and cats in Davidson County. For residents earning less than $80,000 a year, that is where Pet Community Center is. SEIZE THE GAP IS BETWEEN PEOPLE THAT ARE EARNING OR, YOU KNOW, RECEIVING SNAP BENEFITS AND OTHER BENEFITS THAT MAKES THEM QUALIFY FOR OTHER SLOTS. BUT THERE'S BETWEEN THAT THRESHOLD THAT, YOU KNOW, THERE'S A LOT OF FOLKS IN NEED FOR MORE SPAY AND NEUTER SERVICES.

COUNCILMEMBER COOPER.

I think I'm going to flip the order just to keep it consistent, but also sharing Councilman Evans' request for a Pet Community Center from self-insured liability. I know that PCC is often booked out weeks and months down the line, so more slots for that would be huge. Additionally, and I believe I meant that the total funding I believe is $2 million for this. I think the mayor funded $1.7 million of it, so maybe just a $300,000 gap. But again, fully funding the countywide reach program. I spoke earlier about the importance of that and I want to make sure that gap is fully funded. That's a great program. I've seen it in action and it really, really helps.

Reach. You're down here for fully funding reach as well.

THAT'S WHAT I JUST SPOKE OF. BLENDED ONE RIGHT TO THE OTHER.

SHOWS HOW INTERESTING YOU ARE. TRYING TO KEEP IT SIMPLE.

TRYING TO KEEP IT SIMPLE.

ALL RIGHT. COUNCIL MEMBER RUTHERFORD IS ALSO IN HERE FOR PET COMMUNITY CENTER FOR 25,000. I GUESS HE LIKES DOGS AND CATS A LITTLE BIT LESS THAN Y'ALL. Council Member Stiles is also down for Pet Community Center. I assume that's for the additional spays and neuters. Taking $20,000 from judgments and losses, $20,000 from contingency account, and $20,000 from self-insured liability. There's also from Council Member Stiles Antioch Health Study, $167,000. with $56,666 coming from judgments and losses, $55,667 from contingency account, $55,667 from the mayor's office. Council Member Webb, you have an identical request for Peck Community Center. Did you have anything to add?

Yes, ma'am. I had a couple of items that I cleverly sent in as a PDF thinking that would be helpful, and it was not. So they haven't been able to type them in yet. Okay. If I might, one of those was for health department for SOAR, which has come up already for $350,000. Okay. It is important to connect that to a specific department, and I think health department is the logical one to... um to own it i can't remember i think probably judgments and losses and okay other the usual suspects are who i was taking the money from okay so i just want to add my support for that thank you okay thank you

All right.

On page four, colleagues, I also included just a few wish list items in case folks didn't name them. Councilwoman Suarez mentioned the subsidy for National General Hospital. I put down the $4,300,000 to increase the hospital subsidy because that was the deficit that they discussed during their budget hearing. with $2 million coming from the 4% fund. I heard you, Budget Officer Pratt, that there is no money there. I will find it elsewhere, but anyway. And then $2,300,000 coming from property laws. Council Member Vo.

Thank you, Chair. This is for, I was requesting a half a million dollars to address some language access to kind of do pilots on documents that are often used throughout our various departments and translate them into English. the top five languages so that we can get more engagement. And it was going to be through human relations. And my funding source was judgments and losses. And so I wanted to talk a little bit more. I know currently they're doing the language access survey. And I think that will inform us. But I think it would be very helpful. I know we continuously try to reach more of our constituents.

um and i just want to make sure that we keep it at the top of our list so that we can engage more constituents in local government okay council member spain thank you madam chair um before i describe this one i feel like i should probably say mnps doesn't have a bigger cheerleader than me i thought i could say no one had a more vested interest in mnps's success than me because i have two mnps students at home and then chair tombs reminded me that she has three but THAT LEADS ME TO THIS. THIS IS A PROPOSAL TO TAKE A MILLION DOLLARS FROM MNPS'S BUDGET AND TRANSFER IT TO INTERNAL AUDIT FOR A COMPREHENSIVE OPERATIONAL AND PERFORMANCE AUDIT OF METRO NATIONAL PUBLIC SCHOOLS. THE LAST TIME WE DID ONE OF THESE WAS IN 2015 AND IN THAT TIME OUR ENROLLMENT HAS DROPPED FROM 86,000 STUDENTS TO 81,000. OUR BUDGET HAS DOUBLED FROM 750 MILLION TO 1.5 BILLION. AND I JUST, I FEEL LIKE IT'S BORDERLINE NEGLIGENT THAT WE HAVEN'T TAKEN A COMPREHENSIVE LOOK AT A DEPARTMENT THAT WE SEND OVER A THIRD OF OUR BUDGET TO ON AN ANNUAL BASIS WITHOUT JUST MAKING SURE THAT THAT MONEY IS BEING SPENT CORRECTLY AND THAT THOSE PROGRAMS ARE HAVING THE KIND OF OUTCOMES WE WANT TO SEE. AND TO PUT IT IN PERSPECTIVE, THAT MILLION DOLLARS WE HEARD IN EDUCATION'S BUDGET HEARING THAT THEY TARGET TO HAVE 1.8% SAVINGS IN THEIR, CAN'T HEAR ME, I'M SORRY, THAT THEY TARGET TO HAVE 1.8% SAVINGS OF THEIR SALARY COSTS WHICH EQUATES TO ABOUT $18 MILLION. SO THERE'S MONEY THERE. A MILLION DOLLARS IS LESS THAN FIVE HUNDREDS OF 1% OF THEIR TOTAL BUDGET. SO BASICALLY WE'RE TALKING ABOUT TAKING A MILLION DOLLARS AND MAKING SURE THAT OTHER 99.95% OF THAT ONE AND A HALF BILLION DOLLARS IS BEING SPENT APPROPRIATELY OR PUT A DIFFERENT WAY, IT'S A LITTLE LESS THAN 1.8% OF THE INCREASE PROPOSED IN THE MAYOR'S BUDGET. SO THAT'S WHAT THAT ONE IS.

No questions. We're going.

Council Member Evans, on behalf of the Memphis caucus. On juvenile court, so we have a request for $75,000 to go to CASA, which is the Court Appointed Special Advocate, and I may have said that wrong, to train volunteers that assist abused and neglected children through the juvenile court process.

Council Member Vo.

Thank you, Chair. This request is for $660,000 for training home-based child care providers. And this would be appropriate to MAC, the Metro Action Commission. And my funding source was also judgments and losses. We know that as a council, we have... work to lower barriers for child care and daycares. And so now this is the people part in supporting so we can help train providers as we have more and more daycares opening. So that's my request here. And yeah, I know we can't answer questions today.

Council Member Evans, you have the next three.

Thank you. So for continuity's sake, I'll say that the Women's Caucus also has a request related to what Council Member Vo was just describing and training home-based child care providers. We have a request under for funding source $219,000 from judgments and losses, contingency account for $219,000, $219,000 from self-insured liability. And then also Women's Caucus and myself have two requests related to Metro Action Commission. Several years ago, we funded a restorative therapist related to a child care pilot. And so this $153,000 request would be to continue that restorative therapist position and also to do more of a study related to the effect of those child care workers. having access to that level of counseling. And so we have different funding sources, $100,000 from judgments and losses, $53,000 from 4% funding. And then my request was specific to judgments and losses.

All right. All right, Council Member Kappa is not here. Looking at page seven under MNPS, the composting work, teacher training, and a full-time employee as reflected in MNPS original budget request under environmental stewardship for MNPS to expand composting throughout the school system and support compost and sustainability teaching in MNPS, $580,000 from judgments and losses. Okay. Similar request from Council Member Cortez, except the 580,000 is coming from the MNPS budget. Same with Council Member Hancock. Council Member Coopin, page eight, same request but different funding source.

Ditto.

SELF-ENSURED LIABILITY IS THE FUNDING REQUEST FOR COUNCILMEMBER COOPEN, COUNCILMEMBER SPAIN, SAME REQUEST, IS THAT PROPERTY LOSS IS THE FUNDING SOURCE?

MADAM CHAIR, JUST ON THAT ONE, I DID SUGGEST TAKING IT OUT OF PROPERTY LOSS, BUT I JUST WANT TO SAY, FOR THE RECORD, I AGREE WITH COUNCILWOMAN SUAREZ THAT THE MONEY IS THERE, AND IF WE HAD THE ABILITY TO EARMARK MNPS'S BUDGET, THAT'S WHAT I WOULD SUGGEST WE DO, BECAUSE THEY HAVE THE MONEY TO ACCOMPLISH THIS WITHOUT ANY ADDITIONAL FUNDING.

Council Member Bowe, you have a similar request. Did you want to add anything?

Sure. Just with the information we shared and with what Council Member Spain was saying, if they're going to have salary savings, I also just request that the funding is out of MNPS. And I will tell you, composting is so great. And for us to be sustainable and teach our young people to be sustainable at a young age and be able to do this work, for all schools for under $600,000 is a worthy initiative and I really support this and I hope our council will.

Madam Chair.

ARE YOU ASKING A QUESTION, COUNCILMEMBER? NO, I'M NOT ASKING A QUESTION. OKAY.

THIS WAS ANOTHER ONE OF MY PDFS THAT DID NOT MAKE IT IN. SO I JUST WANTED TO BE LISTED AS ANOTHER COUNCILMEMBER SUPPORTING THIS. AND I ACTUALLY PUT IT DOWN AS $580,000 IN COST PLUS $270,000 IN SAVINGS. SO THERE WOULD ONLY BE A NET OF $210,000. AND I THINK I TOOK IT FROM JUDGMENTS AND LOSSES AND THOSE USUAL THINGS.

Okay. All right. Under NDOT on page 9, you all should have a letter from Council Member Benedict. She sent it explaining her request to FTEs for Transportation and Licensing Division of NDOT, $255,000 coming from judgments and losses. Same from Council Member Kapp. Council Member Vo, you have a slightly different amount. Do you want to talk about yours?

Thank you so much, Chair. Yes, I was unsure about the amount, so I agree with the 255. And sorry, in my purpose, I know that what we collect, and I wasn't sure if I could put that as a funding source, which is why I chose judgments and losses. But I can edit mine to 255 to reflect Council Member Benedict and Council Member Cash's request. Thank you.

All right, and then council member Welsh has a request to add two positions to create a dedicated staff to handle micro mobility issues and the monies collected annually from scooter and party bus companies for 310,000 coming from the mayor's office. Council member Evans on page 10.

Thank you. So this was spoken to previously about the Nashville Office of Entertainment, the $300,000 request to refund that office and the funding sources, the small business incentive. Council Member Ewing.

To CM Evans point, this has already been discussed. It's to fund an executive director position for the Entertainment Commission. And I took it out of judgments and losses, but I am absolutely open to a different solution. And I understand that that can't be the solution for everything.

Council Member Coopin.

Thank you, Chair. Yes, I think having worked in the TV film world in my other life for many years, it's a huge economic driver. And it's important to have consistent productions because folks need to, if they want to live here and work in that field, they need to continue getting work. And so after one, something stops taping, has something else taping, keeps people here, keeps people employed. We know that some of these productions are being kind of partnered with the Convention of Visitors Corporation for national and international advertising. I think Nashville 911 spent millions of dollars of billboards that say Nashville around the country and even the world. So, you know, TV film can have a really massive impact and return on investment for the city, bringing sales tax dollars and things like that back into it. while giving people jobs as well. And so a couple hundred thousand dollars to me is a worthy expense on something like this. And I'd like to see that funded. It's my understanding that full job searches have been undergone as well with candidates potentially narrowed down. And so to have folks have gone through that process with the expectation of potentially a job and then not to have that funding for it, I think is a big miss on our part. And so we'd like to see that in the budget. Thanks.

Thank you. Looking at page 11, Council Member Stiles, National Office of Entertainment, $300,000, $75,000 coming from judgments and losses, $75,000 from the contingency account, $75,000 from self-insured liability, and $75,000 from the Choosing Justice Initiative. Council Member Webb.

That's a typo. Yeah, yeah, it's a typo.

I was wondering. Okay. All right. Council member Welsh, $300,000 to fund the position of executive director, one coordinator and a platform purchase, national office of entertainment and funding source is the sheriff's office.

All right, page 12, Councilmember Evans. Thank you, Chair. So for Office of Family Safety, I have an $87,000 request for the Sexual Assault Center. We've previously funded the Sexual Assault Center. There's currently money in the mayor's budget, but it's a drop for them. And so essentially, sexual assault is... I think it's the one crime in Davidson County that is still up. And so their focus, of course, would continue to target the areas where sexual assaults are happening and kind of connect their training and education programs to those parts of town. And so the funding source is judgments and losses.

All righty, Council Member Gamble.

SAFETY. THANK YOU. I HAVE A REQUEST OF $100,000 FOR THE YWCA WEAVER CENTER, WHICH I JUST TOURED A WEEK AGO. AND THEY ARE NEEDING AN ADDITIONAL CASE MANAGER. THEY REALLY NEED TWO, BUT AT LEAST ONE TO HELP WITH THE CRISIS CALLS AND TO AS THEY ARE A 24-HOUR SERVICE, THROUGH THE ICE STORM, WHATEVER HAPPENS, THEY REALLY DO NEED SOME BACKUP PEOPLE. SO THEY NEED AN ADDITIONAL CASE WORK, CASE MANAGER. THIS ADDITIONAL CASE MANAGER WOULD DIRECTLY REDUCE THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO ARE BEING CURRENTLY TURNED AWAY FROM THEIR CRISIS LINE. they estimate about 433 people are currently being turned away from their crisis line because they don't have the staff to take calls and address all of the needs that there are. So they're asking for $100,000 that would add the case manager with the salary, the benefits, everything that they need. And that's what they're asking. I'm again asking it to come out of the contingency admin account. Thank you.

Council Member Evans, did I skip over your red frogs?

You did. I just assumed that you were tired of hearing my voice. Yeah, I have a duplicate request for red frogs for $250,000, and I had judgments and losses as the funding source.

All right, thank you. All right, moving on to page 13 under Office of Family Safety Continued. Councilmember Gadd has a request to fund Office of Family Safety in the amount of $250,000 that goes to the shelter needs of the YWCA of Middle Tennessee, $250,000 coming from the police budget. Councilmember Huffman.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair. My request is very simple. It's $60,000 to fund public service announcements that would essentially highlight ways that victims of domestic violence or human trafficking could receive services in Davidson County. These would go in the back of every bathroom door in metro public buildings. The purpose of that is really just to ensure that people know what resources are out there. This is the first project of hopefully many that the Interpersonal Violence Working Group that the Public Health and Safety Committee has issued. IS WORKING ON. SO $60,000. THE FUNDING SOURCE, THIS IS AN INITIATIVE THAT I HAVE SPOKEN TO THE MAYOR ABOUT. I SUPPOSE THAT IS THE CORRECT AREA CHAIR, BUT I'M DEFINITELY OPEN TO THAT.

Thank you, Chair. You've heard plenty about Red Frogs, but continue to want to advocate for them. They have a lot of one-time funding. They've got a grant, for example, that's allowing them to operate an additional evening this year, but that funding will run out, and it's one-time funding, so I want to start getting them recurring. We heard Chief Drake refer to it, and I've heard countless stories of people, you know, we're talking about sexual assault and violence and things like that. Red Frogs do a great job helping people get home safely, get their phones charged, get reunited with friends, even just handing out waters as people walk by to keep people safe. So really want to see them start to get some consistent funding so that they can kind of make their place here.

All right. And Council Member Stiles has a request to add $100,000 for Red Frogs to the Office of Family Safety. Funding source is $50,000 from contingency account and $50,000 from self-insured liability. Council Member Vo.

Thank you, Chair. My request is for $250,000 for Red Frogs. And this funding source would come from the police department. And for me, you know, just being proactive and preventing incidences, preventing crimes is really important. And I I appreciate that it's not just downtown, it's university, it's festivals, it's across our county. So I think that's very important to acknowledge.

All right, Council Member Weiner has a request for Ella's House, supports housing stability, maternal wellness, and educational attainment for pregnant and parenting college students in Davidson County. This investment aligns with Metro's priorities related to homelessness prevention, workforce development, and family stability while addressing a unique unmet community need through preventative community-based support services. $30,000 to Ella's House coming from the Community Safety Fund.

Council Member Evans, you are up again. I'm back. So I'll just skip down to Women's Caucus and myself also had a request for Ellis House through the Office of Family Safety. Under my request, I had the whole 30,000 coming from judgments and losses and Women's Caucus had 15,000 contingency account, 15,000 self-insured liability fund. And then going back to the top on page 14, The Mary Parrish Center, and I had a Mary Parrish Center request as well. The Women's Caucus request is for $220,000 for transitional housing in partnership with the Office of Family Safety. Their funding sources are $73,333 in judgments and losses. And then the same amount from a contingency account. And then $73,334 from self-insured liability. My request is a little different. And I think there may be a little bit of a discrepancy that I had asked the health department about. Because originally they were funded with ARPA funding for $120,000. I don't know if any of that money carried over. into the mayor's budget currently. And so I had asked the health department and did not receive a response in time for publication of this wishlist. And so my response or my request was for 85,000 from judgments and losses.

All right, moving on to page 15. Oh.

She did.

She started off talking about it.

Council Member Gadd has a request for the SOAR program, has a very detailed explanation of what SOAR is and the history of their funding, but the request is for $350,000 to go towards the Office of Homeland Services and the money would come from property loss. Council Member Coopin?

Thank you, Chair. This is, I should say, Hospitality Hub Fund, or fully funded for Roadway. Roadway Inn has been managed by Hospitality Hub. And I don't believe it needs the entire $3 million. I think about a million is left, a million and a half, for fully funding it. But my understanding is that without the full funding for their management of the hub, or have a roadway that they would have to pull out their services when their contract is up and it's important of course to have transitional housing operational and so wanted to look into that further to make sure that is fully funded all right we're on page 16 councilmember gamble under parks

THIS IS THE SAME REQUEST THAT COUNCIL MEMBER SAWARA TALKED ABOUT UNDER THE HISTORICAL COMMISSION. I HAVE IT UNDER PARKS BECAUSE IN I GUESS 2005 THERE WAS A GRANT OF $60,000 THAT CAME IN THE MUSEUM STUDY WHICH IS LISTED ON OUR ADMINISTRATIVE GLANCE IN THE BUDGET BOOK TO DO A STUDY ON the feasibility of a civil rights museum here in Nashville. Nashville is one of only a few cities in the South with a rich civil rights history that does not have a civil rights museum. The study was conducted. They have, I mean, it was presented to us at the Black Caucus meeting. There's, the study concludes with where POTENTIAL SITES FOR WHERE THIS COULD BE, BUT IT WAS SHOWN THAT FORT NEGLI IS NOT A VIABLE SITE. AND SO IN ADDITION TO HOW MUCH IT WOULD COST TO BUILD THE BUILDING, WHAT'S THE SUSTAINABILITY FOR OPERATING, ALL OF THAT IS IN THE STUDY, BUT THEY STILL DON'T HAVE A PLACE. SO WE'RE ASKING FOR 60,000 TO CONTINUE THE STUDY TO find a viable location. There are some suggested locations, but we need more study to come up with a location so that all of the work that was done previously would not just sit on the shelf and be done in vain. We could actually move forward with something. So asking for that to come out of the contingency admin account. AS FAR AS THE DEPARTMENT, I PUT PARKS BECAUSE THAT'S WHERE IT WAS BEFORE, BUT IT CAN GO HISTORICAL COMMISSION. IT DOESN'T MATTER TO ME WHERE IT GOES.

ALL RIGHT. ON PAGE 17, COUNCILMEMBER GREG HAS, LOOKING RIGHT AT YOU, COUNCILMEMBER GREG.

HERE I AM, MADAM CHAIR. Wave Country, our little engine that could, is one of our well-used assets in the city. But because of its age, we often overlook it. It's been 20 years since we've added a new feature. We could use a new water feature, a kid's area, and renovate the bathrooms. That would cost about $6 million. I'm not asking you for that. I'm asking you to change the volleyball court into a covered pavilion. This provides shade and relief during extreme summer heat. We all know how hot it gets here in Nashville during the summer. It creates space for families to gather and stay longer. supports group visits we have a lot of groups that go out there for birthday parties and such uh family reunions so it'd be great for community gatherings improve safety comfort and overall experience so i'm just asking you for one thing 400 grand for our little wave country all right and the funding source i was brain dead and just listed general services i'm open thank you

Thank you, Councilmember. All right, under planning, Councilmember Capp had a request to increase funding to the Eviction Right to Counsel Program, $1 million going to the Planning Commission coming from judgments and losses. Councilmember Evans.

I ALSO HAD THE REQUEST FOR EVICTION RIGHT TO COUNCIL TO INCREASE 6 MILLION. I DID MY FUNDING SOURCES, I SWEAR COUNCILMEMBER SUARE AND I DID NOT COLLABORATE BUT I ALSO PUT THE EAST BANK AUTHORITY FOR 2 MILLION, 3 MILLION FROM AN MTA SUBSIDY ACCOUNT AND A MILLION FROM SELF-INSURED LIABILITY. And then the next one underneath that also to the Planning Commission is to leverage the $500,000 to staff social housing expertise in the housing division. And I had funding source of the Barnes Fund. Council Member Gamble.

THANK YOU. I'M ASKING FOR $1 MILLION TO GO TO HOME PRESERVATION. PREVIOUSLY WE HAD HOME PROGRAMS IN THE LAST BUDGET, THERE WAS 1.75 MILLION THAT WENT TO HOME HOUSING PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS WHICH INCLUDED PRESERVATION OF HOMES, PARTICULARLY FOR SENIORS Organizations like Rebuild Together Nashville, Westminster Church do that kind of work where they make upgrades and improvements to residents' homes so that they can stay in their homes. There's nothing in the budget for that this year. So I'm asking that we take $1 million. I put the borrowers fund because that was the only code, but I would like it to come from the Affordable Housing Loan Program. $1 million from that to go to continuing our work on home preservation.

all right council member spain thank you madam chair this is uh another one on expanding the vacation right to council program i propose doubling the current budget of 2.4 for a total of 4.8 million funding sources are 1.4 from the barnes fund and 1 million from the affordable housing loan program AND I KNOW PEOPLE ARE TENSE ABOUT TAKING MONEY OUT OF THE BARNES FUND, BUT OF COURSE IT'S ALL PART OF THE HOUSING CONVERSATION. THE THOUGHT THERE IS THAT TAKING THE 1.4 FROM BARNES STILL LEAVES ABOUT 21 MILLION, WHICH IS ABOUT A 50% INCREASE OVER THE CURRENT YEAR, AND TAKING A MILLION OUT OF THE AFFORDABLE HOUSING LOAN PROGRAM LEAVES SIX. HOPEFULLY THAT'S ENOUGH TO GET THAT PROGRAM UP AND RUNNING, SEE WHAT THE DEMAND IS, SEE HOW IT WORKS GOING FORWARD.

Next is myself. Increase the mayor's proposed 2.4 million for the eviction right to counsel to 5 million. So that's a cost of 2.6 million dollars. Taking 2 million out of the Barnes Fund and 600,000 from the self-insured liability. Council Member Bowe.

Thank you, Chair. My request was to fully fund the ERTC. So that's why I put $6.6 million. And then it would come out of benefit adjustments. And then the second one was for $500,000 for specialized social housing staff in the planning department. And that would come from judgments and losses. Thank you.

Thank you. Moving on to page 19, we have a couple of requests from Councilmember Welsh. One is to expand the Eviction Right to Counsel program to assist more Nashvillians facing eviction with the goal of keeping more of our citizens housed, $6.5 million. Funding sources are $1.5 million from the Police Department, $1.5 million from NDOT, $1.5 million from the Office of Homeless Services, $1 million from Waste Services, and $1 million from the Sheriff's Department. SECOND REQUEST IS TO CREATE A SPECIALIZED SOCIAL HOUSING STAFF WITHIN THE PLANNING DEPARTMENT WHILE FULLY MAINTAINING A $7 MILLION ALLOCATION TO THE REVOLVING LOAN FUND SLASH AFFORDABLE HOUSING IMPLEMENTATION COST IS $500,000 AND THE FUNDING SOURCES THE OFFICE OF HOMELESS SERVICES. GOING TO PAGE 20, COUNCILMEMBER WEBB. UNDER POLICE.

I didn't have a specific thing that I wanted to go to. I was just looking at the efficiency adjustment that they had. And what I don't want to happen is the crime rates have gone down, and I just don't want them to go back the other way. And we really weren't told how they were going to adjust their budget, what programs they were going to, how they were going to adjust it to say, hey, are our response times going to be longer now? Are the programs like the frog program and other little programs, are they going to get cut out with the adjustment efficiency? So I wanted to give them money back to make sure that that didn't happen since we weren't really for sure knowing how they were going to cut their budget.

Okay. Moving on to public library, Council Member Allen, you have a couple of requests.

So one was the library staff had mentioned that they are still, it's on. Sorry, it's been on. I mean, move it closer. Probably heard me breathing. They had simply asked for a shuttle to get them safely from where they're having to park off-site, especially when the library is open late at night, and it may not end up being that full amount, so there may be savings that can go back into the budget, but I was just asking for 135,000 for that, taking it from... judgments, losses, and property losses. And then secondly, the Oasis Center Mayor's Youth Program is, they were asking for $105,000 just to ensure that they can continue that program going, which I'm sure has savings in children not getting into trouble and becoming part of Judge Calloway's group. So I think that's money well spent and would be perfectly fine to redirect from judgments and losses and property losses.

all right next page under social services council member coopen thank you chair um so this was a request that came in for fully funding a social housing program for permanent supportive housing i believe that other council members have it a little more chopped up so i can add some more detail but wanted to wanted to get that ask in

I ALSO HAD THE SOCIAL HOUSING PERSON. DID I SAY THAT? ALL RIGHT, COUNCILMEMBER SPANG.

THANK YOU, MADAM CHAIR. THIS IS VERY ECONOMICAL. IT'S $145,000 TO FULLY FUND METRO SOCIAL SERVICES PLUS THEIR $25,300 INCREASE FOR CONTRACTUAL LEASE OBLIGATIONS. THIS ESSENTIALLY RESTORES THEIR 1.5% REDUCTION. OUR BUDGET HEARING, WE HEARD FROM DIRECTOR PRATT THAT THAT 1.5% CUT WILL IMPACT SERVICES THEY PROVIDE. I JUST DON'T FEEL LIKE THERE'S A LOT OF FAT FOR THEM TO CUT THERE. I THINK DIRECTOR PRATT STRETCHES EVERY DOLLAR THAT THEY GET. WE ALSO HEARD THAT GRANTS AREN'T REALLY A RELIABLE SOURCE FOR THEIR PROGRAMS, FOR FOLKS WHO RELY ON THE PROGRAMS THAT THEY OFFER. SO THAT WOULD SIMPLY RESTORE THEM TO THEIR FY26 BUDGET LEVEL PLUS THEIR ONE CONTRACTUAL INCREASE.

And if I can insert myself, because my request was left off of the planning section, I also supported having a social housing staff dedicated to the planning department. My suggestion was for one-time funding to be used and to make it like a grant position so that one-time funding could be used. And that will come from... We got a list of... one-time funding items in the budget presentation that were coming from, and I hate to say the word surplus, but surplus funds over what we're supposed to have in our fund balance. And so my cost was 500,000 and I didn't choose which line item to adjust, but one of those line items could be adjusted by 500,000. Okay, going back to page 21, Barnes Affordable Housing Trust, Council Member Allen.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I actually had two separate requests. One was to put $1 million additionally into the Barnes Affordable Housing Trust fund to be consistent with the Unified Housing Strategy recommendation of $30 million, and that's... That's taking into account the subordinate debt loan fund pilot that we're going to learn how that is used. So that would get us to the full $30,000, again, taking from judgments, losses, property loss, and contingency. And then I had a second request that was to redirect that $7 million from the pilot to just because I don't understand it yet. And I have faith that the finance department is going to help me understand it better. But we know that the Barnes Fund is leveraged nine times what we put into it. And if we have $7 million that's going to sit for a year while we put a program together, and we can actually use it in the Barnes Fund because we know we've got people there ready to use it while we figure out what to do with that $7 million, then I'd rather do that. So just to have that on the record, that was also a submission made as well. Thank you.

Thank you. Next is myself under grocery tax increase mayors proposed half percent to 1%. That's about $9 million or maybe it's $9.9 million. But the funding sources and a couple of them got cut off. 2.5 million from self-insured liability, 2.5 from judgments and losses, 2 million from property loss, 1 million from the revolving loan fund, and then 2 million was from parks. Moving on to page 22 under non-profit, Council Member Evans.

Thank you. So I had a request for the Contributor Store Program, which has been discussed already for $350,060. My funding source was the Self-Insured Liability Fund. And then I also have a request for the branch fund. And the branch provides food access and English classes to residents who may not be native English speakers for $100,000 coming from the Self-Insured Liability Fund.

All right, Council Member Koopman.

Thank you, Chair. I also support the 350 for the SOAR program and also took it from the Self-Insured Liability.

You have a second item.

I do, another request that came in, and Council Member Span, I guess I need to sit with you a little bit more and take some zeros off. But community safety funds, so looking at investing in community safety programs, there have been a number that have been discussed, and so I would like us to be looking at ways to fund those types of programs to, again, put money into our communities, but also support those public safety initiatives from a different angle.

All right, and Council Member Rutherford also had a $100,000 request for the branch of Nashville. And his funding source is Judgments and Losses. Page 23, Council Member Vo.

Thank you, Chair. My request is for $350,000 for the SOAR program. And my funding source was the Office of Homeless Services.

Council Member Weiner has a request. Proposed allocation to CASA is intended to support programs that improve community safety and long-term stability for vulnerable children involved in the court system, as well as provision of trained volunteer advocates who represent the best interests of abused and neglected children. During judicial proceedings, this aligns with Metro's broader community safety goals. THROUGH EARLY INTERVENTION CHILD ADVOCACY AND FAMILY STABILIZATION EFFORTS. $75,000 GOING TO CASA FUNDING SOURCES. $25,000 FROM THE COMMUNITY SAFETY PARTNERSHIP AND $50,000 FROM CHOOSING JUSTICE INITIATIVE. And turning to our final page, Council Member Welsh has a request for $350,000 going to the SOAR program. Her funding source is the Office of Homeless Services. Council Member Evans, you want to take these last two? You've already discussed them, but...

Yes. So I had a request in for CASA, which we just talked about, for 75, and my funding source was judgments and losses. And then the very last one is for training childcare providers, and for the same $659,000 amount discussed previously, my funding source was 600,000 judgments and losses, and then $59,102 from self-insured liability.

Councilmember Allen? This is not a question, it's a statement. So several of us sat in on the nonprofit grant process and came up with the one-pager to talk about nonprofits. And the number one thing we learned is if a department doesn't own funding that we give to a nonprofit, it takes them most of the year to actually get that money. So I would just encourage... colleagues to think of what department these nonprofits should come under because it is much more effective if you tie them to a department and then name them by name in the budget. Otherwise, it has to go through an RFP process and somebody has to think that up. I just wanted to get that on the record. Thank you.

Thank you for that, Council Member Porterfield.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I had a technical issue, so I don't think that my wish list was received, but everything that I asked for has already been stated, and I just wanted to just name it if that was okay to quickly name. The increase in the grocery tax to 1%, $100,000 for the branch. Increase in eviction right to counsel, 500K for the social housing staff, 60K for the museum study, the fully funding for Metro General to include the back pay for the employees as well as the deficit that they're missing, language access, and then the stewardship for MNPS. I support moving it from MNPS to MNPS. So MNPS funding in their own budget to support that. But I do want to name that I support that. The two that were not on my wishlist, but I do want to plus one was the wave country and the social services. I did miss those, but I would like to support that. And my funding sources were already listed as well. J and L, self-insure, East bank property laws, the benefits, the contingency utilities fund. And I'm happy to resend that over to formally get it on the record. Okay.

Thank you, Council Member. Well, Council Members, y'all are very efficient. Because I have the work sessions going from 4.30 to 7 p.m. And this was supposed to take two days and it only took one. So we will start the prioritization tomorrow. So this chart will look a little bit different tomorrow to try to put in the missing information as well as maybe grouping some things together that are duplicative so that we can really dive into what's important and how we fund it. So I will see you. We're still in this room? Yes. We are in the jury room tomorrow at 4.30. All right. Thank you. Have a good night.

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