City Council

MINUTES OF THE CITY OF BRISTOL, TENNESSEE CITY COUNCIL CALLED MEETING June 19,2025 CALL TO ORDER: The City of Bristol, Tennessee City Council meeting was called to order by Mayor Mark Hutton on Tuesday, June 19, 2025, at 6:00 P.M. in the Slater Center Auditorium. ROLL CALL: Present: Mayor Mark Hutton, Vice Mayor Vince Turner, Councilwoman Rae Akard, Councilwoman Margaret Feierabend, and Councilwoman Lea Powers. Others Present: City Manager Kelli Bourgeois, City Attorney Danielle Smith, City Recorder Mary Lee Williams, Director of Community Development and Planning Cherith Young, Director of Economic Development Tom Anderson, Fire Chief Mike Carrier, Police Chief Matt Austin, Director of Finance Hollie Verran, Director of Community Relations Jon Luttrell, Legal Intern Elijah Uecker, Director of Community Engagement and Events Terry Napier, IT Network Technician Nick Fugate, Accounting and Budget Manager Sheridan Perumal, and other members of City staff. Mayor Mark Hutton reviewed the various opportunities throughout the evening for members of the community to speak on city business and detailed there is one point for appearance of citizens, and other times to speak about that specific ordinance or resolution. In both cases there is a time limit of three minutes, and the City Manager will keep the time. PUBLIC HEARINGS: Ordinance 25-13 - An Ordinance to Adopt the Annual Budget and Tax Rate for the Fiscal Year Beginning July 1,2025 and ending June 30,2026 Director of Finance Hollie Verran presented Ordinance 25-13 which appropriates the Fiscal Year 2026 Budget. The FY26 budget totals $155,339,488 which reflects a 4.1% increase from the FY25 budget. This continues all programs and services as in the past, while making strategic capital improvements to meet the future needs of the community. It includes Police and Fire wage increases based on the departmental analyses, a 4.7% pay increase for all other City departments, and funds for the remaining departmental analyses implementation. The municipal government portion totals $95,904,212, reflecting an increase of $4,709,990 or 5.2% from the FY25 budget. The school system portion totals $59,435,276 which is an increase of $1,467,123 or 2.5% from the FY25 budget. Ms. Verran showed slides that included a visual presentation of the FY26 Budget; funding for the Bristol Public Library at $1,153,425 which equates to approximately 10 cents of the tax rate, or 10%; funding for the Bristol City Schools at $5,568,458 which includes the operating transfer at $4,765,429 which represents 49 cents of the tax rate, or roughly 26%. Other slides addressed some of the concerns and questions that were raised since the first reading of the ordinance such as the City Manager budget which included funds to implement the salary increases resulting from the remaining department analyses. Other questions that were addressed were some projects that have a minimal impact on the property tax rate. The proposed baseball stadium is a public- private partnership using bond proceeds to leverage private contributions with the debt payment equating to approximately 2.75 cents of the tax rate. A change from the first reading is the removal of