City budget discussion provokes arguments, centers around cuts

JACKSON, Tenn. – There was plenty of discussion at Tuesday’s city budget meeting, with every single city department head coming to discuss their budget.

Early in the morning, there was already a heated exchange between Mayor Scott Conger and the Director of the West Tennessee Farmer’s Market, Tammy Buchanan.

Conger yelled at Buchanan that her time before the council was up. Buchanan said that she was just asking a question. Conger responded that he would not answer the question, and that she needed to leave.

The argument stemmed from the city cutting $40,000 from the Farmer’s Market, which Buchanan did not agree with.

While none of the other budget hearings ended with the same reaction, other departments like the Animal Care Center did see their budget reduced by $100,000.

“We’re going to have to reevaluate our plan and tackle the project from a different direction” Whitney Owen, Director for the Animal Care Center.

Owen says the financial crunch means they need to redirect their focus.

“Community outreach, spay and neuter, things like that, instead of repeating the same process that we’ve been doing for the last decade and a half,” Owen said.

One of the departments to present its budget Tuesday afternoon was the West Tennessee Sportsplex.

Director Jason Compton says visitors can now bring in their own food and drinks, leading to a reduced labor cost for the sportsplex.

Budget committee chairman and city council member Paul Taylor told Compton the sportsplex is “Basically break-even,” as the city puts about $1 million into the facility, which brings in about $1.1 million annually.

“How efficient are we? I see that we’re at 50 percent of what we could be doing,” Taylor said. ““It needs to be at least 2-3 fold of whatever we invest. Otherwise, we can just go ahead and reinvest that money in some other way into the city.”

The city council also brought up the Jackson Police Department and how they’re using their money.

The police department will have a fiscal year 2021 budget of over $22 million. Though it is down almost $200,000 from fiscal year 2020.

Chief Julian Wiser said if they cut any more, it would reduce the number of officers they have on the streets, and that the department already tries to bring in money.

“What I’m saying is that a lot of things we’re doing in the community, we’re raising money ourselves,” Wiser said.

Council members questioned Wiser about police use of force, in light of the national protests on police brutality.

Wiser defended their policy, which includes body cameras on all police officers on the street, and having to report every instance of use of force.

He added that 70 percent of their officers are trained in crisis intervention.

But he did say he is interested in devoting more resources to separate task forces.

“It was encouraging to hear that they wanted to look in to some mental health task force, and putting some funds there,” said council member Ross Priddy. “They’ve done a great job in years past on trying to remain within that budget that has been proposed. I know that’s a tough job, given the work they do.”

The budget committee is scheduled to meet again Thursday.