Jackson City Council discusses budget amendments, more in monthly meeting

JACKSON, Tenn. — The Jackson City Council held their regular monthly meeting Tuesday morning where much of the discussion revolved around money.

One of the items that was voted on and accepted was the purchase of new taser equipment for the Jackson Police Department. It totals just over $1.1 million and will be funded by a state grant.

“Yeah, it was originally in our capital budget. So, we did an obligation to move that out of the capital budget and used the grant to pay for it,” said Mayor Scott Conger. “It is a population formula and it actually increased this year. So, we got more than what we anticipated for it.”

There were also quite a few budget amendments that were discussed in length. The results of these increases expenses by nearly $2.8 million and raised revenue by nearly $3 million.

“Some of those changes were some unanticipated expenses. As we went through our new software system and how we plan with our personnel, some of the part-time and seasonal personnel wasn’t accounted for the way it should have been,” said Mayor Scott Conger. “You see a lot of municipalities and local governments do cleanups. So, these are clean-up budget amendments.”

Also, the bond issuance was discussed. In some of the documents, it shows that the city spent $124,000 to go through the whole process.

“We had to pay for bond counsel. Had to pay for our ordinance for bond issuance requires a certified financial planner, or a municipal financial planner. So we had to pay for those financial services,” said Mayor Scott Conger.

Almost $2.2 million from the bond issuance has already been spent using money from the fund balance. The city is now able to reimburse their fund balance with some of the bond money.

The council also accepted a contract to begin putting turf on the fields at the sportsplex.

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