A Hamilton County judge sided with the city of Chattanooga on Tuesday afternoon, denying a citizen’s petition to block a final vote on the annual operating budget.
The Chattanooga resident was seeking a temporary restraining order, alleging that the City Council’s first vote on the budget for the fiscal year that will start July 1 was taken illegally under local and state open meeting requirements.
According to the filing on Friday by Courtenay Cholovich, the council violated the state requirements involving adequate public notice for government meetings by voting on an amended budget on June 16 that was introduced on June 15.
The city argued that since the required meetings and hearings had been properly noticed and the council’s rules allow amendments between readings, there was no violation, and the harm caused by delaying the budget and potentially causing a continuation budget if not passed by the end of June outweighed the citizen’s alleged harm.
After an hour and a half, the judge found that the citizen failed to show any violation of the open meetings act, just hours before the final vote scheduled for the budget in question.