Some members of the Chattanooga City Council are positioning themselves for a fight as budget season approaches.
Members of the council questioned the city attorney Tuesday afternoon to figure out their legal abilities when it comes to approving, amending or denying the city’s budget, which will be presented to the body in about two months.
Traditionally, the council has approved or denied the budget as a whole after it is presented in early May by the mayor’s office.
Now, an increasingly skeptical council wants to make sure it has the right to nix certain budget items when the time comes.
“I get that we vote [the budget] up or down, but we need to know if we can amend it or vote on part of it while not approving every item in the whole thing,” Councilman Darrin Ledford said during Tuesday’s strategic planning meeting. “It’s like a Christmas present we know that it is coming, but we have to wait and hope we’re going to like it.”