City staff summarized the city
s appropriations-to-outside-agencies requests and asked the Budget Finance Committee for guidance on funding priorities and program enhancements.

Michael Walters Young, chief budget performance officer, introduced Norma Lochni, financial analyst, who led the presentation. Lochni told the committee the base budget for outside agency grants was $703,302 for fiscal 2025 and the proposed base is $712,807 for fiscal 2026, an increase of $9,505 (1.35%). She said most current partner grants are level-funded but staff had identified program enhancement requests and new requests totaling $274,285 above base funding across government agencies, civic organizations and new agency requests.

Lochni said the library requested a $31,473 increase to cover inflation and additional digital materials; the Tennessee Rehab Clinic requested $690 for inflation; Sister Cities requested a $30,559 increase to fund a part-time coordinator and an additional sister city relationship in Spain; and several new or growing requests include the African American Heritage Society (seeking $100,000 this year after receiving $50,000 last year), Sharebuilt (requesting $50,000), Doorstep Project ($12,000), and Studio 10 Theater Company ($20,000).

Committee members asked for better context and controls. Alderman Baggett and others said the city needs an overarching strategy or rubric to decide which nonprofits to fund and in what amounts. Baggett said large single requests that represent a high percentage of an organization
s budget raise concerns; in one example he noted a city request equal to 25% of an applicant
s annual budget. Norma Lochni said staff maintain contracts with recipient agencies and require deliverables tied to stated public purposes.

Representatives of several nonprofits addressed the committee. Steve Coon, founder and executive director of Sharebuilt, said the group provides pro-bono capital project management to nonprofits and asked for funding to support operations and marketing. Rachel Jones, development director for Studio 10 Theater Company, said Studio 10 is a professional nonprofit theater in Williamson County with a roughly $2.27 million annual budget; she said a $20,000 request represents a modest percentage of the company
s operating budget and highlighted the theater
s local economic impact. A representative from Sister Cities described plans for exchanges and a new partnership with Ciudad Rodrigo, Spain.

Committee members proposed several next steps: (1) staff and the committee should develop a rubric tied to the city
s strategic plan to categorize requests (economic development, quality of life, etc.); (2) staff should standardize how inflationary increases are calculated and applied to existing recipients; (3) staff should provide comparative detail such as the percentage of an applicant
s budget represented by a city request; and (4) the committee should hold an additional working session outside the regular budget calendar to create policy guidance before next year
s request cycle. Chair and staff agreed to incorporate the committee
s guidance into the city administrator
s recommended budget and to publish any new rubric well in advance of the next application season.

No formal appropriation votes were taken at the meeting; committee members provided direction to staff to prepare recommendations and to return with refined materials and proposed criteria.