The Nashville Community Review Board committee on Jan. 19 voted to pursue a focused FY2027 budget request that would fully fund previously authorized positions and add a dedicated community engagement staffer.

Speaker 2 told the committee that the board is authorized for 16 full‑time positions but currently has 11 funded, and that the proposal prioritized funding two long‑authorized but underfunded roles plus an additional community engagement position. "We are gonna ask for 1 additional request for a full time employee, and that is for our community engagement," Speaker 2 said.

Budget analysts and Metro's finance office, Speaker 2 said, showed the board had short turnaround for the new budget portal. Speaker 5 clarified how object codes and fringe were calculated, noting a base ASO‑4 salary and that fringe adds roughly $30,000 per position. Speaker 2 summarized the ask as funding 14th, 15th and 16th positions fully; a separate ASO‑3 community engagement outreach liaison would be an additional request and add roughly $100,000 to the three‑position figure.

Committee members debated strategy. Speaker 4 urged asking for more to avoid the administration paring down the request; Speaker 1 recommended grounding the ask in workload, backlog and demonstrable need rather than a formula tied to police budget percentages. "The best argument to me is our actual workload and what we need to do it in a timely fashion," Speaker 1 said.

Speaker 2 said the board will circulate a clear one‑page summary and two proposal options ahead of the full‑board vote scheduled for Jan. 26 and reminded members the Metro submission portal opens Monday and closes Feb. 6.

Next steps: staff will finalize two budget proposals — one limited to funding existing authorized positions and one matching last year’s larger package — and circulate them for committee feedback before uploading to Metro’s budget portal.

Funding details and caveats: Speaker 2 stressed that current numbers may change because benefits and insurance costs are projected to rise; the exact final totals for FY2027 were "not specified" in committee discussion and will be provided with the formal submission.