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Shelby County commissioners hear broad FY27 budget pleas from courts, sheriff and trustee
Summary
Officials from juvenile, mental-health and environmental courts, clerks, the sheriff's office, the district attorney and the county trustee presented unfunded FY27 requests ranging from program renewals and staff to urgent jail repairs and a missing tax-relief allocation.
Shelby County elected officials and agency leaders presented a string of unfunded budget requests and capital needs at a FY27 budget hearing that highlighted court program renewals, staffing shortages and jail repairs.
Among the opening remarks, Juvenile Court leaders said they have shifted to a family-stabilization approach and asked the commission to restore renewals for five community-focused programs. Chief Administrator Kron Folsom said Juvenile Court handles roughly 40,000 cases and that ‘‘family instability drives this system involvement.’’ Judge Tarik Sugarman said the court now emphasizes trauma-informed prevention and rehabilitation.
Mental Health Court presiding Judge Sheila Bruce Renfro warned that state and ARPA funds supporting the program will end in December and asked the county to add the program to the budget; she gave a total request of $800,000. Environmental Court Judge Patrick Dandridge pressed for referee pay parity with judicial commissioners and asked for back pay after referees were left out of a recent salary adjustment.
Clerk offices and chancery, probate and juvenile court clerks described operational needs including satellite offices, postage costs and e-filing modernization. General Sessions Court Clerk Tamara Sawyer asked commissioners to consider a 5% salary increase for civil-service employees, saying a 1% raise would not keep pace with inflation.
Sheriff Floyd Bonner and Alicia Lindsey, the sheriff's chief administrative officer, outlined a range of staffing and capital shortfalls: a $66.5 million salary-restriction that constrains hiring, an overtime strain (11.7 million budgeted but additional requests made), and several jail infrastructure projects the office says are required by the Tennessee Corrections Institute, including $300,000 for detainee toilet repairs, $2.16 million for ceiling security replacements and $2 million for tunnel doors. The sheriff's office said it submitted $9.6 million in CIP requests; $5.7 million was included in the consolidated budget.
District Attorney Steve Mulroy said his office needs additional paralegals and at least one video-processing analyst to manage thousands of hours of body, dash and pole-cam recordings, and noted that two new criminal court divisions created by the state arrived without state-funded prosecution staff.
County Trustee Regina Newman notified the commission that the mayor's proposed budget omits an expected $3.9 million property tax-relief match and some one-time items (about $614,000), and she said staff salary data appear misentered in the proposed book.
Administration Director Audrey Tipton confirmed that the mayor's proposal includes a 1% salary increase for full-time employees (about $4.3 million countywide) and a $240,000 fiscal note to provide benefits for temporary employees within the administration. Commissioners spent the last portion of the hearing pressing the administration on prior raises, tax-rate choices and trade-offs required to balance the budget.
The hearing concluded with officials saying they will propose budget amendments and provide detailed back-up documents for commissioners before the next committee meeting.
