BUDGET TALKS:

Contentious vote builds on Memphis budget

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland wants to restore funds to buy new police vehicles.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s administration on Tuesday requested that City Council members reverse several of their largest changes to the proposed budget, including adding back $2.5 million in capital spending to buy new police vehicles.

The administration also recommended reducing Fire Services’ capital budget for new vehicles by $1 million, back to what was originally proposed; adding $400,000 to the operating budget for private security at the former state building at 170 N. Main; and adding another $400,000 for promotional testing.

The recommendations, which weren’t acted on in the budget wrap-up session Tuesday, could set up a contentious vote at the final wrap-up May 31.

Along with those discussions, council member Patrice Robinson said she hopes to propose a 1 percent pay increase for all city employees, and asked the administration Tuesday to estimate the cost.

Council member Berlin Boyd, who wasn’t at the session, proposed the capital budget changes earlier in the budget hearings process after saying he thought many squad cars weren’t being used while fire vehicles were being used constantly.

At the wrap-up session, General Services Director Antonio Adams made the case again for buying new vehicles as part of the city’s “rolling stock” strategy, where vehicles over a certain mileage limit are phased out of the fleet,