Carol Berz

It will be at least a month before the City Council announces its goals and objectives for next year.

A formal resolution stating the council’s goals for the 2009-10 fiscal year has been put on hold, but council members said Monday they still could set priorities without putting the resolution on paper.

“I don’t think we’re ready to adopt a mission statement,” council Chairman Jack Benson said. “I think we’re ready annually to look at priorities.”

Mayor Ron Littlefield’s proposed agenda could come before the Chattanooga City Council next month. It will include ways to pay for the mayor’s agenda items over the next 12 months, and the City Council then can change or approve items on that agenda.

For several months, the council has worked on a mission statement that included ambitions for the 2009-10 budget, which starts July 1. The mission statement also would include goals and objectives for the 2010-11 fiscal year.

But last week in a 9-0 vote, the council tabled the mission statement for a month and is waiting for the mayor’s proposed budget coming out.

The council will be voting tonight during its regularly scheduled business meeting on passing a temporary budget for July, August and September.

City Finance Director Daisy Madison said Monday she did not anticipate the mayor’s proposed budget being presented before June 30. She said the budget traditionally is presented in the first or second week of June, but because of property tax appraisals this year there has been a hold up.

The city is taking into consideration the council’s goals, she said. Once the budget is presented, the council has other options, Ms. Madison said.

“They always have the option to change it,” she said.

Councilwoman Carol Berz, chairwoman of the Budget, Personnel and Finance Committee, said if the mission statement passes in three weeks, it probably would not be a document that sets priorities in stone.

“It can be no more than a guide and, over the next year, can be tailored,” she said.

The priorities established by the council were public safety, infrastructure, youth and communication, she said. The city already has started implementing some programs to address those objectives, Dr. Berz said.

Mr. Benson said Monday he thought more council members were starting to rely on the city charter’s emphasis that the council’s role is to oversee and adopt a budget and not plan it.

The mission statement is in the Legal and Legislative Committee for the language to be honed, under Chairman Peter Murphy.