Chancellor Jeff Atherton has agreed to hear a request for a restraining order seeking to block the City Council on Tuesday night from a second and final vote on the upcoming budget.
Courtenay Gillean Cholovich filed a lawsuit in her behalf, without an attorney listed.
She said there was adequate notice given for the initial vote, but was not for the final vote after the budget was altered.
The council made some changes in the budget relating to Mayor Andy Berke setting up a new department that pulled $150,000 from the office of the police chief. The City Council heard from some 250 citizens asking that the budget of the police department be slashed and funds go to social programs.
The hear on a restraining order request will be Tuesday at 1:30 p.m.
A group called the Chattanooga Democratic Socialist of America said it was submitting a list of budgetary demands.
Casey Crook, of the group said, "We, as representatives of the Chattanooga Democratic Socialists of America, have compiled these demands, following the lead of organizations like Concerned Citizens for Justice, Chattanoogans in Action for Love, Equality and Benevolence, and I Can't Breath Cha. We submit this document for review and consideration by the Chattanooga City Council.
The Chattanooga 2020-2021 Operating and Capital Budgets, which passed a first reading last week, prioritize policing over resources and services that foster community stability, security, and dignity. This will exacerbate existing inequalities that harm communities of color, which tend to be our poorest, most disenfranchised, and most heavily policed.
"The constant presence of armed police in poor and working class communities contributes to an atmosphere of anxiety and stress that degrades public life and shared spaces and accelerates the damage caused by disinvestment and neglect. A stronger police presence increases crime and serves to obscure, not solve, the problems of our deeply wounded city.
"The most prevalent and persistent causes of crime and threats to public safety are lack of access to adequate food, housing, healthcare, and education. The professionals best suited to address these issues do not carry guns, they need other resources — resources that the proposed 2021 budget instead allocates to punitive forms of social control.
"Misallocation of public funds is part of the systemic racism against which Chattanoogans have been crying night after night in recent weeks; it is a system of denied opportunity and degrading quality of life for black and brown families. As such, we take the present crisis as an opportunity to provide specific recommendations on how to divest from policing and to invest in people:"
"Radically altering our longstanding budgetary habits is difficult but vital. We have the resources to be a more just city, we just have them in the wrong places. Included with this letter are specific line items for reallocation. These are immediately actionable material ways to change Chattanooga's emphasis from punitive to preventative and restorative justice. Too long have we harmed those who need the most help.
"Now is the time to build a future for all Chattanoogans."
Click here for the restraining order.
Click here for the order to appear.