LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer and several members of Metro Council have some proposals for the city's $26 million budget surplus.
The money is being carried over from last year's budget. Monday afternoon, the mayor filed two emergency funding ordinances.
"What happens is, we are going to be appropriating some funding that's going to be capital expenses and some funding will be operating expenses," explained Barbara Sexton Smith, D-4. "And it'll just determine where the money goes."
One of those proposals would create a mobile unit to respond to specific 911 calls. It would not involve hiring more police, but would provide more time for officers to respond to violent crime.
In June, a man believed to suffer from mental illness fired shots into a crowd of people at Jefferson Square Park, killing one person. In November, a homeless man was arrested and charged with breaking several glass windows at Fourth Street live.
"We have seen a lot more of that over the last year," said Abby Drane, President and CEO of Seven Counties. "Especially with the COVID impact and racial unrest."
Drane said Louisville Metro Police Officers often respond to calls that should be directed to a mental health specialist.
"I talked with Louisville Metro Police, the new chief, and the majority of their calls deal with behavioral health issues and don't require a gun on your holster to respond to," she said.Â
Monday afternoon, the mayor and members of the Metro Council Budget Committee filed an emergency funding ordinance, which includes money for a mobile crisis response team. The mobile team would be made up of mental health professionals from Seven Counties, St. John Center for homeless men and the U of L School of Public Health and Information Sciences.
"We are a team that is used to working together and solving problems in the community, and I think a few conversations and we could get this together pretty quickly," Drane said.
"There are many examples of folks experiencing mental illness and behavioral challenges in our community, that we've seen just this last year," explained Sexton Smith, who shared another problem she believes the mobile crisis response team could solve in the city.
"My hope is that what this will do is free up our LMPD officers to spend more of their time solving and reducing violent crime in our community," she said. "And that is, I think, what the entire community has been asking for ... for this entire last year."
Metro Council's Budget Committee has a special meeting Tuesday afternoon. If the council committee votes in favor of the proposals, they would head to the full council on Thursday.Â
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