KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Knoxville City Council was set to meet at 6 p.m. on Tuesday to discuss several routine grants and contracts.
One of the largest was with Visit Knoxville, the city's convention and visitors bureau. The contract would last 5 years and would require them to provide destination marketing and event management services. Effectively, the contract would be a continuation of the city's existing agreement.
The first year of the contract would cost the city around $1.7 million to support destination marketing services, the Visit Knoxville Film Office and the K-Town Connect Ambassadors program. The firm could then ask for additional funding during the next fiscal year.
The city said that Visit Knoxville has consistently met or exceeded goals over the past decade. The firm will need to prepare an annual sales and marketing plan that includes details about its branding, sales goals and lead generation.
City Council also voted to spend $450,000 to implement violence-interruption street outreach programs through SEEED Inc. The programs come after Knoxville saw the then-highest number of homicides in recent history in 2020, according to city leaders.
The number of homicides increased in 2021 as well. They said that the violence disproportionately affected Black communities in East Knoxville, and so they started developing programs to interrupt cycles of violence throughout the community.
Officials said that SEEED's program could act as a pilot for a longer-term street outreach program diverting people away from violence and fans. it will be called "Turn Up Knox" and will have between seven and ten full and part-time staff members.
Those staff members will directly engage with the community to prevent situations from escalating to violence, and will respond to incidents of violence to reduce the possibility of retaliation while also "promoting community healing." They will also connect with people who are known to be at risk of violence and create positive relationships and opportunities with them.
The city council also voted to lease property at 1515 St. Mary's Street to the Helen Ross McNabb Center. They will use that property as a behavioral health urgent care unit — a first of its kind in Tennessee.
It will be leased for 10 years with an option to renew the agreement after the lease is up. The McNabb Center will need to spend at least $4 million within the first 3 years of the lease to turn the property into a behavioral health urgent care center.
They will also need to sublease some of the property for a medical urgent care facility.
Finally, the city council will formally recognize June 2022 as LGBTQ+ Pride Month and October 2022 as LGBTQ+ history month. If approved, they would send a copy of the resolution to Knox Pride signifying their formal recognition of Pride Month.