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This week, the council voted 4-3 to reduce the amount the city spends on the decree.

The move cuts some decree-related spending for the next fiscal year, starting July 1, to $206,350 from $412,700.

Councilman Nick Kasoff, who sponsored the motion, said at the Tuesday meeting the fund left would only cover the first half of the year. He said his goal is to try to get the decree phased out by the end of December.

That would require approval of the federal judge overseeing the decree.

The council’s cut wouldn’t reduce city spending on related police training.

“We believe training the police department to do the right thing is a good thing,� Kasoff said. “What we don’t want to invest in any longer than we have to is lawyers and hearings.�

He said cutting the overall city allocation would convey “a sense of urgency� to end the consent decree.

He said if the decree isn’t ended by Dec. 31, the council could pass a supplemental appropriation to cover decree-related costs continuing after that.

Council opponents of Kasoff’s move, including Mayor Ella Jones, said it would be better to let the city’s lawyers and staffers continue their ongoing work.

Jones at an earlier council meeting last week said “people are advocating to get this thing dismissed� already but didn’t elaborate. She could not be reached Thursday for further comment.

A city official who requested anonymity said the council previously had instructed its lawyer to work with the U.S. Justice Department and the judge to try to get the decree completed by the end of 2026.

Councilman Jamil Franklin, who agreed with the mayor in opposing the reduction in spending on the decree, said he worries that the council would reallocate the cut funds to other city programs before December.

If the decree wasn’t ended by then, he said, “we’ll have to cut something else� to deal with the shortfall.

Kasoff said, however, that he wasn’t seeking to reallocate the funds now. “We’re simply not appropriating money,� he said.

The 131-page decree was worked out in 2016 between the city and the Justice Department following a federal report criticizing Ferguson police and how it treated Black residents.

That was issued in the wake of the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson officer in 2014 and the protests that drew national attention.

The future of the Ferguson decree is unclear in part because President Donald Trump recently ordered a review of all federal consent decrees.

The council’s vote on Tuesday reduced the amounts budgeted in the coming fiscal year for expenses of the federal decree monitor, Natashia Tidwell, and her team, some costs related to the city’s decree coordinator, Pat Washington, and decree-related legal and IT expenses.

Washington said about $80,000 for police training, much of it related to the decree, is still in the proposed budget and was unaffected by Tuesday’s vote. The council still must approve the overall city budget; a vote on that will take place later this month.

The council move on Tuesday followed an unsuccessful try at a meeting May 29 to cut an even larger amount of consent-decree spending from the proposed budget.

Councilman Michael Palmer’s proposal would have chopped decree-related spending by $475,000 in the next fiscal year and shifted the money to road replacement. That was defeated on a 3-3 vote, with one council member abstaining.

Councilman David Williams, who supported both proposed cuts, called this week’s version a fair compromise.