Michael Cass

mcass@tennessean.com

Mayor Karl Dean’s controversial bus rapid transit plan survived a test Tuesday after an administrative oversight gave Metro Council opponents a chance to hurt its eligibility for future funding.

After the Metro Transit Authority failed to put $51.5 million for the 7.1-mile Amp line in the city’s five-year capital improvements budget — which is actually a “wish list” of potential building projects, not a typical budget — an amendment was necessary to put the money in. Projects have to be on the wish list to be eligible for future capital dollars.

The oversight — which MTA interim CEO Ed Oliphant said his agency “takes full responsibility for” — meant council members could debate the Amp on its own, not within the much broader confines of the overall list, which the council must approve by June 15 to satisfy the Metro Charter. The Amp amendment ultimately passed on a 25-8 vote.

Before the vote, Dean’s office issued a statement about what it would mean.

“To be clear, the CIB is an annual planning document only and does not allocate any additional funds for the Amp,” press secretary Bonna Johnson said. “Funding for the Amp would come in the form of a capital spending plan.”

She said the Dean administration doesn’t intend to file such a plan until after an Amp citizens advisory committee has finished its work later this year. But waiting until then to amend the wish list, as Councilman Emily Evans suggested earlier in the day, would have required the support of two-thirds of the council rather than a simple majority.

Councilman Duane Dominy said putting the Amp money in after a public hearing on the wish list was held last week didn’t look good. But Councilman Peter Westerholm, who sponsored the amendment, said it would let the city “continue the conversation” about mass transit.

Reach Michael Cass at 615-259-8838 and on Twitter @tnmetro.