Complex sentence: The team lobbied city council in the hope it would agree to fund the majority of the $18 million renovation using federal infrastructure funds while rejecting a counter proposal for applying a ticket surcharge to pay the cost.
Split into simpler sentences: The team lobbied City Council in the hope it would agree to fund the majority of the $18 million renovation using federal infrastructure funds. At the same time, they rejected a counter proposal for applying a ticket surcharge to pay the cost.