How the Council voted on the confirmation of Eric Malo appointment to the Fair Board.

Last Tuesday night in an extremely rare occurrence the Metro Council rejected a Mayor's appointment to a Board or Commission. The Council rejected the appointment of Eric Malo to the Board of Fair Commissioners. Malo had been an outspoken advocate of demolishing the fair grounds and developing the property as a mixed use development as advocated by the Mayor. I am extremely pleased to see the Council take this stand and reject Malo's appointment. This should happen more often.

The vote was 19-17 for his confirmation. With three members abstaining, Malo failed to get the needed 21 votes in order to be confirmed. Since this vote required 21 affirmative votes, a vote to abstain had the same effect as a "no" vote. Here is how they voted:

“Ayes:" Barry, Steine, Maynard, Matthews, Harrison, Banks, Scott Davis, Westerholm, Anthony Davis, Pridemore, Claiborne, Moore, Allen, Gilmore, Baker, McGuire, Bedne, Dowell, Mitchell (19)

“Noes:” Garrett, Tygard, Bennett, Pardue, Hagar, Glover, Stites, Stanley, Tenpenny, Langster, Weiner, Evans, Blalock, Dominy, Johnson, Potts, Duvall (17)

 “Abstaining:” Hunt, Holleman, Todd (3).

I have typed in red typeface those who I consider the "good" Councilmen. They are listed as the "good" Councilmen because they generally vote conservative or self identify as conservative or Republican. A couple of them are marginal and I am not sure deserve to be on the list but are, and maybe there are one or two who are marginal who deserve to be on the list and are not, but most of them I am sure about.

I have added Councilman Hagar to my "good" councilman list. He was elected in a special election and has not been in the Council long, but in the few controversial votes since he has been in office, he has voted the right way. I don't personally know Hagar.

A special recognition to Karen Johnson, who if she votes right a couple more times will make my list of "good" council members. Karen voted the right way on this and when the council had a resolution before it to honor Ken Jakes she voted for it also voting with the Council conservatives, and she had previously distinguished herself by advocating a free market position before the Transportation Licensing Commission. I personally like Karen Johnson and would love to add her to my "good" list. She is marginal.

Carter Todd was about to come off my list of good councilmen. Back when the Council passed the resolution praising the EPA's new rules for existing coal burning energy plants, he voted for it. He also supported Metro employee benefits for same-sex couples. This vote to abstain keeps him on the "good" list a little longer, but he is marginal.

I don't assume most of the Councilmen care if they are on my "good Councilmen" list or not, but for those readers who value my opinion, I am putting it out there for what it is worth.

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Blackburn presents legislation to cut spending

Rep. Marsha Blackburn

By Ripon Advance Reports  |  January 8, 2015 - Vowing to renew the fight to protect taxpayer funds, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) presented three separate bills on Tuesday that each call for across-the-board cuts in government spending.

 

“Our nation is currently more than $18 trillion in debt,” Blackburn warned. “The time is now for Washington to start living within its means. It is not fair to hardworking taxpayers and future generations that Washington continues to spend money we don’t have for programs we don’t want or need. We must get back on a track to fiscal health.”

The legislation would require cuts of 1, 2 and 5 percent, respectively. The reductions would apply to discretionary spending. Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs spending would be exempt from the proposed cuts.

“As stewards of the taxpayer dollar, we have a duty to make responsible decisions with these funds,” Blackburn said. “Reducing spending by just 1 percent would save taxpayers approximately $4 billion in 2015.”  Blackburn said the majority of Americans support the spending cuts. “A Rasmussen poll conducted (in May 2014) revealed that 56 percent of Americans support across-the-board spending cuts,” Blackburn concluded. “This has been true for some time according to polling data. It is time we honor the wishes of the American people.”

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Joe Carr will launch career as radio host Monday

Joe Carr will launch career as radio host Monday

The Daily News Journal

Joe Carr, concedes in the GOP primary for the U. S. Senate seat to Lamar Alexander at Carr's reception at the Embassy Suites in Murfreesboro, ...

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Nashville Lifestyle snubs mayoral candidate Kenneth Eaton.

Yesterday I reported on the Nashville Lifestyle magazine's, "Meet your Mayoral Candidates" article which appeared in the November issue in which the magazine gave a lifestyle profile report on several of the mayoral candidates.  They reported little known gossipy-type things such as what the person likes to do in his or her leisure time and what the person collects. The magazine profiled, Megan Barry, Jeremy Kane, Charles Bone, David Fox, Bill Freeman, and Linda Eskind Rebrovic. 

The margarine did not profile Kenneth Eaton.  Maybe the magazine failed to include Kenneth Eaton because they do not consider him a serious candidate. Last time he ran for mayor he only got a few hundred votes and some do not think he has the resources to compete with the super wealthy and well-connected candidates running for mayor.  Or maybe, it is because Kenneth Eaton is just not the type of person the magazine's readers care about.  Nashville Lifestyle is more for the polo pony, white wine and brie folks who send their children to Harpeth Hall and  Montgomery Bell Academy; Kennth Eaton may be more of a football, beer and pretzel, and public school type guy. The publisher claims he did not know Kenneth Eaton was a candidate. 

Below is the correspondence between Kenneth Eaton and the magazine's publisher Brian Barry.

Subject: RE: Mayoral writeup
Date: Fri, 09 Jan 2015
From: Kenneth Eaton 
To: Barry, Brian  

Brian, Thank you for responding, But for your information, my staff filed a "Appointment of Treasure" for the Mayor's race, in early November 2014, and Freeman at the time was not even sure he was running (had not announced). 

Freeman announced a month and a half after I filed my papers, but he has a write up. If you had researched, you would have found I announced months before the November filing and won the straw poll at the Davidson County Republican party picnic last summer. So how do we handle this? 

KE 

On 1/9/2015 9:26 AM, Barry, Brian wrote: 

Hello Mr. Eaton,

The story about early mayoral candidates was in our November issue, I don't believe and was not aware that you were running at that time (we wrote this article weeks ahead of the November publication date). I assure you, we did not exclude you and I hope you didn't feel that way. As more people enter the race we will revisit it and certainly include you. 
Sincerely,

Brian Barry
Publisher Nashville Lifestyles Magazine 
615.259.3636 • 615.259.9995 fax 
Follow us and interact twitter.com/#!/nashlifestyles 
Like us on Facebook, facebook.com/NashvilleLifestyles
Get the inside scoop on Nashville’s best nashvillelifestyles.com 

Original Message
From: Kenneth Eaton [mailto:kenneth@kennetheaton.com] 
Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2015 5:40 PM 
To: Barry, Brian 
Subject: Mayoral writeup 

Brian, Just wondered; Is there a reason I was not invited in your Mayoral candidates Nashville Lifestyles Magazine. You know the first step of running is to file an appointment of Treasure, which I have done, And If you check I do not believe all the ones you did the write-up on have filed theirs. 

My campaign group has wanted to stay low key for now, but I should have the same respect as the other Candidates. 

Kenneth Eaton 
Eaton for Mayor 2015 
520 Lafayette St 
Nashville TN 37203 
615-255-0121 
kenneth@kennetheaton.com

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Congress should have told Obama, "Put it in Writing."

In less than two weeks, President Obama will deliver the State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress. Delivering the State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress is a tradition but it is not a constitutional requirement. Article II, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution says, "He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient."

George Washington in 1790 gave the first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress but that practice was discontinued by Thomas Jefferson and the State of the Union was not delivered in an address to Congress again until the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson in 1913. Wilson did not address Congress in 1919 and 1920 because of ill health. Coolige and Harding gave verbal addresses to congress but when Hoover took office in 1929 and for the next three years he gave a written State of the Union report to Congress. So, more State of the Union reports have been in writing than have been verbal addresses to Congress.

If I were a member of Congress, I would have difficulty applauding much of what President Obama will have to say.  I would have difficulty standing to applaud when he entered the room. His 30-some occasions in which he arbitrarily changed the affordable care act, his massive unilateral amnesty program, his misuse of the IRS, appointing officials to high office contrary to constitutional provisions, the Bengazi lies and coverup and his effort to fundamentally change our nation do not deserve to be honored. On the other hand, it would be unseemly to boo a President.

The President cannot convene Congress except in an emergency.  The President gets to address Congress only at their invitation. Congress should have told the President to submit a written State of the Union report.

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TNGOP: If You’re Serious About Following Tennessee’s Lead, Show Us the Money, Mr. President

NASHVILLE, Tenn.–Just as predicted by Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Chris Devaney in his op-ed in yesterday’s Knoxville News Sentinel, President Barack Obama will in fact propose two years of paid tuition for graduating high school seniors during his visit to Knoxville later today.

The TNGOP released the following statement from Chairman Devaney about the proposal:

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but the President’s attempt to repackage the Tennessee Promise into a national initiative only gets it half right.
“While Tennessee was able to create the program without new appropriations or increased taxes, President Obama appears to be keen on maxing out America’s credit cards and forcing states to pay a portion of it as well. White House aides are already describing the cost as ‘significant’ to American taxpayers.
“In contrast, Tennesseans aren’t losing a penny on the Tennessee Promise. Without a realistic way to both balance our federal budget and ‘show us the money’, the President just looks eager to pile up more debt.”

Background

• As reported by Tennessee news outlets, The Tennessee Promise “is a last-dollar scholarship. The state will pay any excess tuition after other financial aid, besides loans, has been utilized at the state’s community and technical colleges. The program is funded through a $300 million transfer from the reserve account of the Tennessee Education Lottery and a $47 million endowment that was created by the General Assembly in 2013.”

• Chairman Devaney’s KNS op-ed stated, “(I)t should surprise no one if the President proposes a federal version of it (the Tennessee Promise). But, to do so in any meaningful way, he would have to get America’s financial situation to look more like Tennessee’s prudent fiscal state.”

• The Hill reports White House aides describing the cost of the President’s proposal as “significant” to American taxpayers.

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Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) reintroduced the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act On Day One.

On the first day back in session, Congressman Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) reintroduced the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, the same legislation that successfully passed the House last year.

Last year Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduced a companion bill in the Senate but that bill was stalled by Senate majority leader Harry Reid.  Graham has indicated he plans to re-introduce the measure in the next few weeks. Now that the Senate is in Republican hands they anticipate having the votes to pass the ban in both chambers.

If the bill passes both chambers, no doubt President Obama will veto it. Still, it is right thing to do even knowing it is going to be vetoed.  We should force President Obama to take a stand for the right to abort unborn babies capable of feeling pain and force liberals to take a stand by upholding the veto. Pro-abortion advocates are reluctant to admit that at any point an unborn child has humanity.  After 20 weeks of pregnancy a fetus can feel pain and they are aborted without anesthesia.  Rarely can a fetus survive outside the womb prior to 24 weeks gestation but can feel pain at 20 weeks.

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Breaking News: House passes 40-hour workweek for Obamacare; Dems buck Obama veto threat

This is important. This starts the dismantling of Obamacare.  Under Obamacare, any employer who has as many as 50 full-time employees has to pay a penalty or provide his employees with health insurance and full-time was considered 30 hours a week. By raising full-time to 40 hours a week, much less money will be flowing into government coffers to subsidize insurance premiums. If enough parts of Obamacare do not work, the whole thing will collapse. Obamacare may never be repealed in it's entirety but gradually made unrecognizable and replaced piece by piece.

Many employers had cut their workers from full-time to less than 30 hours a week to avoid the penalty. Not only had this hurt those employees who had their hours reduced but employers at the margin of having 50 employees were finding it more profitable to stay below the fifty employee threshold rather than be penalized.  This was hampering the economic recovery and job growth.

The bill defining full time as a 40-hour week passed 252 to 172, with 12 Democrats joining House Republican in voting for the measure. Jim Cooper was not one of the twelve.  Next the measure goes to the Senate. Read more about this here: House passes 40-hour workweek for Obamacare; Dems buck Obama veto threat.  

 

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Sen. Bob Corker planning Cuba hearings

By David Morton, Nooga.com. Jan. 7, 2015 - Sen. Bob Corker said Wednesday the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold "robust hearings" on U.S.-Cuba relations in the weeks ahead.

..... President Barack Obama announced a deal to begin restoring diplomatic relations with the island country 330 miles south of Miami for the first time in more than 50 years.

"Well, obviously the policy we've had in place in Cuba since 1962 has not yielded a result we hoped it would yield. I think that's pretty apparent," Corker said in a conference call with reporters. "On the other hand, I think the hearings that we'll have will illuminate the direct effects the embargo itself has had."

It's one of many questions Corker said will be covered in upcoming committee hearings. Cuba was "off the front burner" for many years until Obama's announcement last month. The senator said those hearings will inform his thinking about whether the U.S. should have an ambassador there. (link)

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Nashville Lifestyle magazine does a "Meet your Mayoral Candidates" piece.

This month Nashville Lifestyle magazine has a "Meet your Mayoral Candidates" article doing a

Linda Eskind Rebrovick and family are lovers of the great
outdoors and love to go hiking at Percy Warner Park. 

picture and a few paragraphs on each.  You won't learn a lot about their vision for the city or what they would do about the unfunded pension liability from the piece but you will learn some human interest gossipy stuff.

I bet you didn't know that when Megan Barry ran for fifth grade class president and lost to her best friend that she did not even vote for herself. Or, that Jeremy Kane's sister-in-law is the manager of 3rd and Lindsley. Did you know Bill Freeman is a big outdoorsman who likes deer, duck, and bird hunting? Did you know Charles Bone is an investor in Acme Feed & Seed and The Southern and loves to go honky-tonking on lower Broadway?

Only Megan Barry, Jeremy Kane, Charles Bone, David Fox, Bill Freeman, and Linda Eskind Rebrovick are profiled in the piece. For the online version of the article, follow this link. 

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What happened at the Jan.6th, 2015 Council meeting? The-Council-Rejects-a-Mayor's-Appointee-meeting!

The big news of the night is that a Mayor's appointee to a board or commission is rejected. This is the first time I can recall this happening in many, many years. Usually the Council just rubber stamps whoever the Mayor appoints. The other good news from this meeting is that the $100,000 to bail out of the Neighborhood Resource Center is differed yet again. Not a bad night!


At only an hour and 14 minutes long this is a relatively short meeting. Meetings are much more interesting if you know what the Council is voting on. To see my agenda commentary and a link to the staff analysis and the Council agenda, follow this link.

The controversial appointment to a board or commission was the appointment of  Eric Malo to the Board of Fair Commissioners. Mr. Malo had been an outspoken proponent of demolishing the racetrack and destroying the fairgrounds and converting the property into a mixed use development as proposed by the Mayor. The Rules Committee had recommended his appointment 7 for and none opposed. Councilman Duane Dominy, a leader in the effort to save the fair grounds. takes to the floor and argues against Mr. Malo's confirmation. Other comments opposing the nominee's confirmation are made by Robert Duvall and Councilman Tony Tenpenny. Council member Sandra Moore, my council member and the person who represents the fair ground area, speaks in favor of Mr. Malo as does Councilman Ronnie Steine. I do not know how long it has been, but know it has been a very long time since any appointee of the Mayor to serve on a board or commission has been rejected. The vote is 19 for, 17 opposed and 3 abstentions. To be approve required 21 votes in favor. (To witness the debate see time stamp 0:3:20 - 0:13:20.)

Public Hearings: There is not much of general interest. Most bills on public hearing would interest no one but the person whose property is affected and nearby neighbors.

All Resolutions on the Consent Agenda pass. I find none of them terribly controversial or of much interest. Included on the consent agenda however is a silly memorializing resolution that recognizes, "No Name-Calling Week." If I were in the Council, I would not have bothered arguing against it but would have asked to be recorded as voting "no."

RESOLUTION NO. RS2014-1316 which would give  $100,000 to the Neighborhood Resource Center is deferred "by rule" because the sponsor was not at the Budget and Finance Committee meeting to present the bill.  This was on the Council agenda last time and was deferred. then also. The NRC has fallen on hard times recently having lost their United Way funding and some other things. Some of the things the NRC does I do not disagree with but I think the city should not bail them out.  There are many worthwhile non-profits that need funding. The NRC is essentially a political organization teaching political activism with leaders of the organization trained in the Saul Alinsky tradition. From time to time the NRC promotes a leftist agenda such as they did in 2011 when they hosted a  Contract for the American Dream workshop. You can learn more about this leftist project here. Council rules only required that under these circumstances that a bill be deferred one meeting but the sponsor moves to defer it two meetings. That is a good sign that the bill may eventually be defeated. When it comes back up, this needs to be defeated.

All bills on introduction and first reading pass as is customary.

SUBSTITUTE BILL NO. BL2014-909  and BILL NO. BL2014-951 on second reading which would regulate peer-to-peer short-term vacation rentals is deferred for two meetings.

 BILL NO. BL2014-990 which modifies the eligibility requirements for obtaining small business economic development incentive grants passes without any dissenting votes. You are probably aware of the incentives we have provided to companies like Bridgestone and HCA. Metro also has a similar program for small business but it has been little used since most small businesses can't meet what has been the requirements. This bill lowers the requirements. If a small business creates ten new jobs that pay at least 80% of the salary of the annual average salary for all occupations in Nashville, the city will pay the company $500 per job created.  I really do not like this, but since we do for big business it is argued we should do it for small business. 

BILL NO. BL2014-991, which modifies the metro code to remove the requirement that public construction projects pay Davis-Bacon prevailing wage, passes.  We should never have been paying Davis-Bacon wages for public projects since it unnecessarily inflates the cost of public projects. The Council gets no credit for passing this since this bill is simply housekeeping to comply with a State law which prohibits mandating the Davis-Bacon wage. The State legislature deserves credit for requiring this of Metro. This will save money on future public projects.  

BILL NO. BL2014-993 which is more unnecessary regulations and restraint of trade passes on a voice vote on second reading without dissent. There is a service downtown that moves people in vehicles that resemble golf carts. While this bill has some non-objectionable things like insurance requirement, it requires new people who want to enter the business to get a "certificate of necessity," as if there is ever is a "necessity" for such a vehicle. My position is that anyone who wants to should be allowed to compete and let the market sort them out.

 BILL NO. BL2014-896 which rezones 238 acres in east Nashville to allow accessory dwelling units on properties in the rezoned area is on third reading and is deferred one meeting. It was previously deferred in November. This needs to pass. I think rezoning like this is a positive development. We need to promote affordable housing but not use the heavy hand of government to mandate it. Accessory dwelling units on a lot can provide more affordable units of housing and increase density which is necessary to have successful mass transit and greater density combats urban sprawl. 




 

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Obama should listen to Tennessee Republicans

by Chris Devaney, Charman TNGOP - Tennesseans know football. So when President Barack Obama recently acknowledged to reporters he was beginning the fourth quarter of his presidency, it caught our attention. While many of us would prefer him to take a knee, that's an unrealistic expectation for a president seeking to cement a legacy.

So let me humbly offer this advice to the president: If a memorable legacy is what you want, listen to Tennessee's leaders.

Why? Because something special is happening here. Americans increasingly view Tennessee as a state of opportunity. Our economy is becoming more diverse and individuals from all over the nation are choosing to relocate here. To paraphrase our state's Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bill Hagerty, 2015 is set to witness the strongest pipeline of economic development projects Tennessee has ever seen. That means more jobs and more opportunity for achievement. If only our nation could show these signs of strength like Tennessee.

With the right leadership, it could.

While here, the president will have the opportunity to meet with some of our Republican officials. If he would listen to them and take some cues from their respective leadership skill sets, our nation would be the better for it.

For example, he should try to emulate Sen. Lamar Alexander's wisdom with regard to health and education issues. Alexander tried to warn the president in 2010 about the negative effects of imposing a one-size-fits-all model to health care. Obama failed to listen, and he should not make the same mistake again. Now, Alexander has a plan to reduce the regulations facing schools and students that will make college more affordable. The president should support it.

Similarly, he should take guidance from Sen. Bob Corker, the new chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Under Obama's watch, the world is adrift. Hardly a day goes by without a new crisis erupting. China and Russia have grown emboldened as the White House disengages. Even allies now question our commitment to being the responsible actor in the world. Corker believes America should not shrink from its responsibilities. Most importantly, he knows we cannot afford to equivocate on tough international matters. Corker has extended a hand to work with the White House. Obama should not ignore it.

The president should also take note of the revolution of ideas taking place in the state. He would do well to follow in the footsteps of our own governor. In his tenure, Bill Haslam has garnered a reputation for turning bold ideas into responsible solutions that have transformed Tennessee into an innovation engine. Haslam's steady hand and thoughtful leadership are attributes our nation could use right now.

In all likelihood, during this visit, Obama will recognize the success of Tennessee Promise — a program that dramatically increases accessibility to college for high school seniors. In fact, it should surprise no one if the president proposes a federal version of it. But to do so in any meaningful way, he would have to get America's financial situation to look more like Tennessee's prudent fiscal state.

You see, you can formulate unique policies — without spending and tax increases — only when a balanced budget is the norm, debt is low and you're atop the rankings for economic development. Washington hasn't had this type of fiscal discipline under Obama, and it would be a good place to start.

The fourth-quarter clock is ticking. If Obama is serious about creating a productive legacy, the conservative ideas to adopt and the gifted individuals to learn from are right here. For America's future, we'll be watching to see if he fumbles this opportunity.

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‘Policing for Profit’ Discussion Coming Up Again in 2015 Legislature

by Alex Harris, Jan. 6, 2015, TNReport - Drug-enforcement cops confiscating large sums of cash from motorists on Tennessee highways has been issue that’s gotten more and more attention the past few years, both from media outlets and state policymakers.

The practice of law enforcement officers seizing a person’s money or property without charging them with any actual crime has come to derisively be known as “policing for profit.” It has been explored in depth on a number of occasions over the past few years in Tennessee, in both investigative news pieces and legislative hearings. And Volunteer State cops have been among those nationally who’ve been mocked for assuming their legal authority includes the power to purloin.
The Tennessee chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Beacon Center of Tennessee recently announced they’re teaming up to push legislation in the upcoming session to reign in forfeiture abuses by police.

One issue critics have taken with the operation of the state’s drug task forces is that they’re funded through asset seizures, which they say creates an incentive to seize cash and property, rather than focusing on drug seizures.

Beacon’s “top priority will be to send all forfeited property to the state’s general fund,” according to a statement from Lindsay Boyd, the center’s policy director. Taking this step would “remove the perverse incentives associated with the current system” by stopping officers from lining “agency budgets with the proceeds confiscated from search and seizures,” she said.

Hedy Weinberg, executive director Tennessee ACLU, said a step in the right direction would be to remove the appearance of the profit-seeking incentive. She added that they would also like to see a requirement for arrest and conviction before property can be seized, as well as shifting from the individual to the government the burden of proof to justify a seizure. Law enforcement agencies should also provide better data in instances where property or cash is seized from individuals, in order for the state to discover the true “extent and prevalence” of the practice, Weinberg said.
Both organizations said they’re still in discussions with lawmakers to work out the specifics of the legislative action.

State Sen. Mike Bell, a Riceville Republican and lest session’s chairman of the Senate Government Operations Committee, has said he is working on a bill to address the matter, but the particulars aren’t nailed down. “I’m still trying to figure out exactly how I’m going to approach this,” said Bell, who chaired a Senate hearing last year that took a look at the oversight of the state’s Judicial Drug Task Forces. He added that he expects several bills dealing with the issue this year.

In Georgia last year, the ACLU and Americans for Prosperity teamed up to push legislation that would require greater oversight and scrutiny of law enforcement and prosecutors use of assets seized in investigations.

Federal officials with the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program also recently released a new code of conduct for how law enforcement officers should handle themselves in drug interdiction stops.

And this August, the voters of Tennessee’s 23rd Judicial District — which has been one of the
districts at the center of the the policing for profit controversy — elected Ray Crouch as the new district attorney general.

Since being elected, Crouch has pledged his DTF will no longer use the practice to confiscate anyone’s property unless a crime can be proven. Additionally, he said his agency will be more focused in the future on seizing drugs coming into Nashville, as opposed to snatching the money leaving.

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Council rejects Eric Malo's appointment to the Metro Fair Board

In an extremely rare occurrence last night the Council rejected a Mayor's appointment to a Board or Commission. The Council rejected the appointment of Eric Malo to the Board of Fair Commissioners. Malo had been an outspoken advocate of demolishing the fair grounds and developing the property as a mixed use development as advocated by the Mayor. Read more about it at this link.

The vote was 19-17 for his confirmation. With three members abstaining, Malo failed to get the needed 21 votes in order to be confirmed. I will post who voted which way at a later time. Watch for it.

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Funding for Neighborhood Resource Center deferred "by rule" at B&F meeting!

The resolution to give the controversial organization Nashville Resource Center $100,000 was deffered "by rule" because the sponsor Anthony Davis was not present to present the bill.

To understand the work of the Council you need to watch committee meetings. The most important committee of the Council is the Budget and Finance Committee.

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Corker elected Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Not a surprise to anyone, Corker elected Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Congratulations Senator Corker. I feel better already.

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Frank Daniels takes issue with School board members Amy Frogge and Jill Speering who support the status quo for poor-performing schools.

Frank Daniels, editor of The Tennessean, takes issue with School Board members Amy Frogge and Jill Speering who argue that poor performing schools should be left alone and continue in the hands of those who have been managing them for years. (link) I wholeheartedly agree with Frank Daniels and disagree with Frogge and Speering.

Frogge and Speering have come out against the Achievement School District plan to take over failing schools and they attack the whole concept of the state's plan to improve the worst schools. They argue that the "raw" data from some schools taken over by the ASD do not show an improvement. Daniels points out that the state has created a complex "report card" system that combines various factors to assess school performance and by that measure, ASD is performing relatively well.

Daniels points out that the ASD is in the third year of its mission to turn around the state's poor performers and he says it has a long way to go to achieve its lofty goals. It is too soon to pass judgment on the ASD, he says, and Metro schools should be supporting its efforts instead of worrying about who is nominally in charge. I agree.

I go further than Daniels however and do agree with ASD chief Chris Barbic who says there is a 'believe gap" between those who  believe all children are capable of learning and those who believe that due to being handicapped by poverty and circumstances that they cannot. It seems almost miraculous the results that some charter schools have achieved. Charter schools have taken children from the worst neighborhoods, children who would have ended up school dropouts with many of the girls pregnant and the boys in reform school, and have not only seen them graduate high school, but attending college.

I am not sure that that success can be replicated again and again but it is sure worth trying. Keeping failing schools in the same management hands as they have been and doing the same thing we have been doing for sure is not working. It is time to give the radical experiment of new management and conversion to charter schools a chance. With conversion occurring one grade at a time, certainly we have not had time to determine if charter conversion under ADS is working. We need to give it a chance before declaring it a failure. Almost anything we do will be an improvement over the status quo.

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WSJ says Bob Corker is one of the GOP Senators Most Likely to Make Trouble for Mitch McConnell

The Wall Street Journal says Bob Corker is one of the Senators to potentially make trouble for Mitch McConnell in the new Congress.  The reason is that he is a possible presidential contender along with Ted Cruz (Texas), Marco Rubio (Fla.), Rand Paul (Ky.), and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and they will be competing for the most conservative early-state primary voters and their priorities won’t always coincide with Mr. McConnell.

Other possible Senator who may make trouble for McConnell are a couple Senators concerned about the next primary election, four Senators from blue states concerned about a Democrat challenger next election, liberal Susan Collins, and three conservative new comers. To read the article follow this link.

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Conservative revolt fails, Boehner keeps his job. How the Tennesee delegation voted.

Twenty-five Republican members of the House voted against John Boehner for Speaker. The only Republican member of the Tennessee delegation to vote against Boehner was Rep. Scott DesJarlais. 

To be elected speaker requires more than half the votes of the members voting. Boehner got 216 votes out of the 408 votes cast. To deny Boehner a victory on the first ballot 29 Republicans would have had to vote against him. Had he failed to win a majority of votes cast then another vote would have had to be taken until someone got a majority of the votes of the members voting.

There was little danger that voting against Boehner would have led to Nancy Pelosie or a Democrat having been elected speaker since over 50 Republicans would have had to vote "present" rather than casting a vote for a candidate.  Even if Pelosie got the most votes and the Republican vote was split, she would not have been elected Speaker. If Boehner had not won, and members would have held firm, then a candidate other than Boehner that could have been agreeable to the majority of those voting would have had to be placed in nomination. So, 29 Republicans not voting for Boehner could have led to the election of someone other than Boehner. I am not advocating that that is what Republicans should have done, simply pointing out the process.

For a list of the Republicans who voted against Boehner, follow this link.

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(UPDATE)What's on the Council Agenda for Jan.6th: Bailing out the Neighborhood Resource Center, regulating peer-to-peer vacation rentals and low speed vehicles, and No Name Calling.

There are two very important things on the agenda that need to be stopped: (1) The council should not fund the Neighborhood Resource Center. (2) The Council should not confirm Eric Malo, nominee for Fair Board Commissioner (link) 

As I have said before, Council meeting are really, really boring if you don't know what the Council is voting on, with an agenda and council staff analysis the meetings are still boring but not really, really boring. Follow the highlighted links for you own copy of the agenda and the staff analysis.

There are four appointments to boards and commission on the agenda for Council confirmation. None of them are to the controversial or troubled boards or commissions. It wouldn't matter anyway; the council rubber stamps whomever the mayor appoints.  Eric Malo an appointee to the Fair Board has said the race track needs to be demolished and the Fair Grounds closed and converted into a mix used development as has been advocated by the Mayor.
 

There are two resolution and five bills on public hearing. These would interest no one but nearby neighbors, so I am not commenting on them. 

There are ten resolution, all on the consent agenda at this time. A bill is placed on consent if it is assumed to be non-controversial and stays on consent it passes the committee to which it was assigned unanimously. However, on the floor, any Councilman may ask to have a bill moved off of consent and considered separately or may ask to have himself recorded as abstaining or voting "no."

 Below is the only resolution of interest. I suspect it will be pulled off of consent and considered separately.

• RESOLUTION NO. RS2014-1316 approves $100,000 to the Neighborhood Resource Center.  This was on the Council agenda last time and was deferred. This non-profit has fallen on hard times recently having lost their United Way funding and some other things. Some of the things the NRC does I do not disagree with but I think the city should not bail them out.  There are many worthwhile non-profits that need funding. The NRC is essentially a political organization teaching political activism with leaders of the organization trained in the Saul Alinsky tradition. From time to time the NRC promotes a leftist agenda such as they did in 2011 when they hosted a  Contract for the American Dream workshop. You can learn more about this leftist project here. If I were in the Council, I would vote against this resolution.

There are eight bills on First Reading but I usually don't pay much attention to them until Second Reading. First Reading is a formality that allows a bill to be considered and normally all bills on First reading pass unless something is really atrocious.

There are ten bills on Second Reading, but none of them are of much interest. These are the one's of interest:

• SUBSTITUTE BILL NO. BL2014-909  and BILL NO. BL2014-951 regulate peer-to-peer short-term vacation rentals. These short-term rentals are where people rent a room to someone, usually in their home. Those with rooms to rent and those seeking rooms are put in contact through a phone app. These room rentals function much the same way Uber or Lyft function for transportation services. There are about a thousand people in Nashville renting rooms in their home through services such as AIRBNB. This type service is different than a bed and breakfast or a boarding house. Follow the highlighted link to learn more about this service. This service is not regulated in Nashville at the present time.  

Among the things these bills would require are these:

• Collection of taxes
• Proof of insurance
• An annual permit through Metro Codes
• Regulation of signage, noise, parking and food service
• Limit guest stays to 30 days or less
• Limit the number of guests to twice the number of sleeping rooms
• Require that principal owners be at least 21 years old.

All of this seem reasonable to me. There is one provision that would limit to 3% of the properties in any census tract to non-owner-occupied short term rentals. That would artificially create value for those who are already non-owner-occupied operators of these short-term rental properties since they would be able to continue operating their facility and others could not. I would like to see that provision removed from the bill, but otherwise I think these regulations are reasonable. If I were in the Council I would attempt to amend that restriction out of the bill but would not let that one provision keep me from supporting the bill.  

I have been pleasantly surprised that their has not been more opposition to this bill. I would have assumed some neighborhood activist types and hotel and motel owners would have attempted to outlaw these short-term vacation rentals entirely.

•  BILL NO. BL2014-990 modifies the eligibility requirements for obtaining small business economic development incentive grants. You are probably aware of the incentives we have provided to companies like Bridgestone and HCA. Metro also has a similar program for small business but it has been little used since most small businesses can't meet the requirement. This lowers the requirements. If a small business creates ten new jobs that pay at least 80% of the salary of the annual average salary for all occupations in Nashville, the city will pay the company $500 per job created.  I really do not like this, but since we do for big business it is argued we should do it for small business.  I am not sure I could support this.
•  BILL NO. BL2014-991 modifies the metro code to remove the requirement that public construction projects pay Davis-Bacon prevailing wages.  This is to comply with a State law that prohibits paying that wage.  It is about time! We should not have been paying higher than market wages anyway.  This will save some money on future pubic construction projects. 
• BILL NO. BL2014-993 is more unnecessary regulations and restraint of trade. There is service downtown that moves people in vehicles that resemble golf carts. While this bill has some non-objectionable things like insurance requirement, it requires new people who want to enter the business to get a "certificate of necessity," as if there is ever a "necessity" for such a vehicle. My position is that anyone who wants to should be allowed to compete and let the market sort them out.

There are 25 bills on Third Reading. Most of them are either zoning bills that would only interest nearby neighbors or bills that abandon or acquire easements which would interest almost no one. Here is the only one I find of interest:

•  BILL NO. BL2014-896 rezones 238 acres in east Nashville to allow accessory dwelling units on properties in the rezoned area. I think rezoning like this is a positive development, we need to promote affordable housing but not use the heavy hand of government to mandate it. Accessory dwelling units on a lot can provide more affordable units of housing and increase density which is necessary to have successful mass transit and it combats urban sprawl. This bill was deferred from November.

There are a couple of harmless memorializing resolutions on the agenda and they will probably be included on the consent agenda. One of them, while harmless, is kind of silly and recognizes, "No Name-Calling Week."  Next month we will recognize "No Talking with Your Mouth Full Week," and then the next month, "Leave Your Sister Alone Week,"  and then, "Keep Your Elbows Off the Table Week," and then ....... 

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Eric Malo, nominee for Fair Board Commissioner advocates destruction of the Fair Ground. His confirmation is on tonights agenda.

From Save Our Fairgrounds:

Mayor Karl Dean proposes appointing a person who has worked with two groups that actively sought to destroy the historic Tennessee State Fairgrounds to the board overseeing the property.  This is a slap in the face to over 71 percent of the voters of this county and an apparent effort to continue his efforts of destroying a part of our city’s culture and heritage long after he is out of office.

We have no need to suggest an agenda, the words of the proposed appointee are quite clear. See attached video of January 18, 2011 council meeting and Eric Malo’s own words. “A polluting racetrack can be demolished…Empty parking lots and derelict structures can be replaced with complete streets that support pedestrians and bicyclist as well as public transportation and higher density mixed use buildings…” This appointment is far from being in the best interest of the property or the city as a whole and should be withdraw immediately.

After meeting with Eric Malo and uncovering the attached video, the Board of Directors for Save our Fairgrounds unanimously voted to oppose this appointee and respectfully ask the council as a whole to do the same.

The full-length meeting is available at the following link for your review. (Advance to time stamp 1:39:17)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=msXPt59IMn8&list=PLAAE32390485B37DB&index=198

Please take this time to email the council TODAY at councilmembers@nashville.gov and tell them to not approve nominee Eric Malo for Fair Board Commissioner due to conflict of interest with regards to his past opposition of fairgrounds.   

Thank you for your support in helping us SAVE OUR FAIRGROUNDS!

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Funding for the leftist Neighborhood Resource Center is back before the Council.

Tuesday night, January 6th, the Metro Council will again be considering a resolution to provide $100,000 to the the Neighborhood Resource Center.  This resolution was deferred from the December 6th meetings. If a member of the Council is reading this, I urge you to oppose this resolution. I urge readers of this blog to contact their council member and urge him or her to vote against funding NRC.

I oppose this resolution for several reasons.  One of those reasons is that NRC promotes a leftist agenda. Below is an article I first posted in August 2011.  You can ignore the criticism of United Way since in their wisdom they have discontinued funding NRC. I also understand that the Frist Foundation has ceased funding the organization as have several other funders.

NRC's participation in promotion of the leftist Contract for the American Dream is reason enough that they should not receive public funding.

The United Way Funded Neighborhood Resource Center Promotes MoveOn.org’s Leftist Agenda.

The United Way of Metropolitan Nashville does a lot of good things. They support many fine programs that help thousands of people in our community. They help those in crisis with food and shelter and health care and counseling, they have helped hundreds of Nashville families affected by the May 2009 flood, and United Way supports programs to help lift people out of poverty. I have personally contributed to United Way. I admire the work of the organization and hesitate to criticize them. I am disappointed, however, that United Way is supporting an agency that is a engaging in blatant liberal political activism. That organization is the Neighborhood Resource Center.

NRC is an organization devoted to community organizing. They do some good things that almost all would agree are worthy endeavors, but they definitely have a liberal agenda. According to the United Way 2009 Income Tax return, the Neighborhood Resource Center received three grants that year, one for $231,958 and two smaller grants, one for $3500 and one for $1,698. United Way has funded the Neighborhood Resource Center since 1997. I have emailed United Way asking what the current level of funding is for NRC and have asked what programs that funding supports. When I get an answer, I will update this report. If I do not get the courtesy of a reply, I will also update and let readers of this blog know.  I have also offered United Way a chance to respond to this post.

I am sure that if United Way is asked about the funding for the Neighborhood Resource Center they will say that the grant is awarded for a specific program and funds received from United Way are not used for political activism. We all know that, that is not the way things really work. If NRC is receiving $237,000 from United Way, that funding is paying for overhead, salaries, and utilities and is also freeing up other NRC funds to be used for political activities.

On August 20, 2011 the Neighborhood Resource Center hosted a meeting at their Third Avenue headquarters for participants to discuss how to implement the Contract for the American Dream. The announcement for the meeting said, “We will be gathering to discuss how we can bring back our country and our state to one that values people over corporations and believes that we all do better when we all do better. Your ideas and networks are vital to the success of this Progressive movement.” Other organizations participating in the event included Progressive Democrats of America and Tennessee Citizens Action.

The Contract for the American Dream is a project of the far left MoveOn.Org. A whole host of other liberal and leftist organization are also partnering in the Contract for the American Dream campaign including Planned Parenthood, Progressive Congress.org, Progressive Democrats of America, Daily Kos, People for the American Way, and Code Pink.

The Contract for the American Dream is a major effort to energize the left. It calls for new massive government spending and wealth redistribution. The Contract calls for the following: “investment” in infrastructure, massive government “investment" in green jobs, a mandatory living wage, universal access to early childhood education and affordable higher education for all, universal single-payer health care, no changes to social security, higher taxes on the wealthy, an end to the wars and to bring home the troops now, a tax on “wall street speculator”, and to “ban anonymous political influence, slam shut the lobbyists' revolving door in D.C., and publicly finance elections.”  Would not everyone agree that that is a liberal partisan agenda?

If you work at a company that encourages participation in a United Way workplace campaign, you may want to ask the United Way spokesman who comes to urge your participation, why you should contribute to an organization that is political in nature and who works to achieve political objectives with which you disagree. You may want to consider withholding your funding of United Way and contribute directly to an organization you trust. If you work for one of those companies that “strongly encourages” participation and you feel failure to participate could endanger your continued employment, you may want to look into designating your gift to a particular United Way agency rather than the United Way general fund.

In addition to United Way of Metropolitan Nashville, other funding sources for the Neighborhood Resource Center include the following: The HCA Foundation, The Frist Foundation, Regional Transportation Authority, The Memorial Foundation, The Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, James Stephen Charitable Foundation, The Temple (Congregation Ohabai Sholom), Hermitage Environmental Leadership Project, 61st Avenue United Methodist Church, and Organized Neighbors of Edgehill.

If you have any influence with any of the above organizations you may wish to raise a question as to why they are funding a liberal activist organization.The Frist family are conservatives, are they not? Why are they funding this left-wing agenda? The Regional Transportation Authority operates on tax dollars. What are they doing supporting a partisan liberal political organization? Next time the local government is asked to fund RTA, someone should ask.

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Should the Nashville Resource Center be allowed to circumvent the competitive grant award process? (update)

This issue is back before the Council on Tuesday Jan. 6th, 2015. Please urge your Councilman to vote against funding NRC.

The Neighborhood Resource Center is an organization that trains community activist among other things.  While the organization does some good things like educate the public on codes and zoning and help start neighborhood watch programs, the leadership is trained in the Saul Alinzky school of community organizing and occasionally engages in a promotion of a left wing ideology. Even when they do the non-objectionable things they do, what they engage in is primarily political activity, not charity.

The organization has in the past largely been funded by United Way.  They lost that funding recently and have had to lay off staff and are in danger of closing shop.  There is now a resolution in the Council to give the organization $100,000 of pubic money.  The fact that they are tainted with Saul Alinzky ideology and occasionally engage in left-wing political activity  should be reason enough not to fund them.  The fact that what they do when not engaged in left-wing activity is still political rather than charitable should be another reason not to fund them.

In addition to the above, another reason not to fund NRC is that there is a competitive grant award program where non-profits can apply for grants.  NRC did not apply for grant funding through this competitive process.  Many good non-profits apply and are not funded. Why should NRC get funded when they did not even compete in the competitive grant award process.

This point is made my Sarah Martin in a post to the Nashville Neighbors Google Group:

The NRC has done good work, but I'm not sure it's fair for any nonprofit to be allowed to circumvent the competitive grant award process, especially mid-fiscal year. To receive funding from the Community Enhancement Fund, nonprofits submit proposals for a specific category, and the proposals are scored by the committee.

Here is the NRC's history with CEFL:
FY09 NRC attended the mandatory training session, applied for and received $36,658.
FY10 did not attend the mandatory training session, did not apply
FY11 did not attend the mandatory training session, did not apply
FY12 did not attend the mandatory training session, did not apply
FY13 attended the mandatory training session, applied for $19,600 in the Afterschool category, received a score of 82, was not funded.
(their score ranked 15 out of 18, that year agencies that received a score of 89 and above were funded)
FY14 attended the mandatory training session, did not apply
FY15 did not attend the mandatory training session, did not apply

Sarah Martin
Cleveland Park

I urge you to contact your council member and ask them to not fund the NRC. Ask them to vote against RESOLUTION NO. RS2014-1316.

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Rep. Brenda Gilmore joins Freeman campaign as treasurer

Bill Freeman statement on filing paperwork to run for Mayor of Nashville

Yesterday I filed papers to officially become a candidate for Mayor of Nashville and named State Representative Brenda Gilmore as treasurer of the campaign. I am excited and eager to continue the discussions I have been having about the bright future of our wonderful city.

I look forward to sharing my vision for leading Nashville through the critical decisions ahead that will make this city a place where my grandchildren can live, work and raise their families ten, twenty years from now. For almost four decades, I have been a business owner in Nashville. I have also been an active resident who is immensely proud of the advantages growing up in Nashville provided my family and me.

I have seen decisions of the past that have affected the future well‐being of our city. And, I have seen the diversity of our city grow. Nashville is a great city! However, I believe that Nashville can still improve being a world‐class city, setting an example for the rest of the nation, in our public schools, attending to our neighborhoods, strengthen our infrastructure, growing our businesses and economy, and looking out for the citizens of Nashville.

I also look forward to hearing input from Nashville’s greatest, asset, the people of Nashville. Over the next eight months I will take my ideas all over the city, to every neighborhood from Antioch to Goodlettsville, from Bellevue to Hermitage, from Joelton to Belle Meade, North Nashville and everywhere in between. I look forward to hearing the ideas of the people who live in these communities and sharing my visions for Nashville with them.

I won’t need to ease into the office of Mayor. I will not need “on the job training.” Listening to the people of Nashville, from the business community to neighborhood leaders, I will know from day one what the people of Nashville want their city to look like.

Rep. Gilmore said on joining the campaign as treasurer, “I am honored that Bill thought of me. He would have had my support for Mayor regardless, because I have known him for many years now and have seen firsthand the genuine love he has for Nashville. I have appreciated his ability to unite groups and people from all backgrounds, and to bring people together to work towards common and shared goals that are for the betterment of Nashville and everyone involved. Bill cares about the people of this city. I have also seen his ability to clearly assess any situation and to make tough decisions.”

Gilmore added, “I had a close friend tell me he had almost every candidate in this race sit in a chair across from him and tell him what they were ‘going to do’ for his community if they were elected Mayor. Bill was the only one who sat in that chair and discussed what he had already done.

That is the type of leadership Nashville needs. We need someone like Bill Freeman who has the business background and “know how” to move this city to the next level, and from day one in office, can unite the city on tough issues, lead in a respectful way and continue working for all the communities that make up Nashville.”

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