Republicans defend NAFTA

Ripon Advance News Service - U.S. Sens. Deb Fischer (R-NE) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) led a letter on Monday that highlighted the positive impacts of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the potential consequences of abandoning the trade deal.

The letter to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer was signed by 18 senators, including U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Jerry Moran (R-KS), John Thune (R-SD), Mike Rounds (R-SD) and Pat Roberts (R-KS).

“Given that the agreement is more than two decades old, there are areas in which NAFTA will benefit from strengthening and modernization,” the letter states. “On the other hand, efforts to abandon the agreement or impose unnecessary restrictions on trade with our North American partners will have devastating economic consequences.”

The senators noted that NAFTA has led to “tremendous growth” in U.S. trade with Mexico and Canada, and that it has “integrated cross-border supply chains that benefit U.S. employers, and more than tripled U.S. exports of goods, including agricultural and manufactured goods, and services.”
U.S. trade policy has been a prominent issue in recent months, the letter acknowledges, and taking a fresh look at NAFTA will be an immediate priority.

President Donald Trump had discussed terminating NAFTA as recently as last month, but had said he would delay such a move after the president of Mexico and the prime minister of Canada urged the United States to renegotiate rather than scrap the deal.

“If I’m unable to make a fair deal, if I’m unable to make a fair deal for the United States, meaning a fair deal for our workers and our companies, I will terminate NAFTA,” Trump said on April 27 in remarks during a meeting with the president of Argentina. “But we’re going to give renegotiation a good, strong shot,” he added.

The group of senators who signed the letter and who represent states that see a significant economic impact from trade said they will maintain a keen interest in the on-going process surrounding NAFTA.

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Liberty on the Rocks meets tonight

Liberty on the Rocks meets tonight at Smoking Thighs on Wedgewood Ave.  LOR has no program, no prayer, no pledge, no speaker, no dues. LOR is just a group of politically aware, well-informed, liberty-loving people who discuss and argue about whatever topic someone brings up. It may be the news of the day or some esoteric philosophical concept.  Most of those who attend will be more toward the libertarian end of the political spectrum but there is usually a wide range of right-of-center view points represented. The beer is cold and two-for-one in the early evening and the food is pretty good.  Please join us. If you can't make this one, plan on attending next month.  We meet every third Thursday at 5:30 pm until everyone wants to leave.  Most evening wind up by about 9pm but sometimes may go later, but one can leave whenever they want.  To view the LOR Facebook page follow this link.

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(final update) What happened at the Council meeting of May 16, 2017: Sam Coleman elected Judge, banning of homesharing (Airbnb) delayed, privacy is protected,

The big news of the evening is that the Council elects Councilman Sam Coleman as a General Session Judge to replace Casey Moreland who resigned in disgrace.  The other big items is that the move to ban all short term rental properties except those that are owner occupied is deferred until the second meeting in July.  For media accounts of these developments follow the highlighted link above.

If you are going to watch the meeting, or if you simply want to know more about what was before the council than what I report here, you need a copy of the Council agenda and Council staff analysis.  To access those documents as well as my commentary on the agenda, follow this link.

Before the council gets down to business, there is an address by the Lord Mayor of Belfast Northern Ireland. Nashville and Belfast are sister cities. Following that thetr is a presentation recognizing Restaurant Appreciation Day. The Council gets down to business at timestamp 14:45 in the video and the first item is the confirmation of three mayor appointees to boards and commission and they are all approved by voice vote without dissent, as is the norm.

Election of a General Session Judge.
To view this action see timestamp 19:00 to 47:50.  This list of nominees is called in alphabetical order and each candidate is give five minutes to address the council. The five minutes may include a nominating speech by the council sponsor who placed the name in nomination as well as the candidate.  If you want to know what they said, watch the video.  Below are the nominees:

• Michael Clemons, a partner at Clemmons & Clemons PLLC, the law firm also founded

  

  Sam Coleman

  by Tennessee Rep. John Ray Clemmons. He was not present and no one spoke on his behalf.
  
• Councilman Sam Coleman, an attorney in private practice is the current member of the Council representing the Antioch area. Councilman Tanaka Vervher made a short introduction and Councilman Coleman addressed the Council.
• Ana Escobar, who was an assistant prosecutor at the District Attorney’s Office and was Metro clerk from 2011 to 2013. Councilman Robert Swope who nominated Ms Escobar spoke as did and Councilman Bob Mendes and the Councilman Fabian Bedne. Bedne played the Hispanic card. The candidate did not speak.
• Martesha Johnson, has worked in the Davidson County Public Defender's Office for eight years. Councilman Nancy VanReece made a nomination speech and the candidate addressed the Council.
• Nick McGregor, a criminal defense attorney at the Law Office of Nick McGregor. A gentlemen whose name I did not get spoke for McGregor and then he addressed the Council.
• Tillman Payne, has practiced family law, personal injury and criminal law in the Nashville area for more than 10 also worked as a public defender in Wilson County. Mr. Payne addressed the Council

Adam Dread had been a nominee but had withdrawn his name from consideration prior to the meeting.  After the speeches the Council voted by open ballot. The vote was Coleman 19, Escobar 14, Johnson 3, and two abstention. Councilman Coleman having a majority, there was no second round of voting.

The resolution on public hearing concerning allowing a restaurant a variance from the distance requirements for a beer permit is withdrawn.

Resolutions. Most bills pass "on consent," meaning they are lumped together with a lot of other resolutions and pass by a single vote.  A bill is on consent  if it got unanimous support in the committee to which it was assigned and no one objects. Below are the ones of interest.

RESOLUTION NO. RS2017-615 by Councilman Grover would would require that when an agency of the government request Capital improvement funding, the entity must inform the Metropolitan Council at the same time of such submissions to the Director of Finance.  This seems like a wise move.  The Council needs to be involved early in the process of exerting control over the city's debt. This was on the agenda on April 18th and deferred to this meeting at the request of the sponsor. This passes on a voice vote without much discussion.

RESOLUTION NO. RS2017-616 by Councilman Glover would adopt a new policy requiring a maximum limit of 10% on the annual budget as the amount of funds budgeted to service debt. This was also previously on the agenda for April 18th and deferred to this meeting at the request of the sponsor. When the city borrows money, the amount of money it takes to pay the bonds which finance the borrowed money is a part of the annual operating budget and is called "debt service." The city has never had a policy establishing a limit on debt service. I support this.

Currently debt service is 11.5% of the budget and in the proposed FY18 budget it is 12.7%.  If this were to pass, some capital proposed capital projects could not be funded. I support the effort to get control of Metro's spending.  In addition to debt service, Metro pension and health insurance liabilities are areas of concern and should be addressed.   The city is awash in money now, but someday there is bound to be a slow down.  While cutting budgets are painful, if parts of the budget are beyond the council's control such as debt service and pension obligations, then budget reductions become much more difficult. This is deferred "by rule."  It could be brought back up at a future council meeting.

RESOLUTION NO. RS2017-667  authorize  Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency MDHA) to enter an agreement accepting payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) for the renovation of a 208-unit apartment development located at 2715 Whites Creek Pike, known as Haynes Garden Apartments. Up until recently PILOT agreements were used only to entice businesses to locate in Nashville.  This will be the fourth time, this tool is used to support affordable housing.  Under this agreement, over the ten year period of the agreement, the developer would pay $4.6 million less in property taxes than he would have paid without the deal, assuming the property would get rehabbed without this deal. This passes on the consent agenda.

RESOLUTION NO. RS2017-678  request the Metropolitan Transit Authority to provide at least ten percent (10%) of its advertising space to other Metropolitan departments, boards and commissions to provide public service advertisements regarding local government services. It is clarified that other agencies of Metro that wanted to advertise on Metro buses would pay the cost of the advertising out of their budget so this would not impact MTA's budget. It passes on a voice vote.

RESOLUTION NO. RS2017-682  establishes the certified tax rates for Metro.  This is required by law. Following a reappraisal, the city can not bring in more revenue than it could prior to the reappraisal, so the city must adopt a new tax lower rate that brings in the same amount of revenue as prior to the reappraisal. What sometimes happens is that a local government will pass the new certified tax rate, then immediately pass another resolution sitting a higher rate.  Much of the public will blame the higher taxes on the reappraisal, not understanding what has really happened.  To her credit, Mayor Barry is not proposing to do that. The new certified tax rate will be the new tax rate.  While almost all property was appraised at a new higher value as a result of the reappraisal, those whose property values increased less than the average increase will actually end up paying less property taxes, while those whose value increased more than the average increase in value will see a tax increase. Since the largest increases in values have occurred in areas that  were previously modestly priced such as The Nations, Inglewood, Wedgwood-Houston,  Woodbine and North Nashville, those areas may experience substantial increases in property taxes.  The more affluent areas that already had high  property values saw more modest increase in their property value so they will likely see a property tax decrease. The current combined USD and GSD rate in Nashville is $4.516; the new certified rate will be $3.115. This is deferred "to track with the budget."

RESOLUTION NO. RS2017-685 adopts a new fee structure for animal control. Under the new schedule if you dog is picked up, the impound fee is $50 and the daily boarding fee is $18. This is deferred "to track with budget."

RESOLUTION NO. RS2017-690  approves an agreement between MDHA (Metro Development and Housing Association) and Metro. MDHA agrees to make payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) for the property that they own which is tax exempt property.  This is amended to be for seven years only and not unending. At the end of seven years this would be renegotiated. It  also addresses what happens when the city builds housing that is not for low income people which they now do and it addresses what happens to commercial property on MDHA land.  Thjis would require commercial entities to pay a PILOT equal to what they would pay in property taxes. It requires market rate rentals to pay a higher PILOT than low income rentals but apparently a rate lower than what they would pay in property taxes. This bill was worked on by Councilman Mendes and he improved it for the city. Councilman Mendes is to be commended. This passes by a voice vote.

All bills on First Reading are lumped together and pass by a single vote, as is the norm.

Bills on Second Reading. Here are the ones of interest:

BILL NO. BL2017-608 would be a radical change and would establish distinct land uses for “Short term rental property – Owner- Occupied” and “Short term rental property – Not Owner-Occupied”, and establishing a phase out date in year 2019 for “Short term rental property – Not Owner-Occupied.” This has been in the works a long time. It is deferred on second reading made amendable on third reading and rereferred to the Planning Committee and set for a third and final reading for the second meeting in July. Apparently there is still a lot of work to do on this bill.

This bill is an outrage and I strongly oppose this bill if it would do the things it is proposed to do as of now. A lot of people spend a lot of money to buy and rehab and furnish and set up a Short Term Rental Property.  They registered the property as required and paid the taxes and now they are having the rug pulled out from under them.  Short Term Rental Property is a benefit to Nashville and while there are a few bad players, most of the bad players are operating without a permit. Rather than go after those violating the law now, the Council is apparently going to end this valuable service and punish people who are playing by the rules.  The hotel industry is one of the forces behind trying to ban STRP.

There was a bill before the Senate of the State Legislature that would have stopped Metro from doing this. It passed the House but the Senate deferred the bill to the next legislative session which convenes in January. However, various state legislators have warned Nashville to not pass such a ban.   If this bill passes the Council and I assume it will, one can expect lawsuits and in January the State legislature may very well nullify this action. To read many other post on the topic of STRP, follow this link.

 BILL NO. BL2017-646   by Councilman Rosenberg would prohibit a company from installing some types of surveillance equipment or expanding the number of such items of surveillance technology, such as cameras and 16 other types of technology. that capture activity on a public sidewalk or street, without prior Council approval.  As amended, some types of surveillance technology, such as cameras, would have to come back before the Council before expanding the number units in sue by a certain percentage.  It would also ban license tag readers by government. Councilman Mina Johnson moves to defer the bill. Councilman Elrod moves to table the motion to defer and makes a good case against deferral. The conflict over this bill essentially boils down to the city of Belle Mead which wants to operate tag reading technology which this bill would ban. Unfortunately Councilman Elrod made his argument to table the deferral before he moved to table, which is violation of Council rules. The motion to defer fails by a voice vote and the bill passes on a roll call vote of 28 to 6 to 1. I am disappointment by some who voted "no."  I think of several of them as "the good" councilmen and thought they would be supportive of protecting the public from a snooping Big Brother and would support the right of privacy. This was a reasonable bill. I am proud of the Council for passing it and commend Councilman Rosenberg for the work he did on this. The "no" votes are Jim Shulman, Bill Pridemore, Robert Swope, Doug Pardue, Mina Johnson and Larry Hager. To view the discussion see timestamp 1:31:24 to 1:50:21.


BILL NO. BL2017-705  would establish an incentive program for neighborhood that are in full compliance with codes.  A neighborhood could be awarded $5000.  Under this plan, if a neighbor has an overgrown lot, codes could review the violation but not impose penalties and the neighborhood could exert pressure on the offender to come into compliance. I do not like this. I do not want to give more power to neighborhood leaders who may have been elected by a tiny fraction of the neighborhood.  Neighborhood organizations have no official status and no legal authority I don't want to give them power. This program could cost up to $875K per year and is not in the FY18 budget. It is deferred at the request of the sponsor for one meeting.

BILL NO. BL2017-706 by Scott Davis would reallocate the tax money collected from homesharing (airbnb, STRP) and create a new program. Currently Metro collects a tax on STRP and the revenue is dedicated to the Barnes Fund for Affordable Housing. This bill would create a new Metropolitan Neighborhood Improvement Fund (NIF) and direct that half of the revenue collected from STRP be directed to this fund. This NIF would be a new bureaucracy with an appointed board and various powers and a mission to improve neighborhoods.  I oppose this.  We do not need another bureaucracy. We already have various agencies to deal with the issues that this NIF would deal with.  I also do not think more agencies should operate off their own dedicated funds.  Funding priorities should be decided by the mayor and the council. It is deferred to the first meeting in July.

Bills on Third Reading. Below are the ones of interest.

BILL NO. BL2017-611 is another anti-homesharing bill. It requires that an STRP application include a statement that “the applicant has confirmed that operating the proposed STRP would not violate any Home Owners Association agreement or bylaws, Condominium Agreement, Covenants, Codes and Restrictions or any other agreement governing and limiting the use of the proposed STRP property.” It would also require that the applicant notify codes if there was any such objection.  I oppose this bill.  Homeowners Association rules are private agreements.  Government has never taken on the responsibility for enforcing HOA rules. This bill has been disapproved by the Planning Commission so will require 27 positive votes to pass. The bill is deferred to July 6th.

BILL NO. BL2017-653  this is a bill of minor importance which would add to the list of acceptable documents those documents that a owner may submit with their application for STRP that shows they do in fact occupy the property.  I support this bill. It passes.

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Metro Council picks Sam Coleman to replace former Nashville judge Casey Moreland

Sam Coleman

The Tennessean: Metro Council picks Sam Coleman to replace former Nashville judge Casey Moreland.

Fox 17 News: Metro Council chooses replacement for former Nashville judge Casey Moreland,

Congratulations Sam Coleman!

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Short-term rental phase-out advances, Nashville Metro Council punts final vote to July

The Tennessean: Short-term rental phase-out advances, Nashville Metro Council punts final vote to July.

Nashville Pubic Radio News: Metro Council To Take More Time So Short-Term Rental Rules 'Stick'

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Rep. Marsha Blackburn defends President Trump in wake of Russia report

Rep. Marsha Blackburn

by Dave Boucher , USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee, May 16, 2017- While Republican and Democratic Congress members have expressed frustration, confusion and anger over a Washington Post report that said President Donald Trump gave classified information to high-ranking Russian officials, U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn said it's important to emphasize the president's commitment to security.

"Classified intelligence is a vital tool in fighting Islamic extremism and it is imperative that we are diligent in protecting our sources and methods," Blackburn, R-Tenn., said in a statement Tuesday provided by a spokesman.

"Officials who were in the room have reiterated that no sources or operations were revealed. The president prioritizes the safety and security of the American people first and foremost, and working with other countries to defeat shared threats like ISIS should not be discounted.” (link)

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Adam Dread has withdrawn his name as a candidate for General Sessions Judge

Former Metro councilman and former candidate for a General Session Judge position, Adam Dread,   has withdrawn his name from consideration as a candidate for the vacancy created by the resignation of disgraced Judge Casey Moreland.  The Council fills that position in action at tonight's Council meeting. With Dread out of the race, that leaves these six candidates:

• Sam Coleman, an attorney in private practice is the current member of the Council representing the Antioch area.
• Ana Escobar, who was an assistant prosecutor at the District Attorney’s Office and was Metro clerk from 2011 to 2013. These are advantages in that she gets known by the Courthouse crowd.  Also, I would suspect that having a Spanish surname and being female would be a benefit.  
• Michael Clemons, a partner at Clemmons & Clemons PLLC, the law firm also founded by Tennessee Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville.
• Martesha Johnson, has worked in the Davidson County Public Defender's Office for eight years.
• Nick McGregor, a criminal defense attorney at the Law Office of Nick McGregor.
• Tillman Payne, has practiced family law, personal injury and criminal law in the Nashville area for more than 10 also worked as a public defender in Wilson County. 

For WSMV's report on Dread's withdrawal, follow this link. 

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You can support this president; you can even love him. But you can’t trust him.

The following is by Jim Geraghty in today's National Review newsletter, Morning Jolt. The allegation that Trump revealed sensitive classified to the Russians does not appear to be "fake news." As president he may have the right to do this but it is poor judgement, worse than the reckless use of a private email server transmitting classified documents. Please read the following. I am beginning to think Trump is dangerous. 

For Anyone but the President’s Eyes Only

You can support this president; you can even love him. But you can’t trust him.

What are we to make of last night’s Washington Post story, reporting that President Trump told Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and ambassador Sergey Kislyak highly classified information, including a city in the Islamic State’s territory where a U.S. intelligence partner detected a terrorist threat involving laptops?

Let’s go through the possibilities. A lot of Trump fans will insist this is all “fake news,” that the story is made up out of whole cloth, and that none of these “U.S. official” sources exist. If so, it’s a remarkable conspiracy, as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Reuters, CNN, and BuzzFeed all claim to have “U.S. officials” telling them the same thing.

Perhaps multiple U.S. officials are making up this story and calling up multiple reporters, telling them the same false tale. Again, this is a possibility, except we would assume that one or more reporters at those institutions would do some basic due diligence. Would this source be in a position to know? If the source is Irving Schmidlap, who works as a dishwasher at the White House Mess, would the reporters be more skeptical than if it was someone on the National Security Council?

Then there’s this detail:

After Trump’s meeting, senior White House officials took steps to contain the damage, placing calls to the CIA and the National Security Agency….

Thomas P. Bossert, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, placed calls to the directors of the CIA and the NSA, the services most directly involved in the intelligence-sharing arrangement with the partner.

If this is all a made-up story to damage Trump, then some senior White House officials are really going the extra mile, making calls to U.S. intelligence agencies to perpetuate the hoax.

Wait, there’s more! “The Post is withholding most plot details, including the name of the city, at the urging of officials who warned that revealing them would jeopardize important intelligence capabilities.” If this is all a made-up story, why would U.S. officials urge the Post to withhold the name of the city?

Wait, there’s even more! This morning a phone call between President Trump and Jordan’s king Abdullah was added to the president’s schedule. Jordan’s got a heck of an intelligence service, and they’re a usually reliable U.S. ally. The Islamic State’s territory is just north of their country. How likely is it that this phone call is aimed to reassure that unidentified “U.S. ally” in the story?

Take a look at this detail:

“I get great intel. I have people brief me on great intel every day,” the president said, according to an official with knowledge of the exchange.

Does that sound… farfetched? Is anyone jumping up and saying, “Oh, come now, that doesn’t sound anything like the Donald Trump I know?” Doesn’t boasting about the quality of the intelligence he receives sound exactly like the sort of thing Trump would do?

A lot of Trump fans are pointing to National-Security Adviser H.R. McMaster’s statement, “At no time were any intelligence sources or methods discussed, and no military operations were disclosed that were not already known publicly.” But as you’ve no doubt heard argued since the story broke, the disclosure wasn’t really about “sources and methods.” The damaging disclosure was about that city, the location of the source — presumably a double agent or an ISIS turncoat — reporting to one of our allies. As the articles report, our ally didn’t give us permission to spread that information around, and this country was apparently already wary about sharing information with us. If this story is accurate, a few minutes of improvised boasting in the Oval Office just did serious damage to a relationship with a useful intelligence ally.

Keep in mind, last week Vice President Mike Pence, White House press secretary Sean Spicer, and the rest went out before the cameras and insisted that Ron Rosenstein’s memo was the driving force to fire FBI director James Comey… and then Trump told Lester Holt he was going to fire Comey “regardless of the recommendation.” Just last week, Trump declared on Twitter, “As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!” The president will insist his surrogates can’t be expected to get everything right, and then a few days later, insist that you trust denials from his surrogates. You can’t have it both ways.

This morning, President Trump offered two tweets on the subject: “As President I wanted to share with Russia (at an openly scheduled W.H. meeting) which I have the absolute right to do, facts pertaining.... ...to terrorism and airline flight safety. Humanitarian reasons, plus I want Russia to greatly step up their fight against ISIS & terrorism.”

Again, no one who understands the law can dispute Trump’s “right to do” this; the question is the judgment and value in doing so. And missing from Trump’s comment are the words, “I did not share any location of any source or any other sensitive intelligence from our allies.”

Brian Wilson, who’s kind enough to have me co-host on WMAL some mornings, concludes the consequences of the leak must be moot by now: “I’m guessing bomb making info was tightly held info within ISIS. Any suspected snitch within its ranks has already been dealt with.”

Meanwhile, a Vice contributor screams, “an allied informant is likely being tortured to death as we speak, thanks ONLY to Trump’s big mouth.”

We don’t know if either of those scenarios are true. (There’s a good chance we will never know.) There were media reports quoting “U.S. officials” expressing concerns about ISIS and al-Qaeda testing laptop bombs for use on airplanes at the end of March. Maybe those reports spurred ISIS to start an intense search for a mole in their ranks, maybe they didn’t. (You would presume ISIS is always looking to sniff out moles in their ranks.) ISIS controls about 23,000 square miles, as of the end of 2016 — plenty of cities, towns, and villages. It’s just asinine to tell anyone who doesn’t need to know which city is home to an ISIS mole or double agent.

The bottom line is that there is absolutely no benefit to the United States to be sharing this kind of information with the Russian government — and if it alienates a friendly government helping us fight ISIS, then it is extraordinarily damaging.

It does not help that so many Democrats insist that every administration misstep is justification for impeachment, the Twitter hashtag “#Lockhimup” (the president has absolute authority to declassify information, so no law was broken) or the insane everyone’s-a-Russian-agent conspiracy theories of the Louise Mensches of the world. But the insanity of lefties doesn’t get this White House off the hook. Unless the entire story is made up out of whole cloth, Donald Trump still doesn’t understand his responsibilities.

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Sen. Lamar Alexander chides White House, says actions can cause 'earthquakes' abroad

by Dave Boucher , USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee, May, 16, 2017- A leading Republican senator from Tennessee is questioning whether the Trump administration understands the impact of its actions after a report revealed the president provided classified information to high-ranking Russian officials. ....

In a cryptic statement Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., described the global impact of White House actions.  "Those working in the White House would do well to remember that just a little tilt there can create earthquakes out in the country and around the world," Alexander said. (link)

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Corker: Trump White House in 'downward spiral' following Russia classified leak report

by Dave Boucher, USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee, May 16,2017 - The White House is in a "downward spiral" and needs to do something to get "under control" in the wake of a bombshell report alleging Trump revealed classified information to high-ranking Russian officials, said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.

During a recent White House meeting, Trump provided Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak with "highly classified information" pertaining to the Islamic State, according to a Washington Post report published Monday.

"The White House has got to do something soon to bring itself under control and in order. It's got to happen," Corker said, according to a Tweet from Bloomberg reporter Sahil Kapur. ... (read more)

My Comment: I agree with Corker and this is upsetting, if this is true. Those who were in the meeting however, are denying it as an accurate report of what happened.  Rex Tillerson is saying that during the meeting the president and Russian officials discussed the nature of specific threats but did not discuss sources, methods, or military options. The source of the story is unnamed.  I would give the president the benefit of the doubt if I did not believe that this is something he would do.  Trump apears reckless and impulsive and speaks without thinking.  I can believe it happened. 

More and more, I am of the opinion that Trump will not serve a full term.  He will do something so outrageous that Republicans will turn on him and he will be impeached.  If that does not occur, he will fail at advancing his agenda and he will lose popular support among Trump Republicans and be a one-term president.  I hope I am wrong and Trump can get his act together and start acting like a president, but I don't think the leopard can change his spots.  I fear that what we have seen of Trump so far is the real Trump.

Even if this anonymous source is fabricating a story, the president has lost so much credibility that Bob Corker appears to believe it. Trump has exhausted his reservoir of  'the benefit of the doubt.'  I agree with Corker, "the White House has got to do something soon to bring itself under control and in order."

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The Bastiat Society presents, "Mind vs Money: Why intellectuals hate Capitalism and What to Do About It."

Mind vs. Money: Why Intellectuals Hate Capitalism, and What to Do About It When Monday, May 22, 2017 from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM CDT Add to Calendar   Where ADS Security Nashville 3001 Armory Dr #100 Nashville, TN 37204 Driving Directions Dear Rod, We're only one week out from the May meeting of the Bastiat Society! The evening will feature food, drinks, great networking with like-minded individuals, and a talk by Alan Kahan on defending capitalism to intellectuals. We hope you can join us! *Events are free and open to the public, but registration is appreciated! *Be sure to note our new location!   Register Now! I can't make it   Sincerely,   Hannah Cox The Bastiat Society nashville@bastiatsociety.com 615-383-6431

To register, copy and past the below link.
 https://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/eventReg?oeidk=a07ee5f7kx649e9677c&oseq=&c=429256f0-8ef4-11e6-bf7b-d4ae5284344f&ch=42a0fcf0-8ef4-11e6-bf7b-d4ae5284344f

The Bastiat Society, 3202 May

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Controversy swirls over closed-door meeting to determine future of Greer Stadium

Greer Stadium redevelopment faces pushback as closed-door selection process nears end

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What's on the Council agenda for May 16th: Banning homesharing (STRP), electing a judge, curtaining surveillance, creating a new bureaucracy.

The Metro Council will meet Tuesday, May 16, 2017 at 6:30 PM in the Council chamber at the Metro Courthouse.  There are two important issues before the Council, one the election of a new General Sessions judge and the other, proposed action to ban most homesharing (Short Term Rental Property).

Council meetings are really boring and I watch them so you don't have to and yet you can still be a well-informed citizen of our city.  If, however, you are going to watch the council meeting, you really need the agenda and  the Council staff analysis otherwise you will be clueless about what is going on.  Follow the highlighted links above to view the agenda and staff analysis.

There is a special election for a General Session Judge.
This is to fill the vacancy of Judge Casey Moreland who resigned in disgrace and is currently facing federal criminal charges for obstruction of justice including bribery and framing a women. Those seeking to fill this vacancy had to be nominated by a current council member.  The rules committee had to interview the candidates.  I am almost certain the rules committee will report they are all qualified for the position. I have not watched the Rules Committee meeting but if you want to see the Rules Committee interviews with the candidates, follow this link.

When I served in the Council many years ago and there were General Sessions vacancies to be filled by the Council, council members were heavily lobbied. I doubt that has changed. I have no knowledge of who is likely to win this seat, but when I served in the Council, these positions were most often filled by one of the Council's own. Being a current member of the Council gives the candidate a lot of opportunity to lobby fellow members and in many cases, he is the only one of the candidates personally known by other council members. It that still carries the weight I suspect it does, I would but on Sam Coleman.   However, that is just speculation and I don't know.

There were eight nominees but Barry Gearon, a former court officer now a lawyer in private practice has withdrawn his name. The nominees are as follows:

• Sam Coleman, an attorney in private practice is the current member of the Council representing the Antioch area.
• Adam Dread,a partner at Durham and Dread PLC is  a former Metro Councilman 2002-2007. He unsuccessfully ran for General Sessions Judge as a Republican in 2014. Being a former Council member may help, but in Nashville's Metro Council, having ran as a Republican may hurt his chances.
• Ana Escobar, who was an assistant prosecutor at the District Attorney’s Office and was Metro clerk from 2011 to 2013. These are advantages in that she gets known by the Courthouse crowd.  Also, I would suspect that having a Spanish surname and being female would be a benefit.  
• Michael Clemons, a partner at Clemmons & Clemons PLLC, the law firm also founded by Tennessee Rep. John Ray Clemmons, D-Nashville.
• Martesha Johnson, has worked in the Davidson County Public Defender's Office for eight years.
• Nick McGregor, a criminal defense attorney at the Law Office of Nick McGregor.
• Tillman Payne, has practiced family law, personal injury and criminal law in the Nashville area for more than 10 also worked as a public defender in Wilson County.

 There are three appointment to Boards and Commissions on the agenda and you can expect all to be approved unanimously.


There is one resolution on public hearing and it is to grant a variance for a beer permit from the 100 foot minimum distance requirements from a church, school, park, daycare, or one-or two-family residence. These usually pass.


There are 32 resolutions on the consent agenda. 
 Resolutions on "consent" are passed by a single vote of the council instead of being voted on individually. All resolution are initially on "consent," however, if a resolution has any negative votes in committee it is taken off of consent.  Also any council member may ask to have an item taken off of consent or to have his abstention or dissenting vote recorded.  Most of the resolutions are routine things like accepting grants, approving inter- agency agreements, approving contracts, resolutions having to do with authoring short-term financing of public works projects and bond sales, and individually allowing signs to overhang the sidewalk. Here are the resolutions of interest.

RESOLUTION NO. RS2017-615 by Councilman Grover would would require that when an agency of the government request Capital improvement funding, to inform the Metropolitan Council at the same time of such submissions to the Director of Finance.  This seems like a wise move.  The Council needs to be involved early in the process of exerting control over the city's debt. This was on the agenda on April 18th and deferred to this meeting at the request of the sponsor.

RESOLUTION NO. RS2017-616 by Councilman Glover would adopt a new policy requiring a maximum limit of 10% on the annual budget as the amount of funds budgeted to service debt. This was also previously on the agenda for April 18th and deferred to this meeting at the request of the sponsor. When the city borrows money, the amount of money it takes to pay the bonds which finance the borrowed money is a part of the annual operating budget and is called "debt service." The city has never had a policy establishing a limit on debt service. My inclination is to support this effort but I have some questions. If the city should have a reduction in revenue, then a debt service that may have been less than 10% could then be more than 10%.  How would that be resolved? Also, how would this effect our bond rating?  Also, the Council cannot restrict a future council's spending.  These questions may very well have been addressed in the Budget Committee meeting, but I did not watch that meeting.

Currently debt service is 11.5% of the budget and in the proposed FY18 budget it is 12.7%.  If this were to pass, some capital proposed capital projects could not be funded. I support the effort to get control of Metro's spending.  In addition to debt service, Metro pension and health insurance liabilities are areas of concern and should be addressed.   The city is awash in money now, but someday there is bound to be a slow down.  While cutting budgets are painful, if parts of the budget are beyond the council's control such as debt service and pension obligations, then budget reductions become much more difficult.

RESOLUTION NO. RS2017-677 approves the execution and delivery of intergovernmental applications by Metro to the United States Department of Labor for the processing of H1-B petitions.  I have read the bill and the analysis but quite frankly do not understand this resolution but think it may be significant. Currently the Trump administration has suspended for six months the processing of H1-B visa applications. I did not know the Metro Government employs non-citizens but according to this, we do. This was on the agenda last meeting and deferred to this meeting.


RESOLUTION NO. RS2017-667  authorize  Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency MDHA) to enter an agreement accepting payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) for the renovation of a 208-unit apartment development located at 2715 Whites Creek Pike, known as Haynes Garden Apartments. Up until recently PILOT agreements were used only to entice businesses to locate or expand in Nashville.  This will be the fourth time, this tool is used to support affordable housing.  I am only calling attention to this bill because at the last council meeting the sponsor had it deferred to this meeting. Under this agreement, over the ten year period of the agreement, the developer would pay $4.6 million less in property taxes than he would have paid without the deal, assuming the property would get rehabbed without this deal.

RESOLUTION NO. RS2017-678  request the Metropolitan Transit Authority to provide at least ten percent (10%) of its advertising space to other Metropolitan departments, boards and commissions to provide public service advertisements regarding local government services. I do not see the wisdom of this.  This would be a loss of revenue for MTA. However, this is probably not worth opposing unless MTA lobbies against its passage. It also ask MTA to respond as to the feasibility of this request so if MTA thinks this would not be wise, they do not have to do it, but can explain their opposition in a feasibility study.

RESOLUTION NO. RS2017-682  establishes the certified tax rates for Metro.  This is required by law. Following a reappraisal, the city can not bring in more revenue than it could prior to the reappraisal, so the city must adopt a new tax lower rate that brings in the same amount of revenue as prior to the reappraisal. What sometimes happens is that a local government will pass the new certified tax rate, then immediately pass another resolution sitting a higher rate.  Much of the public will blame the higher taxes on the reappraisal, not understanding what has really happened.  To her credit, Mayor Barry is not proposing to do that. The new certified tax rate will be the new tax rate.  While almost all property was appraised at a new higher value as a result of the reappraisal, those whose property values increase less than the average increase will actually end up paying less property taxes while those whose value increased more than the average increase in value will see a tax increase. Since the largest increases in values have occurred in areas that  were previously modestly prices such as The Nations, Inglewood, Wedgwood Houston,  Woodbine and North Nashville, those areas may experience substantial increases in property taxes.  The more affluent areas that already had high  property values saw more modest increase in their property value so they will likely see a property tax decrease. The current combined USD and GSD rate in Nashville is $4.516; the new certified rate will be $3.115.

RESOLUTION NO. RS2017-685 adopts a new fee structure for animal control. Under the new schedule if you dog is picked up, the impound fee is $50 and the daily boarding fee is $18. Don't let your dog run loose!

There are 13 bills on First Reading. They are lumped together and pass by a single vote. I do not read bills until they get to second reading.


Bills on Second Reading. 
 There are 17 bills on Second Reading but most are routine things. Here is one of interest.

BILL NO. BL2017-608 would be a radical change and would establish distinct land uses for “Short term rental property – Owner- Occupied” and “Short term rental property – Not Owner-Occupied”, and establishing a phase out date in year 2019 for “Short term rental property – Not Owner-Occupied.” This has been in the works a long time. This bill will be substituted and I do not know what changes are in the substitute but assume it will be minor tweaks. This is an outrage and I stongly oppose this bill. A lot of people spend a lot of money to buy and rehab and furnish and set up a Short Term Rental Property.  They registered the property as required and paid the taxes and now they are having the rug pulled out from under them.  Short Term Rental Property is a benefit to Nashville and while there are a few bad players, most of the bad players are operating without a permit. Rather than go after those violating the law now, the Council is going to end this valuable service and punish people who are playing by the rules.  The hotel industry is one of the forces behind trying to ban STRP.

There was a bill before the Senate of the State Legislature that would have stopped Metro from doing this. It passed the House but the Senate deferred the bill to the next legislative session which convenes in January. However the various state legislators have warned Nashville to not pass such a ban.   If this bill passes the Councl and I assume it will since it passed committee, one can expect lawsuits and in January the State legislature may very well nullify this action. To read many other post on the topic of STRP, follow this link.

BILL NO. BL2017-646   would prohibit a company from installing surveillance equipment, such as cameras and 16 other types of technology that captured activity on a public sidewalk or street without prior Council approval.  I understand the civil

liberties implication of constant surveillance.  On the other hand, a lot of crimes have been solved by private cameras that have captured illegal activity.  I do not see much difference between what a camera may capture and what a security guard may witness. However, this has been amended with exemptions and clarifications and I think I would support this.  This was previously on the agenda and deferred to this meeting.

BILL NO. BL2017-705  would establish an incentive program for neighborhood that are in full compliance with codes.  A neighborhood could be awarded $5000.  Under this plan, if a neighbor has an overgrown lot, codes could review the violation but not impose penalties and the neighborhood could exert pressure on the offender to come into compliance. I do not like this.  This would give more power to neighborhood activist. While I am all for citizen empowerment, neighborhood leaders are always the same people who watch for zone changes, and codes violations and other concerns.  They are not your average citizen but busybodies who make it their job to represent the neighborhood. They are not elected unless elected by the neighborhood organization which is usually a handful of activist who may make up a small fraction of the neighborhood.  They may not be representative of the neighborhood at all. I don't want to give these people more power. I don't want a neighborhood deciding how to spend $5,000. This program could cost up to $875K per year and is not in the FY18 budget.

BILL NO. BL2017-706 would reallocate the tax money collected from homesharing (airbnb, STRP) and create a new program. Currently Metro collects a tax on STRP and the revenue is dedicated to the Barnes Fund for Affordable Housing. This bill would create a new Metropolitan Neighborhood Improvement Fund (NIF) and direct that half of the revenue collected from STRP be directed to this fund. This NIF would be a new bureaucracy with an appointed board and various powers and a mission to improve neighborhoods.  I oppose this.  We do not need another bureaucracy. We already have various agencies to deal with the issues that this NIF would deal with.  I also do not think more agencies should operate off their own dedicated funds.  Funding priorities should be decided by the mayor and the council. 

  
Bills on Third Reading:
These are 33 bills on Third Reading and not much that is of interest. Most are rezoning bill and they have all been approved by the Planning Commission. Here are ones of interest.

BILL NO. BL2017-611 is another anti-homesharing bill. It requires that an STRP application include a statement that “the applicant has confirmed that operating the proposed STRP would not violate any Home Owners Association agreement or bylaws, Condominium Agreement, Covenants, Codes and Restrictions or any other agreement governing and limiting the use of the proposed STRP property.” It would also require that the applicant notify codes if there was any such objection.  I oppose this bill.  Homeowners Association rules are private agreements.  Government has never taken on the responsibility for enforcing HOA rules. This bill has been disapproved by the Planning Commission so will require 27 positive votes to pass. Hopefully it will fail to get the votes.

BILL NO. BL2017-653  this is a bill of minor importance which would add to the list of acceptable documents those documents that a owner may submit with their application for STRP that shows they do in fact occupy the property.  I support this bill.

To watch the Council meeting, you can go to the courthouse and watch the meeting in person, or you can watch the broadcast live at Metro Nashville Network's Government TV on Nashville's Comcast Channel 3 and AT&T's U-verse 99 and it is streamed live at the Metro Nashville Network's livestream site. You can catch the meeting the next day (or the day after the next) on the Metro YouTube channel.   If can stand the suspense and just wait, I will post the video here the day after or the day after that and provide commentary.

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