Saturday, October 14, 2017

What's on the Council agenda for 10/17/2017? Approving the sale of $225 million in bond sales to fund a soccer stadium at the fairgrounds.

The most important item on the agenda is a resolution to the authorize issuance of $225 million in bond sales to build a soccer stratum on the site of the fairgrounds. 

The Metro Council will meet Tuesday, October 17, 2017 at 6:30 PM in the Council chamber at the Metro Courthouse. If you are going to watch the Council meeting, you need a copy of the Council agenda and the Council staff analysis or you really will not know what is going on. You can get the agenda and analysis at the highlighted links.

There are two mayoral appointees to Boards and Commission on the agenda for confirmation and as always they will be affirmed.  There are no bills or resolutions on Public hearing.

There are 29 resolutions all of which are on the consent agenda. A resolution stays on the consent agenda if it passes  unanimously the committees to which it was assigned. Since the committees have not met yet, some resolutions which are listed as on the consent agenda may not be on the consent agenda when the council meets. Resolutions on the consent agenda are usually not controversial and tend to be routine matters, such as accepting grants from the Federal or State Government, entering into inter agency agreements over mundane things, appropriating money from the 4% fund, settling lawsuits, or approving signs overhanging the sidewalk. Resolutions on the consent agenda are lumped together and passed by a single vote of the Council rather than being considered individually. Any member of the body may have a resolution pulled off of the consent agenda or have their "no" vote or abstention recorded. Unlike a bill which requires three votes of the Council to pass, a resolution only requires one vote of the Council. Below are the resolutions of interest.

RESOLUTION RS2017-910 would approve the issuance of $225 million in revenue bonds and general obligation bonds by the Sports Authority all for the purposes of financing a Major League Soccer stadium proposed for the Nashville Fairgrounds. Not part of the resolution, the stadium developers have pledged another $25 million. Before the bonds could be issued the team must be awarded a major league soccer franchise and some other conditions must be met. For a deeper understanding of the issue, you may want to read the bill and the staff analysis. There are several more provisions in the bill.  I expect this will be deferred do to the complexity and controversial nature of this issue.

RESOLUTION RS2017-911 provides $1 million in funding to favored non-profits.  Twenty-seven non-profits get funding including  $25,700 to Southern Word to teach skills in spoken word poetry to prevent violence. For a full list of agencies getting funding see the staff analysis.
Bills on First reading: There are 8 bills on first reading. First reading is a formality that gets bills on the agenda and they are not considered by committee until after they pass first reading. I do not read them until they get to second reading. Bills on First Reading are all lumped together and pass by a single vote.

Bills on Second Reading. There are 8 bills on Second Reading. None are very important and likely to generate controversy.BILL BL2017-802  is a bill concerning right of way closures and work performed in the right of way. There have been several bills on the topic of right of ways in recent months.  This would impose increased penalties for closing a right of way without a permit and provide an easier means for the public to report right of way problems and do some other minor things.

Bills on Third Reading. There are 25 bills on third reading. Most of them are zoning bills that have been approved by the Planning Commission. None of them are very interesting.

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 and you can watch it live on Roku. 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 on this blog the day after or the day after that and provide commentary.

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Friday, October 13, 2017

Public Hearing on Proposed Major League Soccer Stadium

Press release, NASHVILLE, Tenn. (October 9, 2017) - Vice Mayor David Briley announced today a public hearing to allow members of the public to voice opinions to Metro Council members regarding the Major League Soccer stadium proposed for development at the Fairgrounds Nashville site .

The public hearing will be held Tuesday, October 24, 2017, at 6:00 pm in the Creative Arts Building at The Fairgrounds Nashville . Members of the public are encouraged to attend and to relay candid opinions and assessments of the proposal (within individual time limits) for the benefit of Metro Council members who will soon consider legislation to authorize financing for the proposal.

"Before the Council makes a decision on the proposed soccer stadium, we need to hear directly from the public. By conducting our public hearing at the Fairgrounds, both the public and the Council will get a firsthand impression of what's being proposed ," the Vice Mayor stated.

WHO:  Vice Mayor David Briley; Metro Council members
WHAT: Public hearing regarding proposed MLS soccer stadium
WHEN: Tuesday, October 24, 2017, 6:00 pm
WHERE: Creative Arts Building, The Fairgrounds Nashville 625 Smith Avenue, Nashville, TN 37203 
The Resolution authorizing the issuance of revenue bonds to finance the stadium is expected to be considered by the Metro Council on October 17, 2017, although a deferral of the Resolution until November 7, 2017 is anticipated.

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President Donald J. Trump should resign immediately

President Donald J. Trump should resign immediately if he has any honor or decency or if he cares about our country. He should realize he is unfit for the job of president and an embarrassment to the office. 

He seems to have no core values. He seems to have no political philosophy. He has no coherent policy. He seems to be uninformed of his own policy positions. He seems to not understand the basics of government. He does not have command of the issues. He appears to have contempt for the First Amendment rights of the press or to not understand it. He is inept and reckless and crude and a bully and much too sensitive. He is undisciplined and impulsive and he picks needless fights over unimportant matters. 

He has surrounded himself with some good people but then he undermined them at every turn. He seems to not know the difference between the truth and a lie.  As Secretary of State Rex Tillerson may or may not have said, he is a moron.  As Senator Bob Corker recently said, his reckless behavior may be leading the country toward World War III. 

Please Mr. President, do the honorable thing and resign now. 



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Wednesday, October 11, 2017

AP FACT CHECK: WH wrong in saying Corker behind Iran deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders missed the mark on Tuesday when she accused Republican Sen. Bob Corker of working with Democrats and the Obama administration to make the Iran nuclear deal happen.

THE FACTS: Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, had no role in crafting the 2015 international agreement forged by the U.S. and other world powers to constrain Iran’s ability to build a nuclear arsenal. Corker was a vocal opponent of the accord and argued President Barack Obama should have made the seven-nation pact a treaty subject to approval by the Senate. Read Full Article

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The truth is Senator Corker opposed the Iran nuclear deal and tried to stop it. Trump and others are simply lying.

It you repeat a lie long enough and loud enough, soon most people will believe it to be true. That is what has happened with the claim that somehow Senator Bob Corker was responsible for the disastrous Iran nuclear deal.  Bombastic radio talk show hosts first made that claim and now it has taken on a life of its own. Most recently President Trump made that claim in an attack on Corker. People who make that claim may be innocently repeating a lie or purposely lying, but ether way it is a dirty lie.

The truth is that the Iran deal did not have to be passed as a treaty. The deal was undoing sanctions that were imposed by the United Nations and executive order.  There was absolutely nothing to compel President Obama to submit the Iran deal as a treaty. Corker was successful in forcing the administration to allow Congress to weigh in on the deal but unfortunately, Republicans could not muster the votes to stop it. If not for Bob Corker the Senate would have not even had a chance to stop it. Corker should be hailed as a hero who tired and failed rather than being unfairly denounced as a facilitator of the deal or even worse. I watched the events unfold in real time. I watched the news and the hearing televised on CSPAN. There is simply no basis for the lie that Corker was somehow responsible for the Iran deal. 

You may have policy differences with Corker on some issues or simply may not like his personality, but the truth matters.  

The following from USA Today tells the truth.
Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, opposed the nuclear deal and spoke out frequently against the international pact, which was negotiated by the administration of President Barack Obama in 2015.

In one particularly memorable exchange, the Tennessee Republican hauled then-Secretary of State John Kerry before his committee, grilled him about the deal and then proclaimed bluntly: “I believe you’ve been fleeced.”

In Congress, Corker led the opposition to the agreement and authored legislation that put in place a process for lawmakers to review and eventually vote on the deal. Obama had planned to implement the agreement without congressional approval before Corker’s bipartisan legislation.

In addition to giving Congress a say in the deal, the Corker-authored bill required that the president certify every 90 days that Iran is complying with the terms of the nuclear agreement. (link)

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CAFFEINATED CONSERVATIVES MEETING Saturday, October 21

12 Noon to 2pm, Uncommon Grounds, 1053 Donelson Avenue, Old Hickory, 37138

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Monday, October 09, 2017

Bob Corker Says Trump’s Recklessness Threatens ‘World War III’



In an extraordinary rebuke of a president of his own party, Mr. Corker said he was alarmed about a president who acts “like he’s doing ‘The Apprentice’ or something.”
“He concerns me,” Mr. Corker added. “He would have to concern anyone who cares about our nation.”
....
Mr. Trump poses such an acute risk, the senator said, that a coterie of senior administration officials must protect him from his own instincts. “I know for a fact that every single day at the White House, it’s a situation of trying to contain him,” Mr. Corker said in a telephone interview. (link)

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Diane Black: President Trump’s Immigration Principles are a Strong Step to Securing Our Border and Keeping Americans Safe

Press release, Nashville, TN – Today, Diane Black released the following statement regarding the immigration principles released by President Trump yesterday:

“I applaud President Trump for taking a strong step to secure our borders and keep Americans safe. The President has been consistent in his efforts to stop illegal immigration and make sure that we put Americans first. I support him and I hope every Republican does the same.

I’m glad the President has included some of the provisions from my bill with Senator Toomey (H.R.400 -  Stop Dangerous Sanctuary Cities Act) to end sanctuary cities and make sure that liberal politicians around the country can’t ignore the law and put their citizens in danger. It’s something we need to do, and I support President Trump’s efforts to do it.”

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