Recently the State legislature passed HB2615, a bill that would prohibit sanctuary cities in Tennessee and require local law enforcement officials to comply
with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests to hold
immigrants for purposes of deportation. Advocates of illegal immigration, such as Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, opposed the bill. Others opposed the bill the bill on practical grounds, contending it will make it more difficult to get illegal immigrants to cooperation with police if they fear the local police are acting as ICE agents. Others opposed it due to a stated believe that the State should not be telling cities what to do. Cities do not have sovereignty, of course and derive their power from what is granted by the State. States have every right to set rules for cities. Liberals do not understand the basic government structure or purposely make an invalid comparison when they claim that the relationship of the Federal Government to the State government is comparable to the relationship of state government to cities.
I support the bill that passed. The State was right to require cities to cooperate with the Federal government to enforce immigration law. Governor Haslam allowed the measure to become law without his signature. He had been heavily lobbied to veto it.
At the May 15th council meeting, the council passed Resolution RS2018-1222 requesting that Governor Bill Haslam veto that legislation. The vote was 21 in favor of the resolution, four opposed and four abstaining. Here is how they voted.
Voting Yes, voting in favor of the resolution urging a governor to veto the bill banning sanctuary cities in Tennessee (21): Sheri Weiner, Cooper, Gilmore, Mendes,
Hurt, Shulman, Hastings, Haywood, Scott Davis, Withers, Anthony Davis,
VanReece, Sledge, O'Connell, Mina Johnson, Vercher, Karen Johnson,
Potts, Bedne, Dowell, and Lee.
Robert Swope
Voting No, voting against the resolution urging a veto (4): Robert Swope, Steve Glover, Mike Freeman, and Russ Pulley.
Steve Glove
Russ Pulley
Mike Freeman
Casting a vote to Abstain (4): Jeff Syracuse, Roberts, Elrod, and Davette Blalock.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — President Donald Trump will hold a campaign rally in Tennessee later this month on the same day he will headline a fundraiser for Rep. Marsha Blackburn in her Senate bid.
The rally will take place on the evening of May 29 at Nashville Municipal Auditorium. Tickets are available online. (link)
This is part 2 of the report on the Metro Council meeting of Tuesday 5-15-2018. To see part one follow this link. If you are going to
watch the meeting, it helps to know what is going on. To access an agenda, the
staff agenda analysis and my commentary on the agenda follow this link. This report picks up at timestamp 1:28 in the video where the council moves to consideration of resolutions.
There are 38 resolution on the agenda most are on the consent agenda. A
resolution stays on the consent agenda if it passes unanimously the
committees to
which it is assigned. Resolutions which receive negative votes in
committee are pulled off of consent. Also any councilman may have a
resolution pulled off of consent. Those remaining on consent are lumped
together and passed by a single vote. 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. Unlike a bill which
requires three votes of the Council to pass, a resolution only requires
one vote of the Council. Here are the resolutions of interest:
Resolution RS2018-1158 is an attempt to decouple the development of a soccer stadium from the location of the Fairgrounds. This resolution authorizes the city to issue bonds for construction of the major league soccer stadium
but does not specify the location. There is an effort which I approve
of to have the soccer stadium build in Metro Center instead of the
Fairgrounds. The staff analysis says there are several things wrong
with this resolution. The owners of the
soccer franchise say that building the stadium anywhere other than the
fairgrounds would jeopardize the soccer franchise. This resolution was disapproved by the Budget and Finance Committee. It is deferred indefinitely, which means this effort is essentially over unless something unusual happens. Councilman Glover made a valiant commendable effort. To see his remarks on this resolution see timestamp 1:46:37 in the video.
Resolution RS2018-1165 is even more money for the Metro General Hospital money pit.
It is half a million dollars from the 4% fund for equipment and building
repairs. Since the mayor included a massive increase in funding for Metro General in his budget this is deferred indefinitely by voice vote. To see the sponsors explanation of this action see timestamp 1:48:35.
Resolution RS2018-1171 which would continue the auto emissions testing program in Nashville even though the State says we may discontinue it, passes. This reason given for passing this is that we have contracts with vendors to provide the inspections through June 30, 2022. If I were serving in the Council I would have voted against it anyway. If we no longer need the service, I am sure we could have bought our way out of the contract and discontinued the program early. In 2022 the Council will decide the future of the program. There is some explanation but little discussion other than the sponsors explanation as stated above and this is passed on a roll call vote. To see the discussion see timestamp 1:52.
Voting Yes (28): Gilmore, Mendes, Hurt, Shulman, Hastings,
Haywood, Scott Davis, Withers, Anthony Davis, VanReece, Pridemore,
Syracuse, Freeman, Sledge, Allen, O'Connell, Mina Johnson, Murphy,
Pulley, Elrod, Blalock, Vercher, Karen Johnson, Potts, Bedne, Dowell,
Lee, and Henderson.
Voting No (7): Cooper, Swope, Hagar, Glover, Rhoten, Roberts, and Rosenberg.
No one Abstained.
Resolution RS2018-1180 proposes three amendments to the Metro Charter, all
related to the procedure for succession when a mayor leaves office
prior to the end of his term. I think what occurred when Mayor Barry was
forced to resign worked pretty smoothly and do not see the need for
revising the charter, however it is no big deal. It will take 27 votes
of the Council for this to pass and then the proposed changes would be
decided in a referendum. The resolution was referred to the Charter Revision Commission and
recommended for deferral at the request of the sponsor by the Charter
Revision Committee. Council Member Rosenberg moved to defer the
resolution, which motion was seconded and approved by a voice vote of
the Council. This action is explained by the sponsor. To see the explanation see timestamp 1:58:17.
Resolution RS2018-1216 is an attempt to combat the proliferation of campaign signs in the public right of way.
It requires a report to the council from public works and codes on the
number of signs removed and how many cases were prosecuted, and some
other things.This passed on the consent agenda.
Resolution RS2018-1220 recognizing June as “'Nashville Pride Month', celebrating the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender communities and their enormous contributions to the quality
of life in Nashville and Davidson County, and further recognizing the
30th anniversary of the first Nashville Pride event which took place in
1988." This passed on the consent agenda.
Resolution RS2018-1221is a late filed resolution that required suspension of the rules. This resolution request that the Metropolitan Civil Service Commission
propose a pay plan for Metropolitan Government employees limited to the
ensuing FY2018-2019 fiscal year, and requesting the Mayor, Director of
Finance, and Civil Service Commission to refrain from multi-year pay
plans in the future unless a financing plan is presented adequately
demonstrating that future revenues will be sufficient to meet the
multi-year obligation. This is prompted by what happened when last year the Council voted to approve a cost of living pay increase for employees but the pay increase was not funding in this year's budget. This is a memorializing resolution only and really doesn't do anything. It is not binding on anyone. It is however a responsible statement of policy. The discussion of this resolution starts at timestamp 2:02.
The resolution was approved by the Budget
and Finance Committee. Council Member Vercher moved to adopt the
resolution, which motion was seconded and adopted by the following roll
call vote: Yes (26): Weiner, Cooper, Mendes, Hurt,
Shulman, Hastings, Haywood, Swope, Scott Davis, Withers, Anthony Davis,
VanReece, Hagar, Glover, Syracuse, Sledge, Roberts, Mina Johnson,
Pulley, Elrod, Blalock, Vercher, Karen Johnson, Potts, Dowell, and Lee; No (1): Bedne; Abstain (3): Gilmore, Freeman, and O'Connell.
Resolution RS2018-1222 is another late filed memorializing
resolution requesting that Governor Bill Haslam veto HB2315, which
would prohibit state and local governmental entities from adopting
sanctuary policies.
I support the HB2615 and oppose cities in Tennessee being allowed to become sanctuary cities. No one speaks against the bill. To see the discussion see timestamp 2:09:50. Council Member Gilmore moved to adopt the
resolution, which motion was seconded and adopted by the following roll
call vote:
Voting Yes (21): Weiner, Cooper, Gilmore, Mendes,
Hurt, Shulman, Hastings, Haywood, Scott Davis, Withers, Anthony Davis,
VanReece, Sledge, O'Connell, Mina Johnson, Vercher, Karen Johnson,
Potts, Bedne, Dowell, and Lee;
Voting No (4): Swope, Glover, Freeman, and Pulley;
Casting a vote to Abstain (4): Syracuse, Roberts, Elrod, and Blalock.
Bills on Second Reading. Thee are 13 of them. This is the only one of interest:
BL2018-1173 by Councilman Davette Blalock which would prohibit retail establishments from providing to customers single-use plastic carryout bags. In addition to an assault on my liberty and convenience, some make the argument that plastic bags are environmentally superior to paper bags.
This would not ban paper bags. There is a continent size mass of trash
in the pacific ocean and plastic bags make up a large part of it and
this has received publicity, but the origin of this trash is mostly from
five poor Asian countries. Banning plastic bags in Nashville will not
decrease the plastic bags in the oceans. The committees that considered the bill voted to defer to the second meeting in July. The sponsor moved to defer indifferently, which means it could be resurrected but mostly likely means it is dead.
Bills on Third Reading: Three are 22 of them. Most are approved zoning bills. Here are the only ones of interest
Bill BL2018-1148 is a rezoing of properties on Baptist World Center Drive
and other nearby streets from various zoning classifications including
industrial and residential to an SP zoning. This does not interest me
and it is a bill approved by the Planning Commission but at the public
hearing several neighbors spoke out against it. It passes on a roll call vote with no "no" votes but five abstentions. There is some explanation and classifications offered. If interested see timestamp 2:34:42.
Bill BL2018-1159 restrict the retail sale of dogs and cats at pet stores. There is a lot of confusion surrounding this bill. I had mistakenly reported that with the passage of this bill that only rescue pets or "pound pubs" could be sold in pet stores. Apparently that is incorrect. Animals purchased from breeders could still be sold in pet stores. For the sponsors explanation see timestamp 2:50:42. I did not know this, but when you see pets for sale at a pet store, they are currently being sold though a 501(c)(3) organization that is housed in the pet store. I apologize for contributing to the confusion. It passes.
Robert Swope confesses to a incident from his past
Taking to the floor in a "point of personal privileged," Councilman Robert admits to an incident that occurs some twenty years ago when he was charged with the misdemeanor offense of soliciting prostitution. He is taking the opportunity to expose and explain this because a political opponent is preparing to make it public, and Swope says he wants to explain it first. This does not amount to much of anything. I admire Swope for taking to the floor to address this scandal. He chokes up while making his comments. Several council members join him and put their hand on his shoulder and show him support. This is moving. I admire Swope's courage. For more on this issue follow this link. To see Swope's comment see timestamp 3:03:30.
Councilman Robert Swope is one of the few self identified Republicans in the Metro Council and he
Robert Swope
was Trump's Tennessee State Director. He is the most conservative member of the Council and yet is effective and respected by his colleagues. He is running for a position on the Republican State Executive Committee challenging Ron McDow for the District 20 Republican State Executive Committeeman seat. The election is August 2.
Apparently Ron McDow dug up some dirt on Robert Swope. Swope was charged with
the misdemeanor of soliciting prostitution on Sept. 11, 1998. He paid a $1,000 bond and there was never a disposition of the case, indicating that it is still open.
Swope told The Tennessean he had stopped at a gas station in Chattanooga while driving back to Nashville from Atlanta and a woman banged on his window and propositioned him and "out of complete curiosity, I said 'How much?'" Then blue lights shown up and he was sited with solicitation of prostitution and released.
That sounds perfectly reasonable to me. I have been approached by prostitutes who asked, "You want a date?" I have engaged them in conversation, probably also asking how much. It could happen to anyone.
Swope told this story near the end of the Council meeting on Tuesday night. "In the decades since this long-forgotten episode, I've grown... met an
incredible woman, gotten married, and tried to serve my community and my
country as honorably and as well as I could," Swope said. "This alone
doesn't absolve me from my past transgressions, but my youthful
indiscretions were just that -- youthful indiscretions."
He later told The Tennessean that when he showed up in court, they had no record of
his arrest and sent him on his way. The Tennessee reports that Hamilton County court records have
no court date listed for Swope or any indication that a subsequent
failure-to-appear warrant was issued.
Swope made his public statement because he said he wanted to "get out in front of this." "I respect my wife, my family, and my constituents of this
city far too much to let this come out without hearing it from me
first."
Ron McDow who is apparently the one responsible for digging up the dirt on Swope, has a lengthy record accusing him of beating his wife. (link)
"Bitch," "Nigger," and "fuck," are among the words in the lyrics to a rap song that praises pimping and taking a hit off of blunt, and getting locked up and says that "real hoes still know they gots to fuck."
That is typical rap song garbage, but what makes it interesting is that Director of Schools Shawn Joseph decided to play a snippet of the song for members of the school board at a school board meeting. He did not play it to give an example of how degenerate rap music is but in explaining how he sometimes uses song lyrics as inspiration.
That is shocking, but what is more shocking, is that when a board member criticizes his doing so, the leader of the Council's minority caucus said of the board member that her criticism of Shawn was "inflammatory, it seems racially motivated, perhaps more appropriately stated, as culturally and generationally insensitive."
I question if Dr. Joseph has the values or the judgment of someone we want leading our school. Here are the song lyrics. Judge for yourself.
I go on and on Can't understand how I last so long I must have super powers Rap 225 thousand hours Get it calculated do the math I made 1,000 songs that made you move your ass And for the last 300 months I made 16 albums with me on the front and they bump Where you get your beats? I heard 93 rappers say bitch like me 2 singers and 10 comedians And I'm still gon' yell it every time you see me in What's my favorite word? BITCH! Why they gotta say it like $hort? BITCH! You know they can't play on my court Can't hang with the big dogs Stay on the porch
[Hook: 4x] Blow the whistle
[Verse 2:] Where you get that from? Grab the mic, spit one, let me hit that blunt Pimp-C, 8-Ball, and MJG Keep spittin' that P to the I-M-P Bun-B, that's Texas, baby Ball and G, that's Memphis, baby $hort Dog, that's Oakland, baby Ain't nothin' but pimpin' these days, G My nigga C got locked up But these real hoes still know they gots to fuck Give a fuck nigga what you say $hort Dog fuck with UGK Do you really wanna be like me? Spit game like Snoop and T.I.P Pretty girls in the VIP They came with Dre... they don't need ID
At over three hours long, this is a long meeting. If you are going to watch it, it helps to know what is going on. To access an agenda, the staff agenda analysis and my commentary on the agenda follow this link.
Since this is a long meeting, I am breaking this report into two parts. This first part primarily concerns the public hearing on the Donelson Transit-Oriented Redevelopment Plan. While this plan may not be of interest to everyone, this is a big deal.
All mayoral appointees to Boards and Commissions are approved without dissent. There were several appointees to the Human Relations Commission on the agenda.
A new authority has been given to cities by the State to plan, facilitate and guide
develop around
transit stops to encourage a certain kind of development
around those stops and to give cities the authority to issue Tax
Increment Financing bonds for improvements in the designated area. This
would be the first time this authority has been used. The Donelson plan will likely be the template for when this is tool is used again, so it is important that the Council get it right.
This designation as a transit-oriented redevelopment district
would apply to the area around the Donelson stop on The Nashville Star line. This plan sits development guidelines and does a lot of different things. There is a
lot of detail in the staff analysis for those who want to know more.
The plan sits aside $10 million in TIF funding for affordable housing. TIF stand for Tax Increment Financing and is the type of financing that has funded much of the gulch development and downtown. Under TIF, instead of the tax income generated by a development flowing into the city coffers it is used to fund development in the redevelopment area. The logic for this is that without the use of this tool the development would not have occurred in first place. At one time this made scene and was a tool for redeveloping blighted area. In my view it is being abused.
I believe this new transit-oriented redevelopment authority can be a good planning tool and approve of it. However, I do have concerns. A major concern is that this may give to MDHA the authority to condemn property and take it for redevelopment without that action going back before the Metro Council. MDHA has a long history of misusing eminent domain. You may recall the case of Joy Ford, who some years ago had to fight MDHA which wanted to take her small music business office to make the property available for a larger development. That is only one of many instances where MDHA has taken property which was not in any real sence "blighted" and and simply took the property so a larger concern could develop property that would bring in more tax revenue. I could not support any bill that gives MDHA condemnation authority. In my view, all use of eminent domain should require council action. I am trying to get clarification of this point.
A whole bunch of people speak in favor of this bill and against it. Most of those speaking against say they are not really against it they just want it improved. One of those speaking against is former Councilman John Summers speaking on behalf of The Coalition of Nashville Neighborhoods. I often disagree with Summers but this time he raises several good points, one of which is that TIF money is not MHDA
money and TIF financing diverts money away from the general fund and
robs the city of the funds to support general services and instead gives
that money to support specific developments. He says instead of giving MDHA control of the TIF money and letting them decide how it is spend, he says that each project seeking TIF funding should have to come back before the Council. I agree. (see timestamp 1:04:20 for his remarks)
Several people speak against the bill saying that while it will result in the development of some units of affordable housing that it will tend to destroy more units of affordable housing than it creates. Often people oppose the development of affordable housing in their neighborhood but no one argues against the bill on those grounds. Some speak against the bill, because the bill would prohibit the establishment of twenty-some types of businesses in the overlay district. The bill is criticized because development decision making would be shifted from the democratic process of a councilmen sponsoring bills to decisions being made by MDHA. Action on the bill is deferred until June 5th. To view the public hearing and council discussion of this bill see timestamp 34 - 1:28:35.
Rod Williams' comment: In addition to the argument that eliminating the fee would save taxpayers $9 dollar per car for getting the auto emissions test and the argument that the air is much cleaner than when this requirement was first imposed on Nashville, there are other arguments.
We are a crossroads of three major interstates and most cars polluting our air are cars traveling thorough Nashville, not cars owned by Nashvillians. The auto emmission test has minimal impact.
If a car fails, it can cost hundreds of dollars to make the repairs to bring it into compliance and the people who drive the few old cars that may fail an auto emissions test are owned by low-income people. A person of low income has to have a car to get to work. Taking a few hundred dollars to get a car repaired out of a family budget can be a tremendous hardship on a low income person.
If you value your time at all, the time it takes to have the test done is more costly than the $9 fee.
The state has said we no longer have to have auto emission testing; Metro should let it end.
By Rod Williams - The
Metro Council will meet Tuesday, May15, 2018 at 6:30 PM in the
Council chamber at the Metro Courthouse. Here is a copy of the Council agenda
and the staff analysis for those who want to watch the Council meeting and follow along.
Appointments to Human Relations Commission
The order of business is the call to order, prayer and pledge followed by approval of mayoral appointments to boards and commissions. This is usually routine and the Council just rubber stamps whomever the mayor appoints but recently there has been some Council scrutiny of appointees. Recently an appointment of a very qualified person the mayor had appointed to the Sports Authority was rejected and last meeting a reappointment of someone to the Board of Zoning Appeals just barely passed.
On this agenda there are ten appointments to boards and commission, eight of them reappointments or new appointments to the Human Relations Commission. If I were serving in the Council, I would vote against all of the Human Relations Commissions appointees or at least be recorded as abstaining. It is not that I have anything against the particular appointees but this is an agency that needs to be abolished. The primary thing this board does is promote political correctness. I don't know if they still do it, but for years they engaged in normalizing homosexuality among children by sponsoring the twink booth (Youth Pavilion) at the Nashville Pride Festival which is Nashville's gay pride festival.
Some of the things they sponsor I have no problem with, but do not think it is a proper government function. As an example, is the sponsorship of the Celebrate Nashville festival. This was formally the Celebration of Cultures. I really enjoy the festival and glad it occurs but it is the type of thing that there would be no shortage of private sponsors of it government was not involved. It would still occur. The legitimate things the agency does, such as taking discrimination complaints, could be done by any number of other agencies such as the Fair Housing, MDHA, the Attorney Generals office and others. This is an agency that simply does not need to exist. Back in the 80's when I served in the Council we were able to defund the agency and went several years without a Human Relations Agency. Nashville is now a much more "progressive" city and I do not see the city defunding or abolishing this agency, but they should.
There is a new authority given to cities to plan, facilitate and guide
develop around transit stops to encourage a certain kind of development
around those stops and to give cities the authority to issue Tax
Increment Financing bonds for improvements in the designated area. This
would be the first time this authority has been used. This designation
would apply to the Donelson stop on The Nashville Star line. There is a
lot of detail in the staff analysis for those who want to know more. I
have no problem with this concept. If the public has concern with this it will probably be due to
the affordable housing component. The TIF funding can sets aside $10
million in TIF financing for affordable housing. Many people oppose the
development of affordable
housing in their community.
My primary concern is that this appears to confer the power of eminent domain to MDHA for use in this area. I would only support this if eminent domain
condemnation had to go back to the Council in each instance where it was
used.
There are 38 resolution on the agenda and all are on the consent agenda at this time. A
resolution stays on the consent agenda if it passes unanimously the
committees to
which it is assigned. Resolutions which receive negative votes in
committee are pulled off of consent. Also any councilman may have a
resolution pulled off of consent. Those remaining on consent are lumped
together and passed by a single vote. 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. Unlike a bill which
requires three votes of the Council to pass, a resolution only requires
one vote of the Council. Here are the resolutions of interest:
Resolution RS2018-1158 is an attempt to decouple the development of a soccer stadium from the location of the Fairgrounds. This resolution authorizes the city to issue bonds for construction of the major league soccer stadium
but does not specify the location. There is an effort which I approve
of to have the soccer stadium build in Metro Center instead of the
Fairgrounds. The staff analysis says there are several things wrong
with this resolution. The owners of the
soccer franchise say that building the stadium anywhere other than the
fairgrounds would jeopardize the soccer franchise. This resolution was disapproved by the Budget and Finance Committee. Resolution RS2018-1165 is even more money for the Metro General Hospital money pit.
It is half a million dollars from the 4% fund for equipment and building
repairs. A half million here and a half million there and pretty soon
you are talking about real money. Resolution RS2018-1171 would continue the auto emissions testing program in Nashville even though the State says we may discontinue it. This needs to be defeated. Resolution RS2018-1180 proposes three amendments to the Metro Charter, all
related to the procedure for succession when a mayor leaves office
prior to the end of his term. I think what occurred when Mayor Barry was
forced to resign worked pretty smoothly and do not see the need for
revising the charter, however it is no big deal. It will take 27 votes
of the Council for this to pass and then the proposed changes would be
decided in a referendum. If I had a vote I would vote "no" but might be
persuadable.
Resolution RS2018-1216 is an attempt to combat the proliferation of campaign signs in the public right of way. It requires a report to the council from public works and codes on the number of signs removed and how many cases were prosecuted, and some other things.
Resolution RS2018-1220 recognizing June as “'Nashville Pride Month', celebrating the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and
Transgender communities and their enormous contributions to the quality
of life in Nashville and Davidson County, and further recognizing the
30th anniversary of the first Nashville Pride event which took place in
1988."
Bills on First reading: There are 12 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.They
are all lumped together and pass by a single vote except in rare
circumstances.
Bills on Second Reading. Thee are 13 of them. This is the only one of interest:
BL2018-1173 by Councilman Davette Blalock which would prohibit retail establishments from providing to customers single-use plastic carryout bags. In addition to an assault on my liberty and convenience, some make the argument that plastic bags are environmentally superior to paper bags. This would not ban paper bags. There is a continent size mass of trash in the pacific ocean and plastic bags make up a large part of it and this has received publicity, but the origin of this trash is mostly from five poor Asian countries. Banning plastic bags in Nashville will not decrease the plastic bags in the oceans. This bill needs to be defeated.
Bills on Third Reading: Three are 22 of them. Most are approved zoning bills. Here are the only ones of interest
Bill BL2018-1148 is a rezoing of properties on Baptist World Center Drive and other nearby streets from various zoning classifications including industrial and residential to an SP zoning. This does not interest me and it is a bill approved by the Planning Commission but at the public hearing several neighbors spoke out against it.
Bill BL2018-1159 restrict the retail sale of dogs and cats at pet stores. Only rescue pets or "pound pubs" could be sold.
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.
NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - The federal agency that sent Nashville flood
relief money said they did not know that $7 million was going towards an
amphitheater. ... A News4 I Team investigation found that Nashville officials told HUD in
2013 they couldn’t find anyone who still needed help after the May 2010
flood. That flood destroyed 11,000 properties in the Nashville area. (link)
Rod Williams Comments: This story which first broke a couple weeks ago particularly outrages me. I have worked as a Housing Counselor for a non-profit HUD-approved housing counseling agency for over twenty-five years and still do part-time. Ever since about 2007 when the housing crisis hit, I have worked almost exclusively as a mortgage default counselor. I knew of people who lost their homes or their life
Ascend Amphitheater
saving or had to file bankruptcy due to the flood. The assistance they received was insufficient to make their homes livable. Some of them experienced a hardships not because they were flooded but because they suddenly lost their job due to the company they worked for being flooded and closed for a long period of time. If Nashville officials would have asked me, I could have told them, there was still a need to help flood victims.
If you recall the period of the flood and the aftermath, in addition to the Federal funds, a lot of United Way money was diverted to flood relieve and a lot of new money was raised for flood relief. It is an outrage that this money intended for flood relief was instead used to build the Ascend amphitheater. This kind of cold-hearted opportunistic misuse of funds should not occur. Anyone involved in this decision to divert flood relief money should be fired. It is time to drain the swamp!
by Rod Williams - This is almost painful to watch. I am not a fan of David Briley but I feel sorry for him in this video. It is a video of his May 1 appearance before the Nashville Fraternal Order of Police seeking their endorsement in the upcoming election. He did not get the endorsement. The police are not happy.
Last year the Metro Council voted to give Metro employees a three percent cost of living increase but they are not going to get it. Metro's income is significantly less than anticipated. Briley says his two highest priorities in developing the budget was to fund the cost of living increase and to give metro schools their budget request and he regrets not being able to do either. He also says he was committed to not raising taxes this year.
He is challenged on his decision not to seek a tax increase. One person ask him way he is so opposed to raising taxes when he just backed the transit plan which would have imposed a massive regressive tax on those least able to afford it. Briley has no good answer. I think it was a good question. (This questioning starts at timestamp 6:21 in the video.)
Why, in fact, won't Briley propose raising taxes this year? He has not made a pledge not to raise taxes next year, so why not just raise them now? The obvious answer is political. A proposal to raise property taxes at the same time the tax referendum to fund a transit plan was on the ballot would have doomed the transit plan which, of course, failed anyway. Also, proposing a tax increase now would hurt Briley's election chances in the upcoming mayor's race.
Metro is going to have to raise taxes or cut spending. While it seems every city always wants to grow, growth does not pay for itself. Larger cities generally have higher taxes. With growth comes more congestion, crime, social problems and demand for services. Unless city leaders have a vision and commitment to keep taxes low, taxes increase.
While I support Carol Swain in the upcoming mayor's race, I hope she resist the temptation to promise everybody they will get all they want. Employees cannot get a cost of living raise and schools get their full funding request unless taxes are increased or cuts are made elsewhere. I favor cuts made elsewhere but also do not assume a 3% cost of living increase is necessarily justified nor do I assume Metro Schools should get everything they ask for. The Schools should not be exempt from scrutiny and seeking increased efficiency.
There are places budgets could be cut. For long term control of government spending, Metro's employee pension plan should be changed from a guaranteed benefit plan to a guaranteed contribution plan, Metro General Hospital is a relic of the days prior to medicaid and should be closed, every position and every function within government should be examined to eliminate waste, services than can be privatized should be privatized, Metro must make policy and personnel changes to get control of the runaway cost of police and firemen overtime pay, the Human Relations Commission which serves little purpose other than to promote political correctness should be abolished, and the city should eliminate its funding of the LGBT Chamber of Commerce.
Either spending must be cut or taxes must be increased. That is an obvious fact. Doing either calls for leadership.
As the author of A Disgruntled Republican I often post items which I think may be of interest to the conservative, Republican, libertarian or the greater community. Posting of a press release or an announcement of an event does not necessarily indicate an endorsement. Rod
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