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Wednesday, August 08, 2018
Monday, August 06, 2018
2018 Charter Champion Award honorees
The Tennessee Charter School Center- During the inaugural Tennessee Charter Schools Conference, the Tennessee
Charter School Center (TCSC) recognized five distinguished education
leaders and organizations that are catalysts in the classroom and within
their communities. Congratulations to our 2018 Charter Champion Award honorees:
 |
| Bill Dunn |
- State Representative Bill Dunn– Policy Champion of the Year- In 2018, Rep. Dunn successfully sponsored and stewarded House Bill 1870, critical legislation that ensures access to state reimbursement funds for charter school students with high cost special needs, to overwhelming approval on the House floor with an unprecedented 91 affirmative votes.
- Memphis Academy of Science & Engineering (MASE)– School of the Year–MASEis looking to the future of innovation in education through their "STEM in Motion” program and the unique partnership they have developed with Smith & Nephew.
 |
| Sarah Giblin |
- Sarah Giblin, Principal, Valor Voyager Academy– Administrator of the Year – Since opening the doors in 2015-16 with a 5th and 6th grade class, Giblin’s leadership has led the school and its students to remarkable success including an average 49% growth on MAP testing in only three years, an 85% faculty retention rate, and every teacher in every grade level across all subjects rating a Level 5 on TVAAS.
 |
| Courtney Harvey |
- Courtney Harvey, Teacher, Memphis Business Academy High School– Teacher of the Year– In addition to her student’s academic gains, Harvey serves as leader for the band’s majorette team, member of the school’s Culture Team, counselor and peer mentor for incoming TFA teachers, and helps all incoming staff with MasteryConnect by leading PLC training.
- Tennessee River Rescue Project, Ivy Academy Chattanooga–Community Impact Project of the Year– From old tires to plastic bottles, students, parents and staff of Ivy Academy have come together annually since 2013 to clean up the area at Jones Bay, where the school’s “Floating Classroom” is located.
The Charter Champion Awards were presented during the 2018 Tennessee Charter Conference, the State of Tennessee’s inaugural professional development conference convening education leaders from Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga and Knoxville.
For more information on the Tennessee Charter School Conference, visit www.tnchartercenter.orgor view the full program of events and speakers here.
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What's on the 8/7/18 Council Agenda: Taking private property w/o compensation, Metro Tax dollars to Conexion Americas, Amending the Charter, a Conservation overlay for Edge Hill, .Fairgrounds and Soccer..
 |
| The Ridge at Antioch |
If this bill passes the State of Tennessee has threatened to withhold future tax credits used to help finance affordable housing developments. I don't know why this development has not already occurred. I can guess that with the threat of this hanging over the head of the developer, that it impacted the financing. Should this bill pass and the owner want to continue the fight, he probably has a winnable lawsuit to pursue. This would most likely be considered a "taking" of property. When government takes property the owner should be compensated and it should only be taken for a public purpose. Government taking of property does not have to mean taking title. To take away a right that one previously enjoyed may be a "taking" of property. This is a bill disapproved by the Planning Commission and will require 27 votes to pass. For more on this story see this link and this.
This time the bill has picked up a lot of co-sponsors.
The Metro Council will meet Tuesday, August 7, 2018 at 6:30 PM in the Council chamber at the Metro Courthouse. Here is a link to the Council agenda and the staff analysis for those who want to watch the Council meeting and follow along. Below is a summary of what is on the agenda.
Elections and Confirmation: There are 4 mayoral appointments to Boards and Commission before the Council for confirmation. Usually, these are confirmed without controversy, discussion or dissension.
Public Comment Period: This is new for Nashville and is only the second meeting which has had a public comment period. Time is dedicated to allow members of the public who have registered in advance to speak upon matters related to the Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County community. The only public comments we have had heretofore have been on zoning matters and, once a year, on the budget. We have never had an open comment policy. This is common in smaller cities and I don't know how common it is in other cities the size of Nashville. I suspect liberal activist will use this platform a lot. I hope conservatives will also. I would not be surprised to hear several people speak in favor of the proposed police citizen review board at this meeting.
Resolutions and bills on public hearing: There are four resolution and seventeen bills on pubic hearing. The resolutions are requesting exemptions from the minimum distance requirements for obtaining a beer permit. The bills are rezoning request or related zoning bills.I do not even attempt to understand the pros and cons of every zoning bill and they generally bore me and are of interest to only the people in the immediate vicinity of the rezoning. At public hearings almost all opposition come down to (1) concern about traffic, (2) water runoff and potential for flooding, (3) overcrowding of local schools and impact on infrastructure, (4) detrimentally changing the character of the neighborhood. You will hear the same arguments over and over. I only call attention to bills that I think will have an impact beyond the immediate neighborhood or are bills that have already been to the Planning Commission and have been disapproved by the Planning Commission, or for some other reason are of interest This is one of interest:
Bill BL2018-1245 would apply a conservation overlay to 43 acres in the Edge Hill community. This is an attempt to slow the gentrification of this historically Black community near downtown west of 8th Ave., east of music row. With this overlay in place most existing housing could not be torn down and replaced with two tall skinnys. Also substantial modifications or additions could not be made to homes. Where new construction was permitted, the new construction would have to comparable in style to the existing homes in the community. The community is deeply divided on this issue. The Planning Commission only approved this by a vote of 4 to 3 after two hours of heated public hearing. For more on the issue, read the Tennessean report, South Nashville community bitterly split over plan to restrict development.
Bill BL2018-1280 approves the plans for a non-hazardous liquid waste processing facility to be located at 2832 Whites Creek Pike. I don't know if this will be controversial or not but often people oppose any facility that processes waste.Resolutions: There are 45 resolution on the agenda in addition to the resolutions on public hearing. Initially all resolutions except resolutions on public hearing 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. Here are the resolution of interest:
Resolution RS2018-1314 proposes six charter amendments to be submitted to the voters for ratification. This will take 27 votes to be approved.
- Three of them are related the line of succession for the office of mayor and how a vacancy is filled. The staff analysis says one of the three is contrary to state law, so this will likely be deferred.
- The fourth proposed amendment would require oaths of office for mayor, vice mayor, and members of council to include an oath to uphold the Charter of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville. Currently, such oaths reference only support of the Tennessee Constitution and the Constitution of the United States.
- The fifth proposed amendment would change the term limits for the offices of councilman and councilman at-large from two (2) terms to three (3) terms. It would also change “councilman” to “councilmember.” The attempt to expand term limits has been tried before and rejected by the voters.
- The sixth proposed amendment would update the Metropolitan Charter with general neutral references in place of masculine-only pronouns. References to “he” would be changed to “he or she,” “his” would be changed to “his or her,” “him” would be changed to “him or her,” “councilman” would be changed to “councilmember,” and “policemen”would be changed to “police officers.” I oppose this. amendment. A "councilman" can be a female and a policeman can be a female policeman. I see no need to make this change. Also, I understand that the masculine singular pronoun may include females. If someone says, "Everyone brought his own lunch," I do not assume that the group only included males. I see no need to change the language to the awkwardly worded "he or she."
Resolution RS2018-1319 appropriates $551,051.45 in Community Development Block Grant funds for sidewalk improvements in North Nashville. This is money that could instead be used to leverage the building of units of affordable housing.
Resolution RS2018-1328 would issue General Obligation bonds in the amount of $50 million, $25 million of which would be for demolition of existing fairgrounds buildings and $25 million would provide infrastructure for the proposed MLS stadium. There are also three bills pending also related to the fairgrounds land giveaway soccer deal and this will be deferred to track with those bills.
Resolution RS2018-1329, Resolution RS2018-1330, Resolution RS2018-1331, Resolution RS2018-1332, and Resolution RS2018-1333 each appropriates $200,000 from various departments of Metro Government to various selected non-profits. Some of these, such as the Oasis Center and St. Lukes and Nashville Adult Literacy Council, I am familiar with. Others such as Nations Ministry Center and Moves and Grooves, I have never heard of. I do not approve of giving Metro Tax dollars to non-profits. If it s contract for a non-profit to provide a service that is one thing, but to just give various agencies money, I do not think is appropriate.
Conexion Americas is slated to get $50,000. While Conexion Americas does some worthwhile things, they also provide services to illegal aliens and advocate on behave of illegal aliens. If I were serving in the Council, I would oppose this resolution. Metro should not be picking winners and losers among the various non-profits operating in this city. If I was picking which non-profits to support, I would give to the Union Rescue Mission. Charity should be a volunteer activity, not having money taken from me against my will and given to an organization I may or may not chose to support. I can chose to give to United Way or not and I can chose to give money to Union Rescue Mission or Conexion American. I do not get to chose to pay taxes or not.
Resolution RS2018-1356 by Steve Glover expresses the intention of the Metropolitan Council to suspend action on any agreement related to any lease and redevelopment of the Nashville Fairgrounds until all necessary procedures have been completed. This would simply say that Metro would not make any decisions regarding the stadium and would not incur additional expenses regarding the stadium until the hurdles that stand in the way of the deal being approved are resolved. This is an attempt to not put the cart before the horse. This sounds like common sense, but I would expect it to be opposed by advocates of the stadium.Bills on First reading: There are 24 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. I normally don't read them until they get to second reading. On this agenda there are several bills on First Reading related to the fairground. Here they are:
Bill BL2018-1289 approves the demolition of certain buildings and structures necessary for the construction of a new Major League Soccer Stadium at the Fairgrounds Nashville, and amending Title 5 of the Metropolitan Code to impose a privilege tax on the sale of tickets to events at the new Major League Soccer stadium. This is probably the best chance to still kill the stadium and land giveaway. It takes 27 votes to demolish buildings at the fairgrounds.I will have more to say on these bills when they get to second reading or in a separate post.
Bill BL2018-1290 is the bill to rezone the 10 acres at the fairground that is to be given to the stadium developer.
Bill BL2018-1291 declares the ten acres to be given away as surplus property and approves a ground lease for the property.
Bill BL2018-1293 approves a privilege tax on the sale of tickets to events at the new Major League Soccer stadium.
Bills on Second Reading: There are eight. Here are the ones of interest.
Bill BL2018-1142 says that if a request for funds from the 4% fund is going to be spend in single council district that that district councilman will be given advance notice. This sounds reasonable to me.Bills on Third Reading: There are 20. Most are approved zoning bills. I have discussed Bill BL2016-219 at the top of the page. Here are others of interest:
Second Substitute Bill BL2018-1202 would regulate "shared urban mobility devices," such as bicycles and scooters, and if establish a permitting system for them. This was prompted by the arrival of Bird Scooter in Nashville. This would establish a one-year pilot program for the scooter, impose a lot of cost, including a $35 per scooter and a whole lot of regulation. I initial reaction is that this is overkill.
Bill BL2018-1281 would require sexual harassment awareness training of Metro employees and contractors. The staff analysis says we do not know how much this would cost and that HR does not have the resources to track compliance.
Bill BL2018-1283 essentially says that Metro cannot use the proceeds from sale of surplus property to balance the budget. While it seems to make sense that one should not use one-time money to fund on-going cost, as we did this year, I am not sure that this flexibility should be taken away. There may be times when the city needs to do that.
Substitute BL2018-1139 (as amended) is the Donelson Transit-Oriented Redevelopment Plan. This has been worked on for a long time and is a complex bill.It would guide redevelopment around the Music City Star Donelson train stop and contains an affordable housing component. New authority from the state provides for this type of designation and this will be the first time that authority has been used. This development hit a bureaucratic snag explained in this Tennessean article: $300M Donelson development stalled by oversight dispute. I assume that has now been resolved or this would not be back on the agenda. This bill is to be amended on third reading. For more on this complex bill, see the lengthy staff analysis.
Bill BL2018-1182 is a disapproved rezoning bill in Councilman Karen Johnson's district. I am only calling attention to the bill because it is disapproved and will require 27 votes to pass.
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Phil Bredesen is still dead-set on trying to portray himself as a Republican
From Michael McAdams, NRSC Regional Press Secretary - Phil Bredesen is still dead-set on trying to portray himself as a Republican, releasing a new ad focused on courting GOP voters.
But no matter how hard he tries, Bredesen can’t change the fact he’s spent nearly half a million dollars funding left-wing candidates like Hillary Clinton and backing radical policies like government-run health care. In a state President Trump won by 26 points, voters want nothing to do with Bredesen’s Trojan horse attempt.
“It doesn’t matter how many campaign ads Phil Bredesen
runs, he’s not going to make Tennessee voters forget that his first vote
will be for Chuck Schumer and Schumer’s liberal policies,” said NRSC
Spokesman Michael McAdams. “Bredesen has spent decades supporting
Democrats and if he’s elected to the U.S. Senate, that’s not going to
change.”
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First Tuesday presents Scott Golden
From Tim Skow:
WOW ....What a week WE had !!
1ST TUESDAY welcomes Tennessee’s Republican Party Leader
YES!! .... 1ST TUESDAY is on TUESDAY, August 7th.
Republican Party State Party Chairman SCOTT GOLDEN comes to 1ST TUESDAY.
Now with a guns loaded, a full slate of candidates including 2 Middle-Tennessee STARS in BILL LEE and MARSHA BLACKBURN
to motivate the team and drive the turnout ... Scott is charged with
leading the parade till Election Day in just 3 months !!!
WE
... have a lot at stake ! Keeping a KEY battleground US Senate seat,
an epic battle the DEMs believe they can win for GOVERNOR of TN ...
Holding Speaker Harwell's seat while 2 former Nashville Mayors must turn
out every live [and maybe even some dead Nashville DEMs ] ....to the polls.
WOW.. what a fight this will be across Tennessee !!
Not only are these high profile races for Governor, for the US Senate in 2018 and for State House District 56 in play.... but 30% of the seats in the Legislature are going to change hands !
THIS IS ‘’YUUUGGGEEE’’ …and the fights all across Tennessee start on TUESDAY ....
at 1ST TUESDAY
Doors at Waller Law [511 Union -27th floor]
open at 11am. Lunch at 11:30. Scott start shortly after Noon with what
will surely be an intense Q & A concluding at 1:00pm SHARP!
PLEASE ... pass the word, invite your friends and get ready for what will be a critically important meeting!
Event is $20 for Members and $25 for Guests. Secure seating for you and your guests at: www.1sttuesdaynashville.com ....
PLEASE ... secure your seats ASAP ...as we need to put a lunch order in Monday at 5pm.
[Remember ..IF…..the ‘’Guest’’ icon gives you trouble, use the $25 ‘’DUES’’ till the new site comes up]
Join
us for insights into the battle to hold Nashville’s ONLY seat in the
State House, the significance of electing the 1ST Hispanic Republican
man to the Legislature and MANY more battles that matter !!
See you at 1ST TUESDAY on the 1ST TUESDAY, August 7th !!
Tim Skow
Host of 1ST TUESDAY
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Saturday, August 04, 2018
Primary Elections Confirm Tennessee’s Bi-Partisan Support for school choice
by Rod Williams, Aug. 4, 2018- There are times when finally a consensus forms on an issue and it becomes settled. Such seems to be the case with school choice. Not that there is still not disagreements about how much school choice and how fast it should be implemented and not that there is still not phony arguments made that charter schools drain money from district schools. However, on the basic question of if there should be school choice, school choice has won.
Tennessee Federation for Children PAC, a pro-school choice political action committee put out a press release today noting that advocates of school choice prevailed across geographical areas and political parties in this weeks election. Jesse Chism, a Democrat supportive of school choice won the crowded Democratic primary in House District 85.
In District 23 in the Republican primary Mark Cochran, an advocate of school chose, defeated Trey Winder who had the support of the National Education Association. In other primaries in both parties, incumbents who support school choice beat back challengers. In the governor's race both Republican Bill Lee and Democrat Karl Dean support school choice. In our own school board races, no one was running as an avowed opponent of school choice.
School choice was for many years a cause advocated by the libertarian right. Economist Milton Friedman was a voice crying in the wilderness advocating for school choice when no one was listening. Gradually, over time, school choice was tried and attracted advocates. Now, it is no longer identified as only a conservative cause and as many advocates can be found among liberals as conservatives. That is a positive development and means that the trend is not likely to be reversed when Democrats regain power. School choice is no longer an ideological position. The teachers unions are a powerful force in the Democrat party, but they are out of touch and Democrat candidates have not allowed themselves to be dictated to by union interest. The teachers unions have failed to stop the move toward school choice.
I would like to see ever greater school choice. I support charter schools, tax vouchers, and education savings accounts. I wold also like to see regular public schools become more like charter schools with more local school autonomy and competition between schools. One is not required to go to the closest doctor or church or grocery store, why should children be assigned to a certain school? In fact, in Nashville and many other places one no longer has to send their child to the district school. Every winter, Metro Schools have a School Choice Festival in which parents can learn of the options available and apply for admittance to schools other than their district school. That is good as far as it goes, but it should go further.
Those who believe in the benefits of competition and the morality of options should continue to advocate for greater school choice. Allies in this fight may now come from liberals as well as conservatives. In some rural areas the major opponents of school choice may be from conservatives who simply oppose change. In some urban areas, the leading advocates may be Black parents who are tired of having their kids forced to attend failing schools. School choice has opponents and proponents in both political parties, but it appears what school choice has been won is not likely to be lost and the prospects for more school choice looks good.
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Friday, August 03, 2018
Bill Lee, the nice guy, won!
Congratulation to Bill Lee on a stunning upset victory in the Republican primary for governor last night. I did not expect it. I did not vote for Diane Black but I expected her to win the nomination and she came in a distant third with only 23% of the vote. She started the race with much more name recognition than her opponents, got the endorsement of Vice President Mike Pence, and spend the most money. I assumed she would win.
Maybe last night's election results will make politicians rethink the wisdom of getting in the gutter and slinging mud. The wisdom is that politicians engage in dirty campaigning and attack ads because they work. This time they didn't. Diane Black was the worst offender by attacking her opponents over insignificant nit-picky stuff, such as that Boyd had not contributed to the Trump campaign and that Bill Lee gave a small amount of money to Democrat candidates such as Megan Barry in the past. She attacked both Lee and Black for being "moderate." Diane Black started the attack ads but Boyd responded with attack ads of his own and also engaged in attack ads against Lee. Lee, by contrast, never attacked back.
I voted for another candidate in this campaign although from the first I was supporting Black. I did not make up my mind in this race until the day before election day. The attack ad that caused me to finally decide I could not vote for Diane Black was when she exploited a situation in which Lee Company had to lay off someone who was in the military reserves. Reading the details of what really occurred, it seemed to me that Black crossed a line in dirty campaigning. The Lee Company did nothing wrong in that situation. I finally decided that Diane Black crossed a line and I just could not vote for her.
I know politics can be a dirty business. However, it doesn't have to be. Lee's victory shows that you do not have to fight fire with fire. It shows you do not have to be as dirty as your opponent to win an election. Lee's victory shows that nice guys do not always finish last.
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TNGOP 2018 Unity Rally
I received the following in an email and it is posted to the TNGOP website, so I assume the invitation is to everyone.
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TNGOP Statement on Nomination of Bill Lee for Governor
August 2, 2018 - Nashville, Tenn. - Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden released the following statement:
"We
congratulate Bill Lee on his victory tonight as the Republican nominee
for governor, and we commend the other candidates on a hard-fought race.
Bill has the experience, skills, and temperament to be a terrific
governor, and he will unify Republicans ahead of the general election
victory this November. We look forward to working with Bill across the
state to ensure he is the 50th Governor of Tennessee."
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Sunday, July 29, 2018
The Metro Council: The good, the bad and the term limited. Opportunities for new faces.
There is no such thing as a conservative or liberal pot hole and most of what the council deals with are things like pot holes. Nevertheless, the ideology of the Metro Council matters a great deal. The first way it matters is in insuring our city is financially well-managed. The city has taken on a tremendous amount of debt and Nashville is the city with the most long-term financial debt in the nation. Not even counted in our debt obligations is health care obligations to Metro retirees. We have no trust fund for this obligation.
While we are not in a serious crisis yet we have laid the ground work to have a serious crisis should something happen, such as another 9-11, such as another great recession, another flood like that of 2010, or if we should lose a sports franchise. It may be that we could face a financial crisis even without something momentous casing it. If Nashville's growth just slows and we are no longer the hottest city in America and if property values began to moderate, we may be unable to pay our bills without massive tax increases. We are acting as if the good times will last forever.
Also, we have been irresponsible by letting our reserve fund balances drop below recommended levels. Should we have an economic downturn and need to dip into a rainy-day fund and not have the sufficient reserves, then bond rating agencies could lower our bond rating, causing borrowing to cost us much more. With an increase in the cost of borrowing, it would take a greater portion of Metro's tax receipts to pay debt service.
Also, we have handed out a lot of corporate welfare in the form of tax
increment financing (TIF) or Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) or other
enticements, so while we have had tremendous growth, we have not seen
that growth swell the city coffers the way it should.
Also, in my view, our priorities are wrong. We fund a lot of frivolous, unnecessary stuff while skimping on police, fire, and schools. Our schools are next to the worst in the state and getting worse, not better. We need a council that will prioritize spending. We have to make choices.
Another way, that it matters who serves in the Metro Council is that our Council occasionally passes memorializing resolutions favoring illegal immigration, opining on the parts per million of acceptable CO2 in the air, urging an end to the mythical gender pay gap, and any number of other liberal feel-good measures. These do not have the force of law but I do not like the Council expressing itself on national policy best left to our elected US representatives.
Other ways in which the Council promotes a liberal agenda is by efforts to thwart the will of the people by destroying the fair grounds. In a public referendum the public voted to keep the fairground by a vote of about 70% yet the city still seems determined to chip away at it.
Below is a chart showing how members of the Council voted on two crucial issue and showing who is "term limited" and ineligible to run for reelection. The two issues in this chart shows how members of the Council voted on a proposal to raise property taxes and how they voted on making the ballot language on the transit referendum reflect the true cost of the proposal. I view these two votes as the most important votes cast by members of this Council.
| District | Term Limited? |
Current Council member |
voted for tax increase | Voted for Transit Transparency * |
|
1 |
Hall | not serving |
not serving |
||
| 2 | Decosta Hastings | yes | yes | ||
| 3 | Brenda Haywood | yes | yes | ||
| 4 | Yes | Robert Swope | NO | yes | |
| 5 | Scott Davis | NO | NO | ||
| 6 | Yes | Bret Withers | yes | NO | |
| 7 | Anthony Davis | yes | NO | ||
| 8 | Yes | Nancy Van Reese | NO | NO | |
| 9 | Yes | Bill Pridemore | yes | NO | |
| 10 | Doug Pardue | yes | yes | ||
| 11 | Yes | Larry Hager | NO | yes | |
| 12 | yes | Steve Glover | NO | yes | |
| 13 | Holly Huzzo | NO | yes | ||
| 14 | Kevin Rhoten | NO | yes | ||
| 15 | Jeff Syracuse | NO | NO | ||
| 16 | Mike Freeman | NO | NO | ||
| 17 | Colby Sledge | yes | NO | ||
| 18 | Yes | Burkley Allen | yes | NO | |
| 19 | Freddie O'Connell | NO | yes | ||
| 20 | Mary Corolyn Roberts | NO | yes | ||
| 21 | Ed Kendall | yes | xxx | ||
| 22 | Yes | Sheri Weiner | NO | yes | |
| 23 | Nina Johnson | yes | yes | ||
| 24 | Kathleen Murphy | yes | NO | ||
| 25 | Russ Pulley | NO | NO | ||
| 26 | Jeremy Elrod | NO | NO | ||
| 27 | Yes | Davette Blalock | NO | xx | |
| 28 | Tanaka Vercher | NO | yes | ||
| 29 | Yes | Karen Johnson | yes | NO | |
| 30 | Yes | Jason Potts | yes | NO | |
| 31 | Yes | Fabian Bedne | yes | yes | |
| 32 | Yes | Jacobia Dowell | yes | yes | |
| 33 | Antionette Lee | yes | NO | ||
| 34 | Angie Henderson | NO | yes | ||
| 35 | Dave Rosenberg | NO | yes | ||
| At Large | Jim Shulman | NO | yes | ||
| At Large | Erica Gilmore | yes | yes | ||
| At Large | Bob Mendes | yes | yes | ||
| At Large | Sharron Hurt | yes | yes | ||
| At Large | Jon Cooper | NO | yes | ||
* On February 6, the Metro Council voted to approve Mayor Barry's transit improvement program (Bill BL2017-1031 (as amended) which would put the referendum question on the ballot. As presented the bill listed the price tag as $5.3 billion. On the night of final passage, the bill was amended to reflect the true cost of $8.5 billion. This column is a list of how council member voted on that amendment. Those voting "yes" voted for the referendum to reflect the $8.5 billion cost.
The Fairgrounds
Other important votes that indicate who the "good" councilmen are is RESOLUTION RS2017-910, the $225 million bond issue for the $275 million soccer deal. It passed by a vote of 31 to 6. Those voting against the resolution were John Cooper, Steve Groper, Holly Houzo, Larry Hagar, Mina Johnson, and Dave Rosenberg.
Auto Emission Testing
Resolution RS2018-1171 was a resolution which would continue the auto emissions testing program in Nashville even though the State says we may discontinue it, passes. Voting No (7): Cooper, Swope, Hagar, Glover, Rhoten, Roberts, and Rosenberg.
Civil Forfeiture
Another important vote concerned civil liberties. RESOLUTION RS2017-920 approved two agreements between the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Metro Nashville Police Department. These agreements govern the participation of DEA Nashville District Office Task force participants in the United States Department of Justice Equitable Sharing Program. In my view civil forfeiture is an evil practice in which metro should not participate. Both liberal and conservative civil liberty advocates included the ACLU and organization such as The Institute for Justice oppose civil forfeiture. Dave Rosenberg sponsored the bill. Unfortunately it was approved by a vote of 16 to 15 with four abstentions.
Those voting against it were Cooper, Anthony Davis, Kindall, Blalock, Shulman, VanReece,Mina Johnson, Bedne, Scott Davis, Allen, Murphy, Rosenberg, Withers, O'Connell and Elrod.
The above is only a handful of votes the council has cast in the last three years out of hundreds, but I think these are some of the most important to distinguish who are the "good" council members who deserve to be reelected. Those who I think meet the criteria as a "good" councilman have their name and district highlighted in green in the above chart. Some of these I have highlighted have cast other votes I disagree with, but these I think are some of the most important votes.
The members highlighted in red in the above chart are the council members who I hope can be defeated if they chose to run for reelection. Those whose names are not highlighted, have a mixed record and I am undecided as to my opinion of them. Some of this categorizing of who the "good" councilmen are is subjective, of course.
In any event we have a very liberal council. We avoided a tax increase this year, but I suspect many who voted against raising taxes will be in favor of a tax increase next year. I am sure the reasoning of some of the council members in voting against a tax increase was that it would lessen the chances of the transit referendum passing and some simply followed the leadership of Mayor Briley. The Council has never passed a tax increase not advocated by a mayor so voting against a tax increase was not a courageous act but a relatively easy vote.
Moving forward, I want to see more a more conservative council. We must get our financial house in order or we will face a crisis down the road. Also, if we do not economize and prioritize we will face a situation in which our essential pubic safety services are stressed and emergency response time will increase.
In saying I would like to see "conservatives" elected to the Metro Council, I am using the term very loosely. Of course, I wish we had a council of all Republicans who were well-grounded in conservative principles, but that is not going to happen. I would be pleased if we had people elected who were not likely to vote for a tax increase, who wanted to reduce corporate welfare, who respected private property rights, and who wanted to save the fairgrounds. You will notice that I have colored John Cooper green in the above chart. He is a Democrat and the brother of Congressman Jim Cooper but he is a fiscally responsible member of the Council. He is a "good" councilman. When it comes to seats on the Council I really don't care what the person thinks about President Trump, or NATO or moving the embassy in Israel, or any other number of national or social issues. They can be liberal on the big issues if they are conservative on the local issues and I will be happy. They can be a Democrat but if they vote the right way on local issues, I don't care about their party label.
If you are reading this and ever thought about running for pubic office, I encourage you to think seriously about running for council. The best opportunity is to run for one of the seats where the incumbent is term limited and ineligible to seek reelection. However, if you live in a district where the incumbent voted for a tax increase and voted against transparency on the transit ballot initiative and voted against the fairground and you believe those votes were contrary to the way the voters in his district feel about the issues, the incumbent may be vulnerable.
In addition to how an incumbent voted on crucial issue however are other factors that may make an incumbent vulnerable. The two that I think may be as important as how they vote on the weighty issues is their responsiveness and availability and how they handled zoning issues. If people complain that the incumbent is arrogant, or they never see him or he doesn't return phone calls, he may be vulnerable. Unfortunately, sometimes members of the council are blamed and often unfairly blamed for zoning that occurred in their district. If there is widespread dissatisfaction with an incumbent due to dissatisfaction with rezoning that has occurred in a community, the incumbent may be vulnerable.
The next election for Metro Council will be August 2019 and if there is a runoff in any district the runoff will be between the top two contenders the following month. Elections for Council are non-partisan. While August 2019 is a long way off, it is not too early to start laying the ground work now, especially if one is not well connected to donors or if one has weak credentials. Please do not let lack of money or a weak resume deter you from considered a run for Council. Fortunately, Council district are still small enough to where a person of modest means who is willing to work hard can still get elected.
If you are someone who is predisposed to oppose tax increases, who believes we must improve our cities financial management, who is concerned about corporate welfare, who believes in government transparency, and has supported saving the fairgrounds, then you may be the type of person needed to run for the Metro Council. If you would like to discuss the potential for mounting a campaign, tips on how to raise campaign money, how to mount a winning campaign strategy and more, I would like to talk to you and introduce you to some people who might help you. Please email me at Rodwilliams47@yahoo.com.
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Friday, July 27, 2018
Vice President Mike Pence endorses Diane Black for Governor
Press release, NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Today,
Vice President Mike Pence endorsed Diane Black for Governor shoring up
support for the true conservative candidate in the race.
".@DianeBlackTN is running for Governor of TN & a strong supporter
of #MAGA agenda of tax cuts, military $$ & a champion of right to
life policies. There are great candidates running but Diane has been my
friend for years, we served together in the House, & she has my support!"
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Sunday, July 22, 2018
These are the candidates running for school board in district 6.
On the August 2nd general election ballot are races for school board in
district 2, 4, 6, and 8. I don't live in one of these district, have
heard little about the candidates and do not know any of them. This is
different from the 2012 school board election in which there were forums
and lots of money spend and lots of attention paid to the school board
races. Why there is so little interest being paid to school board
elections this election season I don't know since our schools are getting
worse instead of better.
There are four candidates seeking the school board seat in district 6. All four candidates are African American and all have impressive credentials. District 6 is southern Antioch or Cain Ridge and straddles both side of I-24 north of the county line. Tyese Hunter is the incumbent seeking reelection and she has three challengers.
Below is information about the candidates gleamed from a recent Tennessean article which you can find at this link and information from candidates website, Facebook posting and a few other sources.
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| Tyese Hunter |
Tyese Hunter is the incumbent. She is married, has three children, is the daughter of a retired police sergeant, is a licensed speech pathologist and has served in the US Navy reserved. Her name was on the May ballot for Juvenile Clerk Court but she dropped out of the race after her daughter, who has a disability, became ill. She said she needed to make her daughter's health her priority.
She serves as budget and finance chair of the school board. She is very supportive of Dr. Joseph. She is supportive of charter schools. In April 2016 she had guest editorial published in the Tennessean titled "Nashville School Board must regain focus, accept facts." In this article she addressed the generally poor quality of Metro Schools and how the gap between the bad schools and the good schools is widening. In this article she writes,
While most children in Nashville are falling behind, there are a handful of schools reversing this bleak trend. The report identified 10 “gap closing” schools – meaning schools that are actually reversing the achievement gap. Notably, 6 of the 10 gap closing schools are public charter schools. These non-profit, open enrollment public schools serve about 10 percent of our students, but represent 60 percent of our best schools. ... Contrary to what some of my anti-charter colleagues on the school board claim, when you factor in these other measures, charter schools look even more promising.I am an advocate of charter schools and Tyese Hunter's outspoken support of charter schools is a plus. She has the endorsement of the Metro Nashville Education Association which is the teacher's union, the Service Employees International Union, and Nashvillians for an Effective School Board. While I do not view these endorsements as reasons I would support someone, I know that organizations such as unions often go with someone they think is likely to win because they do not want to make powerful enemies. So, while these endorsements are not a factor in her favor in my view, I would not vote against her because she got these endorsements.
For more information on Tyese Hunter you can visit her website at this link her twitter feed at this link and she has a Facebook page but you want gain much insight about her from visiting it. To see a Tennessee Tribune video interview with Ms.Hunter and candidate Earl Lattimore, follow this link.
 |
| Fran Bush |
Fran Bush is a married mother of five children, three currently enrolled in Metro public schools and two who graduated Metro schools. She owns Model Kids Learning Academy, a childcare center. She said she is also a longtime board member of her homeowner's association. Bush said she isn't opposed to charter schools and that every family
deserves a choice in where their kids get an education. But she said the
district must do a better job of managing the cost of charter schools. She has criticized Joseph for cutting Reading Recovery program out of the budget. My view on this issue is that this particular reading program was not cost effective. It was very expensive and did not show impressive results. You can read more about this program at this link. Bush has advocate adding metal detectors to schools. I don't know if this is practical or not and it would obviously be very expensive but given the tragedies of recent school shootings, I would not criticize a person for proposing it.
Fran Bush has no endorsements. You can visit her campaign Facebook page at this link, To see a Tennessee Tribune interview with the candidate, follow this link.
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| Earl Lattimore |
Earl Lattimore has one daughter who attends LEAD Academy High School. He is supportive of Dr.Joseph's vision and says Joeph has not been on the job long enough to prove himself. He has worked with MNPS since 2012 and is currently a consultant for the state Department of Education. He says he takes middle ground approach to charter schools. "I am not going to say I am a proponent, but I do believe in choice," he said. You can visit his campaign Facebook page at this link. To see a Tennessee Tribune video interview with Ms.Hunter and candidate Earl Lattimore, follow this link.
Aaron McGee the executive director of Youth Life Foundation of Tennessee, which is a
faith-based
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| Aaron McGee |
- Will focus on overcrowding and transportation. “We’ve got to have transportation that matches the growth we are experiencing in Antioch.”
- Won’t abandon Joseph, wants to help him get results by creating a clear framework.
The above is all I know about the candidates. If I lived in District 6, I would hope I would know more. It really does look like they are all good candidates. Some of them have advanced degrees and have relevant job experiences and appear to be accomplished people. If any reader of this blog or Facebook post has a candidate they are supporting in this race, please feel free to leave a comment and tell who you are supporting and why. If you have a good reason for favoring one of the candidates over another, I would not want to influence you to change your mind. Given my limited knowledge of the candidates, if I were voting in this election I would probably vote for the incumbent Tyese Hunter.
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