Breakfast 8-9am, Meeting Called to Order at 9am
Shoney's, 407 Thompson Lane, Nashville
On the agenda are:
- 917 Society
- Americans for Prosperity
- Evann Freeman - Marsha Blackburn's Campaign
- David Birdsong - Campaign
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Thursday, September 13, 2018
Southeast Nashville Conservatives Breakfast Meeting Saturday, Sept. 15th
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Tuesday, September 11, 2018
United Way chapters in Nashville and Williamson County give financial support to Planned Parenthood
From 2nd Vote - United Way is the world’s largest privately funded non-profit organization and raises over $5 billion every year. Across the United States, a coalition of 1,129 United Way
chapters partner with businesses, civic organizations, educational
institutions, healthcare providers and more with many decisions made on
the local level. United Way claims neutrality on the Life issue, but many chapters have financially supported Planned Parenthood programs. According to United Way’s own admission, an estimated 5-6% of local chapters have financial ties.
In 2015, 2nd Vote created the Pro-Life Guide to United Way
to provide conservatives with a free resource that shows which chapters
do contribute to Planned Parenthood. The latest update with the most
recent publicly available financial documents show 62 United Way
affiliates donating to the abortionist. Our research team updates the
information each year and has linked the supporting documentation.
Recently, United Way updated a position statement dismissing affiliate support for Planned Parenthood as “only a small number.” Well, if a Planned Parenthood abortion costs up to $950,
the $2.7 million funneled through United Way would pay for at least
2,901 procedures in a single year. Does that sound like “only a small
number” to you?
#
Rod's Comment: While the vast majority of United Way chapters do not support Planned Parenthood, the Nashville chapter, called the United Way of Middle Tennessee, and the Williamson County United Way do. The information is not current for the most recent year. Unless I have information showing that the Nashville chapter has stopped funding Planned Parenthood, I will be withholding support for United Way. To see which chapters of UW contribute to Planned Parenthood, follow this link.
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Small Business Optimism Shatters Record Set 35 Years Ago
NFIB press release, NASHVILLE, Sept. 11, 2018 — The NFIB Small Business Optimism Index
soared to 108.8 in August, a new record in the survey’s 45-year
history, topping the July 1983 highwater mark of 108. The
record-breaking figure is driven by small business owners executing on
the plans they’ve put in place due to dramatic changes in the nation’s
economic policy.
The August survey showed:
- Job creation plans and unfilled job openings both set new records.
- The percentage of small business owners saying it is a good time to expand tied the May 2018 all-time high.
- Inventory investment plans were the strongest since 2005 and capital spending plans the highest since 2007.
“Today’s
groundbreaking numbers are demonstrative of what I’m hearing every day
from small business owners – that business is booming. As the tax and
regulatory landscape changed, so did small business expectations and
plans,” said NFIB President and CEO Juanita Duggan.
“We’re now seeing the tangible results of those plans as small
businesses report historically high, if not rerecord-breaking levels of
increased sales, investment, earnings, and hiring.”
State-specific data is unavailable, but NFIB State Director Jim Brown
said, “When small-business owners feel good about the direction of the
economy, they are more likely to invest in new equipment and new
employees.”
A
net 10 percent of all owners (seasonally adjusted) reported higher
nominal sales in the past three months compared to the prior three
months, up two points. August is the ninth consecutive strong month of
reported sales gains after years of low or negative numbers. The net
percent of owners planning to build inventories rose six points to a
record net 10 percent, the 14th positive reading in the past
22 months. The frequency of reports of positive profit trends rose two
points to a net one percent reporting quarter on quarter profit
improvements, the second highest reading in the survey’s 45-year
history.
“At
the beginning of this historic run, Index gains were dominated by
expectations: good time to expand, expected real sales, inventory
satisfaction, expected credit conditions, and expected business
conditions,” said NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg. “Now
the Index is dominated by real business activity that makes GDP grow:
job creation plans, job openings, strong capital spending plans, record
inventory investment plans, and earnings. Small business is clearly
helping to drive that four percent growth in the domestic economy.”
As reported in last week’s NFIB’s monthly jobs report,
a seasonally-adjusted net 26 percent of owners plan to create new jobs
and 38 percent of owners reported job openings they could not fill in
the current period, both survey highs. Sixty-two percent of owners
reported trying to hire, with 89 percent of those owners reporting few
or no qualified applications for their open positions. A record 25
percent of owners cited the difficulty of finding qualified workers as
their Single Most Important Business Problem, up two points from last month.
The
report concludes, “As a leading indicator of economic activity, the
Index turned up sharply late in November 2016 and headed to readings in
the top 5 percent of the Index history in December, never looking back.
Three months later, economic activity soared, rising from 1.5 percent
GDP growth to over 3 percent. Profits are driving the stock indices for
‘small’ firms to record levels, mirroring the record levels of profit
gains for NFIB firms.”
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Saturday, September 08, 2018
Metro Nashville's comprehensive customer service system. File a complaint. Get an answer.
From time to time almost everyone has a need for metro services, or a complaint to file or questions about Metro services. Does you neighbor have an inoperable car taking up curbside parking or is there an abandoned car on your street? Is their an overgrown lot next door? A pothole to complain about? Or, is a street sign missing? Do you want to know how to get a building permit? You don't need to call your councilman or look up a number.
HUB Nashville
is a comprehensive customer service system, that makes it easy to connect with Metro to make service
requests or ask questions. HUB Nashville is a one-stop
shop currently available by phone and online, that is easy to use, and
doesn’t require a user to know which department they need to contact.
Common requests for the HUB are: Trash Services,
Recycling Services, Trash and Recycling for New Construction, Illegal
Dumping, Request Additional Recycle Cart, Right of Way Overgrowth, Sign
and Signal Repairs, Request Replacement Recycle Cart, Purchase
Replacement Trash Cart, and Potholes.
Here is how to use the system:
- Call 311 inside of Davidson County
- Call 615-862-5000 inside or outside of Davidson County
- Visit hub.Nashville.gov
- Email hub@nashville.gov
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Wednesday, September 05, 2018
What happened at the 8/4/18 Council meeting: In addition to MLS stadium-fairground giveaway passing, Edgehill conservation overlay approved, Bordeaux waste facility approved and bills to address TIF financing study and more.
This meeting s four and half hours long. The most important issue of the meeting is the future of the MLS stadium and the giveaway of ten acres of fairground property. By now anyone who care about this issue knows that the MLS stadium and fairground property giveaway passed. For more on this see Council approves fairground giveaway.
Below is a summary of other meeting highlights. Parts of the meeting I watched in real time and parts of it watched at double speed and I skipped parts of the meeting looking for the good parts. To follow the meeting you may want to access the meeting agenda, staff analysis and my commentary on the agenda which you can find at this link. If you do not want to watch the meeting but find out what happened to a specific piece of legislation, you may want to refer to the meeting minutes. They are not yet posted by should be posted by tomorrow or the day after. You can find the minutes at this link.
The invocation is offered by Councilman Robert Swope. A message from the mayor urges the council to approve the MLS stadium. It is rare the mayor offers such a message. No surprise, all mayoral appointments to boards and commission are confirmed unanimously. Bills on Public Hearing are zoning matters which I did not find any of much importance and none proved very controversial. As is the norm all bills on first reading pass by a single vote.
Resolutions: Most are mundane things and are approved on the consent agenda. These are the ones of interest:
Resolution RS2018-1328 is one of the fairground MLS stadium resolutions. It is moved out of order to follows the bills related to this issue.Bills on Second Reading:
Resolution RS2018-1373 calls for a county-wide referendum election to ascertain the will of the people regarding the issuance of general obligation bonds by Metro for the construction of a new Major League Soccer Stadium at the Fairgrounds. Senator Cooper makes a good speech advocating passage to no avail. Councilman Glover makes a good speech. It failed by a vote of 12 in favor and 25 opposed. To see the discussion got to timestamp 28:47 in the video. Action on the bill is concluded on this at timestamp at 1:05:05.
Resolution RS2018-1385 by Councilman Blalock is a resolution calling on grocery store operators within Davidson County to take effective measures to reduce the use and/or impact of single-use plastic carryout bags and report the measures being undertaken in this effort, and encouraging the use of reusable bags by residents and businesses within Davidson County. In a previous council meeting Blalock had sponsored legislation that failed to ban plastic bags. That effort failed. This resolution is deferred.
Resolution RS2018-1386 says that if we do build a MLS stadium that the practice field be located in District 1. It passes.
Bill BL2018-1293 approves a privilege tax on the sale of tickets to events at the new Major League Soccer stadium. Bill 1289 also imposes the privilege tax. This one is one withdrawn.Bills on Third Reading:
Bill BL2018-1314 establishes a Blue Ribbon Commission to identify government inefficiencies. This is a positive development. It passes.
Bill BL2018-1315 creates a Tax Increment Financing Study and Formulating Committee. This is another positive development. Despite Nashville's massive growth, Metro is short of money. A lot of that is because the development was financed by Tax Increment Financing and the tax revenue does not flow into city coffers but goes to MDHA to repay TIF. This passes.
Second Substitute Bill BL2016-414 is a rezoning bill disapproved by the Planning Commission. It changes from R6 to SP zoning for various properties along Elvira Avenue, Maynor Avenue, and Keeling Avenue, approximately 600 feet west of Anderson Place (4.86 acres), to permit a maximum of 180 residential units. I have no opinion on the merits of this bill and am simply calling attention to it because it is a disapproved bill and required 27 positive votes to pass.There was quite a bid of discussion on this. It passed. If you care about this, go to timestamp 1:22:36 to watch the deliberation.At this point I am discontinuing an item by item report. Most of the rest of this meeting is taken up by the MLS-fairground giveaway issue. If you are concerned at all you already know the outcome. To see the remainder of the meeting and the debates on the bills related to this topic start at timestamp 2:24:23.
Bill BL2018-1245 is the controversial proposal to apply a Neighborhood Conservation Overlay District to the Edgehill community. This is approved by the Planning Commission so it can pass with a simple majority and I expect it to pass. It only passed on one vote when before the Planning Commission and when on Council public hearing, a lot of people spoke on this bill both pro and con. The bill is substituted to take out a couple properties. To see the discussion on the bill see timestamp 1:47:10.- 2:00:36. It passes on a voice vote.
Bill BL2018-1280 approves the plans for a non-hazardous liquid waste processing facility to be located at 2832 Whites Creek Pike. This was controversial on public hearing and passed on Second reading by a vote of 21 to 12 to 3. I have no opinion on the merits of the issue. However, to be honest, if I were Black and lived in Bordeaux I would probably feel I was being dumped on also. Bordeaux has been the home to a landfill, the mulch recycling facility and the State prison. I can understand the resident's resentment to another waste facility even if it is state of the art and sanitary. To see the discussion see timestamp 2:021:09- 2:24:27. It passes by a vote of 31-7-1.
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. Approved.
Bill BL2018-1291 on Third Reading declares the ten acres to be given away as surplus property and approves a ground lease for the property. Approved.
Bill BL2018-1293 approves a privilege tax on the sale of tickets to events at the new Major League Soccer stadium. Withdrawn. Same issue addressed in Bill BL2018-1289.
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Council approves fairground giveaway.
The best chance the Council had to stop the fairground giveaway failed. That best chance was to not pass Bill BL2018-1289 which approves the demolition of certain buildings and structures necessary
for the construction of a new Major League Soccer Stadium at the fairgrounds, and
to
impose a privilege tax on the sale of tickets to events at the new Major
League Soccer stadium.
The reason this was the best chance to stop the fairground give away was because this bill required 27 votes to pass Third Reading. It passed on Second Reading by a vote of 24 to 7
with 8 abstentions and one not voting. All of the other pieces of legislation regarding the MLS stadium only needed a simple majority. Since bill 2018-1289 did not get 27 votes on Second, I thought it might not get them on Third. It did. The vote was 31 to 8. The proponents picked up seven votes! Look for a later post and I will list how individual Council members voted. The soccer deal gives ten acres of fairground property to the MLS developers for a mixed use development. The land is valued at $20.7 million.
Another bill that I thought might derail the fairground giveaway was Resolution RS2018-1373
which would have put the question of funding the stadium to a vote of the people. I thought sufficient number of council members may want to pass this hot potato to the voters. That failed by a vote of only 12 in favor and 25 opposed. I will list how individuals voted on this resolution in a later post.
The only chance left to stop the fairground giveaway is if a recently filed lawsuit succeeds which challenges the legality of the Council giveaway which the litigants claim violates the Metro Charter.
To read The Tennessean's coverage of the story follow this link.
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Tuesday, September 04, 2018
Please vote for "A Disgruntled Republican" as the best local blog. Voting ends Sept. 6th.
Voting ends Sept. 6th. Please vote.
Please vote for "A Disgruntled Republican" as the best local blog in the Nashville Scene's "Best of" poll.
Follow this link and in the category "Best Blog (local)," write in "A Disgruntled Republican."
I appreciate your vote.
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Monday, September 03, 2018
What's on the Council Agenda for Sept. 4, 2018: Other than fairgrounds, the Edgehill Conservation overlay, establishment of a Tax Increment Financing study Commission, a government efficiency study commission, and not much else.
The
Metro Council will meet Tuesday, September 4, 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.
The most important issue before this council is the MLS stadium and the future of the fairgrounds. There is one resolutions and there are three bill regarding these issues on the agenda. I have explained those in a separate post at this link: Council to decide fate of fairground at September 4th meeting. This is going to be close. If council members vote on Third reading the same way they did on Second the fairground will be saved, but a lot could have happened since last meeting. To see how voted to support the fairground property giveaway, follow this link; to see who voted to save the fairground follow this link.
Below is a summary of other things on the agenda.
Confirmation of appointments to Boards and Commissions: There are four appointments to boards and commission on the agenda and as always I expect the Council to rubber-stamp these appointments. Two are to the Charter Revision Commission and two are to the troubled Hospital Authority. The Hospital Authority which oversees Metro General Hospital has seen turmoil in the last year. About half the board resigned over that time. Metro General has had constant cost overruns and the board approved a contract extension for the General Hospital CEO without a written contract or specifying the level of compensation for the director. Due to resignations the Hospital Authority, for a time, operated without the statutory number of doctors serving on the board. I hope the Council carefully examined the nominees but I expect they did not.
Resolutions and bills on public hearing: There
are eleven bills on pubic hearing. 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. None of the ones on this agenda do I find of interest.
Resolutions: There are only 16 resolution on the agenda. Initially all resolutions 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. Except for the resolution related to the Fairground, none of these are of much interest.
Bills on First reading: There are nine 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.
Bills on Second Reading: There are only four. Here are the ones of some interest.
Bill BL2018-1314 establishes a Blue Ribbon Commission to identify government inefficiencies. This is a positive development. I do not expect it to be controversial. Maybe, it will do some good.Bills on Third Reading: There are 19 of them. Here are the ones of interest.
Bill BL2018-1315 creates a Tax Increment Financing Study and Formulating Committee. This is another positive development. Despite Nashville's massive growth, Metro is short of money. A lot of that is because the development was financed by Tax Increment Financing and the tax revenue does not flow into city coffers but goes to MDHA to repay TIF.
Second Substitute Bill BL2016-414 is a rezoning bill disapproved by the Planning Commission. It changes from R6 to SP zoning for various properties along Elvira Avenue, Maynor Avenue, and Keeling Avenue, approximately 600 feet west of Anderson Place (4.86 acres), to permit a maximum of 180 residential units. I have no opinion on the merits of this bill and am simply calling attention to it because it is a disapproved bill and will require 27 positive votes to pass.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.
Bill BL2018-1245 is the controversial proposal to apply a Neighborhood Conservation Overlay District to the Edgehill community. This is approved by the Planning Commission so it can pass with a simple majority and I expect it to pass. It only passed on one vote when before the Planning Commission and when on Council public hearing, a lot of people spoke on this bill both pro and con.
Bill BL2018-1280 approves the plans for a non-hazardous liquid waste processing facility to be located at 2832 Whites Creek Pike. This was controversial on public hearing and passed on Second reading by a vote of 21 to 12 to 3. I have no opinion on the merits of the issue.
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Sunday, September 02, 2018
These are the Council members who voted to save the fairgrounds. (voting "No," "abstain," or not votng on Bill BL2018-1289.)
There have been several recorded votes related to the fairgrounds issue
so the record is clear who supports building the MLS stadium at the
fairground and giving away ten acres of fairground property and who
wants to save the fairground. On all of the recorded votes, the record
is pretty consistent as to which members support the fairgrounds and
which do not.
One of the most important votes was the roll call vote on second reading
of Bill BL2018-1289. This was the ordinance to approve the demolition
of certain buildings and structures necessary for the construction of a
new major league soccer stadium at the fairgrounds and impose a
privilege tax on the sale of tickets to events at the new Major League
Soccer stadium.
This was approved by a vote of 24 in favor, seven "no's", 8 abstaining,
and one not voting. A vote to "abstain" means the council member pushed a
button voting to abstain. "Not voting" means the Council member did not
a push a button. They may have been absent, hiding in the bathroom,
distracted or sitting on their hands.
While BL2018-1289 passed second reading, for this bill to pass on third
reading it must get 27 positive votes. Both the imposing of a tax on ticket
sales and destruction of fairground buildings require 27 votes. Since
the final vote requires 27 votes, a vote to abstain or simply not
pushing a button at all is the same as a no vote. To simply this issue I
am calling those who voted for this bill as having voted against the
fairgrounds and those who voted "no," "abstain," or not voting as having voted for the
fairgrounds. This is how those who did not vote for the bill voted. No (7): Cooper, Pardue, Hagar, Glover, Freeman, Vercher, and Henderson; Abstain (8): Gilmore, Mendes, Hurt, Swope, Roberts, Mina Johnson, Dowell, and Rosenberg.
If you want to call or email a Council member and thank him for his vote and encourage that member to continue to support the fairgrounds that may help shore of that member's resolve. You can be assured these council members are being bombarded with calls urging them to support the stadium.
With limited time, if you are going to call any of these, the "abstain" should have higher priority than the "NO". To win in saving the fairgrounds, some who voted "yes" last time must be switched to "no" or "abstain" or not voting: or we must hold every abstain and No who voted that way on Second reading. Among the "abstain" is Robert Swope. I don't know why he voted "abstain" rather than "no" but he is a solid supporters of the fairgrounds, so I would suggest skipping him and concentrate on the others to encourage them to vote "no" or to continue to vote "abstain." If calling a council member, be polite and respectful. Getting mad and threatening will not help achieve your objectives. ,
Voting to Save the Fairground (voting "no" on Bl2018-1289)
 |
| Larry Hagar D-11 |
 | |
| Doug Pardue D-10 |
 |
| John Cooper At-Large |
 |
| Steve Glover D-12 |
 |
| Mike Freeman D16 |
 |
| Tanaka Vercher D-28 |
 | ||
| Angie Henderson D-34 |
_________These members voted "abstain."________
 | |
| Erica Gilmore At-large |
 |
| Bob Mendes at-large |
 | |||||||||||||
| Jacobia Dowell D-32 |
 | |||||||||
| Robert Swope D-4 |
 |
| Mina Johnson D-23 |
 |
| Mary Carolyn Roberts D-20 |
 |
| Dave Rosenberg D-35 |
Not Voting: Holly Heuzo
 | ||
| Holly Huezo d-13 |
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