Four Bills aimed at "reforming" Metro police, including the tear gas ban bill, were withdrawn in Metro Council.

by Rod Williams, 7/22/2020 - Four separate bills aimed at changing local law enforcement practices were withdrawn at last night's Council meeting.  One by Councilman Colby Sledge would have banned use of choke holds.  Another bill sponsored by Sharon Hurt would have allowed people interacting with the police the right ask the police officer if his body camera was on and would have required police to answer, “The video is on. How may I serve you?”. Another sponsored by Sharon Hurt would have required police to have annual implicit bias training.

A bill by Emily Benedict would have banned use of tear gas. It only barely passed first reading so was obviously doomed for defeat. Police argued it would take away an important deescalation tool.

For more on this topic see below.
Nashville council withdraws slate of police reform legislation
Metro Council debates several police reform bills and related matters in a lengthy meeting
Nashville council members hear from law enforcement as they weigh police reform bills

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Metro Council appoints Berthena Nabaa-McKinney to Metro Nashville Board of Education

Berthena Nabaa-McKinney

by Rod Williams, 7/21/2020 - Tonight the Council had four candidates to choose from to replace Anna Shepherd on the Board of Education. Anna Shepherd passed away in June leaving a vacancy. The race was looked at as a toss-up between community activist John Little and longtime educators Stephanie Bradford and Berthena Nabaa-McKinney.

Little has drawn attention in recent weeks, after State Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D Memphis, wrote to the council urging members not to appoint Little. Little is a proponent of school choice. Not surprisingly, the Council did not appoint Little, instead the Council appointed Berthena Nabaa-McKinney.  As is our school board, the Metro Council opposes school choice.

After three rounds of voting Nabaa-McKinney was appointed by a vote of 25-14. The appointment is only for a short time.  In November the remainder of Shepherd's term comes to an end and there will an election to fill this seat.

The candidate with the most union support was Stephanie Bradford. She had the support of the teachers unioin (MNEA), the Service Employees International (SEIU) Union Local 205, and the Central Labor Council of Nashville and Middle Tennessee.

For more on this story see:
Metro Council appoints Berthena Nabaa-McKinney to Metro Nashville Board of Education
Metro Council to choose between former educators, charter school advocate for empty school board seat Tuesday
State Rep. Parkinson urges Metro Council not to appoint John Little to school board

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Who are the 3 Dems seeking the nomination to challenge Steve Dickerson. Can a Dem beat Dickerson?

by Rod Williams - Three candidates are seeking the Democratic nomination to challenge Republican Senator Steve Dickerson in November.  They are Heidi Campbell, Kimi Abernathy, and Zaia Thombre.  Heidi Campbell is the mayor of the satellite city of Oak Hill and is the most qualified and appears the front runner in the primary election.

Steve Dickerson may be vunerable.  Like the rest of Nashville, the 20th Senatorial district is becoming more liberal.   Hillary Clinton beat out Donald Trump in 2016 in the district and in 2018 Democrat Bob Freeman picked up the House seat in the District that had been Republican Beth Harwell's for many years.  Democrats are salivating over the prospects of picking up this seat. 

In an article in Tennessee Outlook the candidates are profiled and the race analyzed. See, Closely contested Democratic primary foreshadows November showdown for Senate District 20.

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This is who is running for school board and none of them deserve a vote.

by Rod Williams- Our schools are failing. As population has grown in Nashville, the number of children enrolling in Metro Public Schools has been shrinking. Families with school age children are fleeing Metro Schools.  The number of schools on the State list of failing schools is growing.  We had the terrible experience of having Dr. Shawn Joseph as director and the scandals surrounding his administration. And, our School Board routinely votes against school choice. 

We have a School Board election coming up August 6th and five of the nine districts will be electing school board members.  Don't look for things to get better.  I expect things to get worse.  I have listed below the members running for school board and what information I could find about them.  I see no reason to vote for any of them.  When only presented with bad choices, do not feel compelled to vote.  I would recommend skipping these contest or writing in one's own name.

SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICT 1

BARRY BARLOW. Barlow was a 2019 unsuccessful candidate for District 3 of the Nashville Metro Council. I cannot find any more information about him.

Sharon Gentry

SHARON GENTRY. Gentry is the chairman of the School Board and is seeking reelection. She was first elected to the Board in 2008. Gentry is the director of clinical informatics strategic development, innovation, and integration at HCA. She earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Xavier University of Louisiana, a master's degree in mechanical engineering from Tennessee State University, and a doctoral degree in education from Tennessee State University. She and her husband have two daughters.

She has overseen the decline in the quality of education and has a record of opposing public school choice and does not deserve to be reelected. See her campaign Facebook page at this link.

Robert Taylor

ROBERT TAYLOR. Robert Taylor was born in Washington, D.C. He attended Fisk University. Taylor's career experince includes working as a Rule 31 Medinator, not that I know what that is. I got this off of Ballopedia. You can visit his website at this link.

SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICT 3 (This is the seat formerly occupied by Jill Speering.)

Brian Hubert

BRIAN HUBERT. Visit his website at this link.  He say, "I will fight against vouchers, budget cuts, and the neglect of our teachers."  That is a reason I would tend to not support him. His website says he is a 2003 graduate of Hunters Lane High School and does not mention any higher education.

Emily Masters

EMILY MASTERS. Visit her website at this link. She is endorsed by the Metro Nashville Education Association, Central Labor Council of Nashville & Middle TN, SEIU Local 205, and Women in Numbers. She served on the PTO board of Dan Mills
Elementary for 7 years. She works as  a freelance fundraising consultant.




SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICT 5

Christiane Buggs

CHRISTIANE BUGGS. She is seeking reelection running unopposed. She has two Master’s degrees in Education—one in Curriculum and Instruction from Tennessee State University and the other in Urban Education from Vanderbilt University.  Visit her website at this link.

SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICT 7

Freda Player-Peters

FREDA PLAYER-PETERS. She is seeking reelection, running unopposed. In September 2019, she was elected to the School Board by the Metro Council to complete the term of  Will Pinkston who resigned his position. Freda Player-Peters was at the time serving as the Nashville Mayor's Office senior legislative liaison.  For more information see this link. To visit her website, follow this link.


SCHOOL BOARD DISTRICT 9

RUSSELLE ANN BRADBURY

RUSSELLE ANN BRADBURY. To visit her website, follow this link. She has a masters degree in Social Work and a good record of volunteerism. She has the endorsement of Run For Something. FRS "endorses candidates who deeply value inclusion, diversity, and constituent voices, and run grassroots, all-in, progressive campaigns that reflect these values." That is all I need to know.

ABIGAIL TYLOR.  She has
a master’s degree in education and is a former teacher. She commits to fully fund Metro Schools, which means give them whatever amount they ask for. I am not engaging in hyperbole; that is really what that means. She says she will oppose charter schools and vouchers. She has the endorsement of the teachers union (MNEA). To visit her website, follow this link.

There is not much information about these races and candidates are not doing much to distinguish themselves. From what I have learned about the candidates, I do not want any of them elected.

These are the candidates endorsed by SEIU: District 1 – Dr. Sharon Gentry District 3 – Emily Masters District 5 – Christiane Buggs District 7 – Freda Player-Peters  District 9 – Abigail Tylor. This is reason enough to not vote for them.

As to who has the money in these races, as reported in Dad Gone Wild, District 3 candidate Brian Hubert reports $5349.26 in small donations and District 9 candidate Russelle Bradbury is reporting $11,381.59 in contributions.

For more information, see these stories:
Metro Nashville school board candidates discuss reopening, equity, charters during forum
Replay: Nashville School Board candidate forum

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Dr. Manny Calls For Hagerty to Stop Hiding and Debate

Press release, NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Republican Senate candidate and conservative outsider Dr. Manny Sethi today invited Ambassador Bill Hagerty to join him for a public debate on major issues facing our state and our nation.

 “Early voting has begun, and voters want to hear directly from Ambassador Hagerty and myself, discussing our differences,” said Dr. Manny. “It’s simple, it’s time for Ambassador Hagerty to debate. This is a tight race, and with COVID limiting voter interactions for the last few months, most folks haven’t been able to hear from the candidates directly. This is a great way to allow that to happen, so they can make an educated and informed choice. I look forward to debating him soon.”

“Bill Hagerty is spending millions smearing Manny Sethi. He should stop hiding behind his Super PAC’s false attack ads and face Dr. Sethi like a man,” said Chris Devaney, Campaign Chairman.

Rod's Comment: I have not endorsed a candidate in this race. I think we have two good candidates and would be pleased to have either one of them represent me in the Senate. I don't think you could see daylight between their ideological positions.

"Insider" is a term the less experienced candidate often uses to label a more experienced candidate. I do not find it helpful in telling me what I need to know about a candidate to help me make up my mind about how I will vote. By labellng Hagerty an "insider," Sethi is not winnng any points with me. I have never been persuaded that experience is a bad thing.

In the last race for governor, my vote was Diane Black's to lose and she lost it. I am sick of candidates smearing good people with nitpicky attacks making mountains out of molehills. I normally to do not vote early and doubt I will this time. I will be watching the campaigns. Rather than one of two good candidates wining me over, I suspect that one of the candidates will drive me into the camp of the other by his use of negatives attacks.

The above being said, I must commend Dr. Sethi for being accessible and criticize Mr. Hagerty for not being seen. I have seen Dr. Sethi speak twice at Fist Tuesday and a couple other times at other events and have had other opportunities to see him speak if I had wanted. Hagerty has not spoken to First Tuesday, nor am I aware of other opportunities to see him speak since he announced his candidacy for Senate.  Hagerty may lose my vote simply because he has not been seen.

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3PM Sunday Property Tax Protest

NoTax4Nash

Sponsored · Paid for by No Tax 4 Nash

  · 

Attention Nashville! This Sunday there will be a Turn-In Petition and Property Tax Protest event at Nissan Stadium at 3pm. Music and celebration of our efforts! Hope to see you there!

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The most honest democrat commercial you will ever see

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If you have not yet signed a recall petition, do so tomorrow!

Who is that masked man collecting signatures for the recall petition at Howard School

By Rod Williams - Yesterday I worked in Bellevue at the Highway 100 Publix grocery store shopping center gathering signatures for the recall petitions, today I worked early voting at the Howard School office complex, and tomorrow I will be working the Antioch library early voting location. It is hot! Stop and say hi.

There will be volunteers working all early voting locations tomorrow. Tomorrow will most likely be the last opportunity to sign a petition to recall the mayor and members of the Council who voted to pass a 34% property tax increase. All petitions  must be turned in to the election commission by 5PM Monday.

For a list of early voting locations, follow this link. For other petition locations, follow this link. If you signed a Change.Org petition to recall the mayor, you still need to sign one of these official petitions.  The Change.Org recall petition is not in the right format to be acceptable to the Election Commission.

If you have been gathering signatures for a recall petitions, you can trun in the petitions to one of the  Notax4Nash volunteers at one of the locations tommorrow.  If you miss that opportunity or want to gather signatures up until the last opportunity, private message Notax4Nash on Facebook or email at info@notax4nash.com to make arrangements to turn in your petition. If  you want to keep working on petitions over the weekend, please go ahead and turn in what signed petitions you already have, tommorrow.

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Join Sen. Rand Paul and Dr. Manny T-bones and Politics, Saturday, July 18th.

For more information, follow this link. 

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Early Voting Locations Open

L

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Metro Nashville school board again denies five charter school application appeals, prompts debate among members

The Tennessean -  ...all of which were denied in 7-1 votes, with only board member Fran Bush voting against disapproving the applications.

All five schools denied earlier this year submitted amended applications for review this summer, including:

• Nashville Collegiate Prep 
• Ivy Prep Academy 
• KIPP Southeast Nashville College Prep Elementary School 
• KIPP Southeast Nashville College Prep Middle School 
• KIPP Antioch College Prep High School

Bush spoke favorably about charter school operator, KIPP Nashville. "What I hear from parents are they're very excited about KIPP," Bush said. "I can only speak about Southeast [and] KIPP in my experience. They've been a model steward in our community. They have shown student academic gains. I have not heard one compliant, I've actually heard great things about how KIPP is operating and supporting students." (read more)

Rod's comment: It is almost as if the school board likes failing schools. They would prefer all students get an equally bad education rather than some students get a superior education. It is as if they want to hold back good students so poor students won't look so bad.

Charters have had a pretty good record of winning when appealing Metro Schools Board denials to the State. I, of course, do not know the virtues of all of these schools that have applied for charters but I do know I have zero confidence in the Metro School Board to fairly evaluate a charter school application. I hope the State overrules Metro when Metro denies a charter to deserving schools. Charters have a had a good track record of winning on appeal.  I wish the State would just remove Metro School Board from the equation and Charters could apply directly to the State.

For several years, Metro school enrollment has been declining as Davidson County population has been growing. How is that possible? People with school age children are not settling in Nashville. Nashville may be a fun place for a single person or a young childless couple but when people have children and settle down, the surrounding counties look awfully appealing. With the whopper of a tax increase just passed and failing schools, more people will flee the county. The wealthy who can afford the tax increase and can afford private schools will stay and the poor are often stuck here with no means to leave. We are seeing a hollowing out of the populations with the middle class fleeing leaving the poor and the wealthy.

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Download the Recall Petition! Recall the mayor and Council members who voted for the 34% tax hike.

Petitions must be turned in by next weekend, in time for the organizer to submit them to the election commission by the end of the business day Monday July 20th.

Download the recall petitons at this link.

Mail your completed petition to:

NoTax4Nash
P.O. Box 210976
Nashville, TN 37221
 Or
Stop by one of the many locations we have available. Locations

Also sign the petition to amend the Metro Charter.

The NASHVILLE TAXPAYER PROTECTION ACT will:

• LIMIT PROPERTY TAX RATE INCREASES to no more than 2% a year.
• BAN GIVE-AWAY OF OUR PARKS, GREENWAYS, OR PUBLIC LANDS. 
• REQUIRE BONDS OF OVER $15 MILLION BE APPROVED BY THE PUBLIC IN A REFERENDUM. 
• PROTECT TAX PAYERES FROM FAILED PROMICES. Failed Promises: If a professional sports team leaves Nashville, or ceases playing professional games for more than twenty-four (24) months, all facilities and related commercial development shall revert to the people, and all related contracts shall be terminated, including land leased from the Nashville Fairgrounds.

Download the Taxpaer Protection Act petition at this link. 

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