By Bruce Dobie

Jay West won his first election to an at-large seat in Metro Council in 1983. Then 32, he went on to serve three terms as a Council member-at-large before being elected vice mayor last August.

He is now the man in charge of Metro Council.

At 44, West has a long political pedigree. He was two weeks old when his father, Ben West Sr., was elected mayor of Nashville. The elder West, a liberal, served as mayor for 12 years. While Jay West says his father’s administration was uneventful—a “postwar, Eisenhower-type administration”—Mayor Ben West earned his place in the history books. At a time when other Southern mayors were breaking out the riot gear, he denounced segregation as a “moral wrong.”

Jay West recalls the turbulence that resulted from his father’s statements. For a time, because of kidnapping threats, he was driven to grammar school in a police car. But by and large, he recalls, life in the West family’s large, Victorian-era home on the 3300 block of West End Avenue was a quiet existence.

West’s father is deceased, but his mother is a spry 83. While West says she had little involvement in her husband’s administration, she can take credit for having founded the school mothers patrol system. West has one brother, Ben West Jr., who represents the Donelson-Hermitage area in the state Legislature.

Jay West graduated from Belmont College in 1975 and from the YMCA Night Law School in 1979. He went on to work in Washington as a legislative assistant for then-congressman Bill Boner. After serving a stint as executive director of the Tennessee Homebuilder’s Association, he became executive director of the Tennessee Society of Professional Engineers, a position he still holds.

As a Council member, West is no activist; he works quietly. His politics are conservative. He is a man with a big laugh, a love for storytelling and few enemies. In an interview with the , West discussed his plans for filling the large shoes of David Scobey, his predecessor as vice mayor. He also talked about what he hopes to accomplish.

Bruce Dobie: Tell me what the first Council you served on was like.

Jay West: There were a bunch of veterans. Fulton was mayor, and Scobey was vice mayor. The veterans were people like Paul Blankenship and Sanders Anglea, who had been the old city-vice mayor [before Metro Government was formed]. There were very few of us upstarts.

BD: What effect did that have on how you did business?

JW: It told me to keep my mouth shut and listen—which I did.

BD: What has happened to the Council since then?

We have seen more and more turnover of the seats, either because of people deciding not to run, saying they’ve had enough and want to do other things, or people just getting beat.

BD: Tell me about this Council you’re about to lead. How do you characterize it?

JW: It is very innocent and open. I don’t see any instant coalitions forming, as you may have seen in previous Councils. [Members of Council] still remember landfills and the arena and other issues like that, and they realize they’re not going to commit themselves until all the information is in. They’re not going to jump out there on that limb so fast.

BD: What were the coalitions in the past?

JW: Four years ago, starting out, you had the anti-Scobeys. They wanted to dilute the vice mayor’s power. Scobey was able to defeat them. The Council basically trusted Scobey because he had never abused that power or used it for his own political gain. Scobey saw his job as very mechanical.

BD: Tell me what your plans are with this current group.

JW: My plans are, No.1, to make them as good a Council in terms of mechanics as they can possibly be. We are having an orientation for the whole Council to help in this regard. We have so many new Council members that, when the mayor starts talking to them about the capital improvements budget, I want them to know what the process is. As far as the politics, well, they’re all adults and can paddle their own political boats. I want to make sure they know the process. When the mayor introduces his budget next spring, they’ll know what the budget process is and will know the difference between a resolution and an ordinance.

I also want to strengthen the committee system. I’d like to look at creating sanctions. [If a Council member] doesn’t show up at a committee to discuss their bill, knowing that they might not get a favorable vote out of that committee, [they can] bypass the committee and go straight to the Council floor and ask the Council to operate as a committee as a whole. I want to discourage that. Committees are where issues need to be debated, and that’s where the information is, and where the Metro department head will be. If you want to bypass the department head and the committee system, you can lie in waiting until [the bill] comes up on the Council floor and then waylay everybody, but I want to discourage that. [These sanctions] will make the committees stronger.

BD: What do you see as the big issues?

JW: Solid waste. It has got to be addressed. It is going to come to us one way or another. You’re looking at Thermal Plant, with the additional money to cover the EPA regulations. Or selling Thermal. In conjunction with that, there’s the separator and where it needs to be located.

There are questions about the landfill—whether to site the landfill in Bells Bend or not. Then there’s recycling—we need to look at the numbers on that again. We’re doing our social duty by recycling, but it is not a moneymaker for us, by any means.

Another issue is drainage—it’s a serious problem. When it rains, what was once a small creek in front of your house can turn into the Grizzly River Rampage. And that’s because of construction. It’s going to take money to alleviate that problem. For quite some time, people would write their Council members and say, “That last rain washed away part of my yard or came in over the steps into my kitchen,” and the Council member would write Public Works, and Public Works would send an inspector out there. Then Public Works would write the Council member back and say, “You’re right, there’s a drainage problem, and there’s no money to fix it.” People are going to get fed up with hearing there’s no money.

BD: Some have faulted the mayor for not dealing with some of these issues. Is that right?

JW: Yes, I think it’s a fair criticism. I would hope he would concentrate on issues like these. And Council is ready to address them too. He’s not going to be addressing them in a vacuum.

BD: Have you met with the mayor to discuss the upcoming Council?

JW: I have met with him once by appointment. He called me and said, “Let’s meet about this.” And a couple of times after meetings, we’ve just talked, off to one side. On issues like [the selection of the new] police chief I wanted to know what his process was.

BD: What do you think of Bredesen?

JW: Bredesen is very forward-thinking. I guess you hear sometimes of politicians not being focused. Bredesen goes to the other spectrum and he becomes a laser beam, almost too focused. I think he needs to get the opinions of others on issues, and that’s what I hope to do with him. Let’s prevent the Country Music Hall of Fame scenarios. He doesn’t need to be knocked down because of lack of homework. He needs to ask more “What do you think” questions.

Of course, everybody says he’s smart, and he is smart. I think he needs to be out in the community a little bit more to listen to what the people are thinking. Not that their thinking is opposite of his. But if he thinks the same way they do, he needs to verify that. I’m used to the practices of Fulton, Briley and Boner, going to these coffee clubs in the back of these drugstores. They would walk in and get chewed out for doing a lot of things, but they still knew what was on people’s minds. They took their tail-chewing and knew what folks thought. I think Mr. Bredesen needs to do that a little bit more.

He is still somewhat naive on public safety issues. I hope to try to help him on those. I’ve been a big supporter of police and fire. Our radios in all of Metro are antiquated.... On top of that, computers in police cars are something we need very, very badly.

How do you describe yourself politically? I’ve never heard you called a liberal. I’ve never associated you with the Ronnie Steine/Stewart Clifton types in Metro Council.

JW: Nope.

BD: Is it fair to say you were part of the Charles Fentress, Scobey, Tandy Wilson wing?

JW: That’s fair. Fentress, Wilson, pro-Scobey.

BD: Will this pro-business, West Nashville group of Council dominate your committee appointments? Will you be more political in making committee appointments?

JW: That will not dominate my appointments. I’ve made three so far: Tim Garrett is chairman of Budget and Finance, Fentress is Rules Committee chairman, and I’ve asked Durward Hall to be Public Safety chairman.

I’m going to try to be like Scobey on issues. On solid waste, I want to push for a solution. I don’t want to push for a particular solution, I just want to get a solution going. Same thing on storm water drainage. The solution does not have to be mine.

Some time ago, you scrapped the Human Relations Commission in favor of money for ambulances. To some people that defined you pretty well, ideologically.

I showed my hand pretty good there. I didn’t want the Human Relations Commission to turn into a body that would tell Chief Kirchner what color uniform the police officers had to wear. But I did end up voting for the current makeup of the Human Relations Commission and the people on it, including the lesbian member. She [Kathleen Maloy] truly convinced me she was going to be a good member.

BD: Any other organizational changes that you are looking at?

JW: No. Council doesn’t need any more money. It was a dull platform I ran on—“If elected, I will change very little.” Some rules need to be changed from time to time, but nothing needs to be thrown out. The budget system is working very well. I see no evidence that any particular aspects of Council need to be thrown out. The ethics situation needs to be looked at—we haven’t done anything in 20 years. I’m not pointing fingers at anybody, but I just want to be current.

BD: The night of your victory speech, your brother made it sound like the West family was conducting a political resurgence of sorts. You and your brother are politically prominent. If Bredesen does not run again in four years, would you run?

JW: The political answer is, “Never say never,” but my hands are real full right now as vice mayor. I’ve got no immediate plans even to look at it.

JW: The political answer is, “Never say never,” but my hands are real full right now as vice mayor. I’ve got no immediate plans even to look at it.