Karl Dean is winning rave reviews after a year as mayor. If his political career were a credit card ad, it might go like this:

A new job as mayor? A million dollars of your wife's money.

Happy talk from the media ever since? Priceless.

"Almost everyone I talk to says he's doing a good job," gushes TV analyst Pat Nolan.

Echoes Tennessean columnist Gail Kerr: "[S]o far so good. Dean has managed through the ups and downs of his first year." Then she helpfully informs us that the mayor's "having the time of his life" visiting schools and eating cafeteria spaghetti with first-graders.

Dean's admirers cite his first budget, which passed with relatively pain-free cuts in services, and his negotiation of a new lease for the Predators, which kept the team in town.

What they don't mention is that the budget raided reserve funds for schools, only staving off the day of reckoning. And the hockey deal gave a multimillion-dollar tax subsidy to the team's wealthy owners—one of whom turned out to be a con artist. But we don't need to go into that.

There are plenty of other reasons to temper praise for Dean. In addition to his so-called accomplishments, his first year as mayor has been mainly marked by a fierce determination to dodge controversy. True, he did speak out against Eric Crafton's "English Only" ballot initiative. But he's pulled a disappearing act on some other important issues. Among them:

m The fight over the proposed May Town Center in Bells Bend. It's a beef that has elicited strong opinions from the Metro Council, but curiously not from Dean. This $4 billion development would create a second downtown, potentially sucking the life out of the one we already have and spoiling a pastoral corner of the county. Yet Dean says he can't decide what to think about it.

m School rezoning. Proponents say it will bring back neighborhood schools and curtail white flight by halting the busing of black children to upscale Hillwood. Foes say it will hurt opportunity for thousands of poor children. But the "education mayor" can't make up his mind on which side to land. With the city torn apart, Dean speaks oddly about "the stars aligning" for education improvements and talks up a half-baked idea to put a school on the Cumberland's banks.

m Property taxes. No other mayor in the history of metropolitan government has managed to make it through four years without an increase. Neither will Dean—at least not without serious cuts in city services. But how can Dean ask for a tax hike during economic catastrophe? Adding to the trouble is a new charter amendment barring a tax increase without voter approval. Dean pretends to understand none of this. In one speech, he went so far as to say, "If we plan for some tight years, we're going to be fine."

This last issue is particularly thorny, since he promised not to raise taxes during his campaign. He was not as audacious about it as his rival, Bob Clement, who swore off taxes and demanded that Dean sign a pledge not to raise them. Dean wouldn't play Clement's game, but did say this during one debate: "I oppose an increase in property taxes. I have said so repeatedly, and Bob Clement knows it. I will not pass a property tax increase."

Dean now claims he never made that promise, even after the quote is read back to him. "I think what I said in the campaign was that it was my intention not to raise property taxes, to try not to," he insists. Whatever you say, mayor.

Here are excerpts from a Scene interview in which Dean talks about taxes and answers critics who say he's too often missing in action:

Scene: Is it possible that you could get through another year or two or three without a property tax increase?

Dean: We'll have to see.

Scene: Is it even possible?

Dean: Well, it's clearly possible.

Scene: Without cutting the bejesus out of the budget?

Dean: I think it'd be very difficult. ... I don't want to make a decision or even commit myself to anything until we know where we are.

Scene: In some of these speeches that you've given, you've suggested that we'll never have to raise property taxes, that we can do innovative things and cut here and there and everything will just be peaches and cream. Are you misleading the public?

Dean: I haven't given a speech like that.

Scene: You have suggested that we don't need a tax increase.

Dean: We didn't this year.

Scene: But you've never said, 'Hey we're going to have to raise taxes at some point,' have you?

Dean: No, no.

Scene: Is that a mistake because you may be misleading some people into believing that this day of inevitability is never going to arrive?

Dean: No, I think most people understand that government needs a certain amount of revenue. ... As mayor and as a council, if we had the ability to raise taxes without a referendum, I'm not sure the political capacity is there to do it because people just aren't in the mood for it these days.

Scene: Do you see this as a failure on your part not to prepare the public?

Dean: I did not campaign on increasing taxes, I'll grant you that. And whether that's political realism or a mistake, I don't know. But I think very sincerely that if I look at the city right now, people out there are hurting. People are paying double for fuel. ... Their electricity bills are going up. Food bills have gone up. ... It's not an easy thing for the public. That's not to say that when we need to find revenue, I'm not going to go out there and get it. Fundamentally, I have to do what's right for the city. But all these things fit into the equation.

Scene: Let me ask you about what some people say have been failings. One of which is not stepping up to the plate on certain issues. For instance, Bells Bend. As far as I've been able to tell, you haven't said a thing about Bells Bend.

Dean: Well, I've said some things. I was quoted as saying it was intriguing. ... On every idea that a developer has, every dispute there is, I don't necessarily have to weigh in immediately. There may be something to be gained by sitting back and watching and see what actually develops.

Scene: What about the school rezoning issue?

Dean: The rezoning issue is a complex issue. ... I've said that I certainly support the school board revisiting this issue, that this issue should not be a divisive issue in our community when we have so much work to do on schools. If we need to go back and look at it again, we need to do it. ... The rezoning issue should not divide us. So if the board wants to revisit it, I'm all for it. If they want to delay part of it, that's fine with me. I don't think it should be divisive. ...

Scene: That's not exactly taking a stand, mayor. You say it would be OK with you if they revisit the issue. Which way are they supposed to vote if they revisit it?

Dean: Ninety percent of this plan there is broad agreement on. On the areas if you can't get agreement, then I would move slowly and not go ahead. I don't think you can put race relations in the rearview mirror, and it's important not to do something divisive.

Scene: So you're against stopping the busing of these children to Hillwood?

Dean: No, I'll also say the folks who did the plan worked hard on it. They had public hearings over and over again. There has been ample opportunity for people to weigh in. ... I think they did it with the best of intentions. I don't think they're trying to resegregate the schools. But if people are so uncomfortable with the result that there is a division in the community, then that needs to be addressed.

Scene: I'm confused. Are you for it or against it?

Dean: That is for the board to decide. Again, I don't think I should weigh in and say do this and do that. ... I'm saying let's get together. ... I feel very comfortable where I am on that. I think that's the right place to be.

Scene: Generally, are you getting political advice to avoid controversy? That seems to be the theme that's developing here in your first term.

Dean: I disagree with the premise of the question. ... It's a mistake to think that on every single thing that happens in the city, every dispute, I need to weigh in on one side or the other. I get it from both sides. ... I don't know necessarily what the right answer is all the time. So I'm watching. I'm learning. I'm studying. I'm thinking. n