It will have been eight eventful years that Nashvillians will remember in mixed ways—expensive and heavy-handed on the one hand, progressive and corruption-free on the other.
Mayor Phil Bredesen, the brilliant but sometimes hands-off leader who has left concrete icons and pricey sports franchises in his wake, has put an end to the speculation about his immediate political plans, announcing Monday he will not seek a third term for mayor.
His announcement comes just two weeks before the Nov. 3 statewide general election, when Nashvillians will vote on whether to continue term limits for the Metro Council. The outcome of the term limits question could also clear up the issue of whether the mayor is subject to the current two-term limit or to the three-term limit spelled out in the Metro Charter. Bredesen’s announcement before the election, observers say, simplifies the ballot question and keeps it from being a referendum on the mayor himself.
Besides his penchant for costly downtown projects and three property tax increases to fund those and other initiatives, Bredesen will leave behind a hefty record, ranging from strong support for the Metro school system—both in terms of capital spending and innovative curriculum programming—to privatizing problem areas of local government.
The good
Bredesen’s monumental focus on new civic venues—and sports franchises to fill them—has been perhaps the most divisive and controversial aspect of his two mayoral terms. Nashvillians will be arguing for years to come the question of whether that focus was appropriate.
Other accomplishments haven’t been as controversial, and therefore not as publicized. Bredesen’s creation of a domestic violence unit in the Metro Police Department, for example, was one of his earliest achievements.
Helped by his well-liked and volunteer-happy wife, Andrea Conte, Bredesen has also built a reputation for being sensitive to socially and economically disenfranchised Nashvillians. Bredesen led the city and the affected neighborhood through the shocking torching of the Dollar General Store in the Sam Levy housing project last year. He also created the city’s homesteading program, which gives surplus city-owned lots to people who want to build homes. As long as recipients build homes and live there for a certain amount of time, Metro deeds them the properties.
With all the facilities of a good leader, Bredesen also led the city through the confusing and devastating days after April’s tornado crisis. While he was clearly concerned after the natural disaster, Bredesen was a picture of calm reassurance, methodically mapping a strategy for East Nashville’s recovery.
What Nashvillians also have come to take for granted during Bredesen’s tenure is a sense of good government—a semblance of ethics in a bureaucracy that hasn’t always been graced by it. Shortly after taking office in 1991, Bredesen even instituted an ethics policy for all Metro employees.
Whatever voters want to say about Bredesen’s flashy focus, his heavy spending, and even his frequent vacations, the mayor has had a good work ethic and has expected the same from the city’s employees. He hasn’t been afraid to lash out at Metro’s employee unions when they’ve been unreasonable, something he has done out of honest outrage rather than for political gain.
The bad and the ugly
Still, Bredesen’s scorecard isn’t entirely unblemished.
For example, there was no way to know the extent of it at the time, but the corporate relocation of Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp. to Nashville hasn’t turned out to be one of the mayor’s best achievements.
The move itself didn’t seem to warrant the significant hype and fanfare surrounding the relocation announcement at the Metro Courthouse several years ago.
In the end, the mayor and the Metro Council signed off on $26 million in tax breaks over 10 years for a company that has found itself the target of a serious federal investigation into fraudulent business practices. The man who was then the company’s young star, Rick Scott, was booted by the Columbia/HCA board.
Not only did the relocation seem to be a paper tiger—perhaps worth much less for the local economy than first promised—but the company has turned out to be a local and national disappointment. Even advertisements for the company’s local hospitals no longer brandish the controversial Columbia/HCA name.
Bredesen gets credit for the bulk of the progress downtown. But in that very context, history may not look so kindly on his decision to perpetuate the Nashville Thermal Transfer Plant, the garbage-burning incinerator. The mayor chose to recommend millions of dollars worth of upgrades for the unsightly and costly downtown plant, rather than pursue a cleaner, more progressive heating and cooling source for downtown buildings—a natural gas burning facility.
Environmentalists and downtown boosters formed an unlikely alliance in that battle, ultimately losing to a politically powerful mayor who aggressively lobbied the Metro Council for the thermal upgrades.
There is also, of course, perhaps the worst Bredesen rap—that the mayor couldn’t care any less about the day-to-day workings of the local government. But as is the case with regard to most criticisms, Bredesen has had—and still does have—an articulate and compelling response to those carpings: that he has tried to spend his time in the mayor’s office working on those things that he is uniquely qualified to advance rather than on functions that can be delegated to department heads and Metro agencies.
Voters can and will quibble with the results, but the effort will be harder to criticize.
To reach Liz, call her at 244-7989, ext. 406, or e-mail her at liz@nashvillescene.com
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