Monday, April 20, 2009
40 Jealous Whores / Hannan / Politics Councilwoman Emily Evans Accused of Being Uppity Showoff
Posted by Caleb Hannan on Mon, Apr 20, 2009 at 10:25 AM
Evans, along with Councilman Jason Holleman, was one of the leading proponents of an equitable stormwater fee amendment that failed in council last month. Now she's taking the lead in questioning financing for the proposed convention center, a natural role for someone with 20 years experience in municipal bonds. But apparently, not everyone's thrilled with Evans' approach:
(Councilman Charlie) Tygard said Evans sometimes looks like she wants to prove she's the smartest person in the room. At a convention center meeting last week, Evans was quizzing David Levy, a Goldman Sachs investment banker who is advising the administration on financing. She said she would "go pull the OS" to look up a detail. The use of that shorthand for "official statement," a legal document describing a bond issue, caused one official working on the project to whisper to a colleague that Evans was showing off. "Is the goal to sway the council or to embarrass the finance director?" Tygard said. "Sometimes it comes off like she's trying to embarrass the finance director."Yeah, nothing says "grandstanding" like slipping back into the shorthand of a profession that occupied two decades of your life. What a showoff. But lost in the petty quibbles of Tygard and the anonymous official is the substance of Evans' questioning... Evans was the only one to parse the Levy's testimony. In his statements, the Goldman Sachs rep essentially admitted that most cities don't fund their centers without the backing of public money. This would fly in the face of the official administration line, peddled by Dean and finance director Rich Riebeling, which has stated time and time again that the bonds used to pay for the Music City Center will not put Davidson County taxpayers at risk. The swipes taken by Tygard and anonymous officials (who very well may be people working for the city) are attempts to discredit Evans. Riebeling told Pith just last week that we shouldn't be relying on someone who retired 15 years ago for our advice on bonds (he'd prefer we rely on his conflict-free assessments). But there's a couple problems with that. 1) If not her, who? No one else on the council can come up with a comprehensive set of questions like the ones found on her blog (or have any hope of explaining what they mean). And 2) Riebeling's wrong; Evans retired in 2001. And judging by the way she can extemporaneously ruminate on complicated financials like credit-default swaps, she hasn't exactly been resting on her laurels. So just to review. Asking questions makes you a showoff. Consider yourself warned, Evans.
Comments (7)
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I like it! A smart politician...........that's nearly an oxymoron.
Tygard, that is quite sexist to accuse her of "trying to embarrass the finance director" If she were a man he would have never made that statement, because it wouldn't be embarrassing to get corrected by a woman, right Tygard?
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How refreshing to see a member of the Metro Council who can be credibly accused of "trying to act like the smartest person in the room!" It's so much nicer than the horrifying posturefest they do to try to act like the most narrow, uninformed and gullible ones in the room.
Thank goodness there's at least one person on Council who is both smart enough and fearless enough to poke holes in this boondoggle.
Does anyone else find it ironic that Ms. Evans would be attacked for asking intelligent questions in the voter's best interests?
People who make comments like "... she wants to prove she's the smartest person in the room..." make themselves look petty shills and like the dimmest bulbs in the room.
Mr. Tygard needs to realize that in any group of people, one person will be the smartest person in the room. Should the intelligent people feign stupidity so as not to embarrass everyone else? That might explain a lot of the council's past behavior.
Tygard is pissed because he can't understand anything Mrs. Evans says. Of course, Tygard can understand very little of what anyone says.
