Just as it didn’t take a Republican to wince and gag at the sound of Al Gore’s voice during the 2000 presidential election, it doesn’t take a disenfranchised anti-business character to believe that Dell Computer’s reneging on the spirit of its incentive deal with the city amounts to bad corporate citizenship, to put it charitably.
The company came knocking on Metro’s door in 1999, eventually getting city officials to sign off on a 40-year deal to pay an annual $500 for every job Dell creates (about $900,000 this year). The money technically goes to Metro’s Industrial Development Board, which in turn uses it to sweeten life for Dell by building the company roads, turn lanes, whatever.
At the time, Mayor Phil Bredesen believed—and convinced the Metro Council—that Dell would do as its executives said it would, eventually creating desirable, high-tech manufacturing jobs in the Midstate. That was the whole point of the incentive package.
But, lo and behold, Dell recently announced that, in fact, it won’t manufacture computers here after all. Instead, Nashville will remain more of a logistics and shipping center.
Strictly speaking, Dell never actually guaranteed to create those manufacturing jobs. The August 1999 economic development contract Metro and Dell officials signed says only that “Dell, a Fortune 500 company with its headquarters in Round Rock, Texas, has announced its tentative [emphasis is ours] decision to locate computer manufacturing, assembly and distribution facilities and technical support operations....”
But, certainly, the company’s retreat from creating the jobs Metro was after in the first place, while still expecting all the benefits of the incentive package, shows a lack of integrity, if not anything else. While city officials so far have refrained from challenging the company—acknowledging Dell’s contention that the contract didn’t promise manufacturing jobs—there is real question about whether future Metro Councils are obligated to make these payments benefiting the company. Even the contract says that the “Metropolitan Government’s obligation to pay any grant proposal...is contingent upon the annual appropriation of funds for such purpose by the Metro Council.”
In other words, it seems, if the council doesn’t agree to it, the city has no legal obligation to pay. There is no better time than now, as the Metro Council reviews and considers the city’s budget for the upcoming year, to consider whether the continued Dell payments are necessary or deserved. The council is frequently criticized for its lack of initiative on issues of import to the city. Here’s its chance to show some.
Meanwhile, a group of concerned citizens—bright, informed people—have formed a group called Citizen’s Action Group on Dell, urging city officials to look into these very questions. The Metro Council and the administration of Mayor Bill Purcell should pay attention. Purcell, after all, in his recent State of Metro address, stressed his administration’s “careful stewardship” of Metro’s public resources. It’s not unfair for city officials to pose these questions. And the Metro Council should be bothered that, in this situation, the city looks like some kind of civic chump.
Not only may there be no legal requirement to make the Dell payments, but, as attorney Robert Cox, a co-founder of the citizen group, puts it, “now there is no ethical one either.”
Miscellaneous observations
Republican gubernatorial candidate Van Hilleary opened an office in Cool Springs last week (so perfect on so many levels), just a stone’s throw from the office of a self-image consultant. Is the punchline even necessary?...
Bob Tripp, a United Methodist minister from Knoxville who’s running for governor as a Republican, recently told the Scene’s alternative weekly counterpart in Clarksville, Our City, that the “main” reason he’s running is because he’s “responding to an obedience to a Word. The latest defining moment in my life came at 2 a.m. on Nov. 25, 2001. On this day, I overheard a Word from the Lord inviting me to set my face toward Nashville and travel all across the great state of Tennessee.” You can say this for the guy: At least he knows why he’s running....
Interestingly enough, in Our City’s Q&A with some of the gubernatorial candidates, only one offered a single-word response to the question, “Do you believe a state income tax is a good idea?” Phil Bredesen answered simply, “No.”...
At a Wilson County event Saturday, radio talk show host Steve Gill introduced his “friend” Van Hilleary, who then told the crowd why he liked Gill: “Steve and I, you know, we go way back. We were actually fraternity brothers at UT.... Since he was going to law school, he did not give me a hard time like the ones that were still in undergraduate school, but he still counted. If I needed to get someone—a brother—to sign something, I could go to him, and he wouldn’t haze me. He wouldn’t give me a hard time. He’d just do it.”
Then, as now, Gill doesn’t haze Hilleary.
To reach Liz, call 244-7989, ext. 406 or e-mail liz@nashvillescene.com.
