They’re talking the talk, at least.
Leaders at both the Metro Courthouse and the state Capitol just down the street are saying nice things about one another, promising to put their tense past in the past.
“Right now I’m encouraged by at least the spirit and tone of conversations,” says Mayor Freddie O’Connell, who last year inherited a Metro government embroiled in legal and political battles with the state government.
Adds House Speaker Cameron Sexton: “We’re working with Mayor O’Connell. I think he’s doing a wonderful job. We’re probably not going to agree on a lot of different policies, but as long as we can continue to have a conversation, we’ll be happy, and that’s what we’re doing right now.”
Sexton, a Crossville Republican, presided over a 2023 session characterized in part by attacks on Metro governance — from cutting the size of the Metro Council in half to taking over the board that oversees the Nashville International Airport to easing the path for NASCAR’s return to The Fairgrounds Nashville.
O’Connell and Sexton have met to discuss shared priorities, and both mention — unprompted — the East Bank as a possible area of positive collaboration.
The tension, of course, did not begin in 2023. In 2022, the Metro Council (with O’Connell then a member) opted not to support a bid to host the 2024 Republican National Convention in Nashville. That move infuriated key Republican leaders in state government and seems to have poured gasoline on the fire. But fights between the city and state long predate the RNC vote, with the state legislature cracking Nashville’s congressional district into three pieces months before the vote, plus a string of earlier preemption moves.
Maybe Republicans at the state got all their anger out last year. Maybe they saw mounting losses in court as a sign. Or maybe they’re simply ready to turn a new page when it comes to the capital city. But at least so far, there doesn’t seem to be much appetite among returning lawmakers to legislate directly at Nashville’s city hall. There still could be a push to take over all airport boards in the state, rather than just Nashville’s, and Metro leaders understand there will be plenty of legislation with statewide applicability they do not agree with, but at least they’re not squarely in the crosshairs.
Another change that gives some insiders hope for improved relations is O’Connell’s hiring of state Rep. Darren Jernigan (D-Nashville) as director of legislative affairs. Jernigan, who remains a member of the state House but will not run for reelection, is the rare Democrat with a decent relationship with his colleagues in the GOP supermajority. The Old Hickory lawmaker has chaired and vice-chaired committees under Republican leadership, and he’s a former member of the Metro Council.
“We hate to lose Jernigan because he was in leadership in a subcommittee,” says Rep. Harold Love (D-Nashville). “He was able to work with our colleagues in the other party to, as best he could, prevent some bad things legislatively from happening. That also signals Mayor O’Connell’s commitment to make sure that inside of his administration there’s someone who has a relationship with the legislature who can have those conversations if those bills end up coming down, to keep the conversations at a low temperature.”
The shampoo effect is strong, though, and a single drink after last year’s bender could rapidly reopen still-healing wounds. And there’s no telling what that drink could be.
With 40 members, each with a microphone, the Metro Council presents an endless opportunity for causing offense, even if fabricated, to the Republicans in the legislature. Now the Metro Council is hiring a lobbyist of its own, separate from the lobbyists employed by the mayor’s office on behalf of the city.
“The way I am thinking about this in year one is that we are in a more relationship-building and tracking [phase], but we can in time move to more proactive efforts on the legislative side,” new Vice Mayor Angie Henderson said at a December meeting of the Metro Council’s executive committee.
Specifically, Henderson lamented the previous administration’s apparent unwillingness to lobby against the bill cutting the Metro Council in half. She also said the council’s lobbyist should keep tabs on which members are showing up at the Capitol to talk to lawmakers (which they are “free to do,” she adds).
“We need somebody to speak officially on our behalf,” Henderson says.
State leaders return to Nashville to consider laws related to abortion, education and the ongoing culture wars
