New committee assignments go into effect next week, Metro Council’s final shuffle before elections next summer.
An informal hierarchy of committee importance puts Budget and Finance, the main clearinghouse for the council’s central authority, at the top. Kevin Rhoten will lead the committee, following Burkley Allen, Kyonztè Toombs and Bob Mendes. Other committees typically see significantly less legislation, often because they abut aspects of the mayor’s executive authority or another Metro entity. The jurisdiction of the Education Committee, to be chaired by Zulfat Suara, is overshadowed by Metro’s elected Board of Education, which directly oversees Metro Nashville Public Schools.
The remaining incoming chairs are as follows: Larry Hagar, Charter Revision; Emily Benedict, Government Operations and regulations; Thom Druffel, Human Services; Sharon Hurt, Public Facilities, Arts and Culture; Kathleen Murphy, Rules, Confirmations and Public Elections; Jeff Syracuse, Public Health and Safety; Gloria Hausser, Affordable Housing; Russ Pulley, Transportation and Infrastructure. Brett Withers, the council’s only elected chair, will continue to lead Planning and Zoning, which will be at the center of forthcoming East Bank conversations.
Committee leadership has certain responsibilities, like organizing and guiding discussion, and favored standing to carry related bills, call special meetings and interface with relevant Metro departments. New heads choose their own vice chairs and will preside over their respective posts for the next year. Often this is a chance to indicate a successor, though members are ultimately subject to the final approval of Vice Mayor Jim Shulman. In 2020, for example, Kyonztè Toombs — then chairing Budget and Finance — tapped Delishia Porterfield, one of council’s few Black members and among its more outspoken, as her vice chair. Not only was Porterfield passed over by Shulman the following year, she was removed from the committee. Zulfat Suara was Allen’s vice chair last term, and Rhoten ascends without having served in committee leadership so far this term.
Length of tenure and direct committee assignments also happen at the discretion of Shulman. These choices are opportunities for Shulman to influence the way council functions. This year, he has avoided some of the council’s more outspoken members and installed leadership that is largely amenable to the mayor’s office. In general, Shulman has favored a more democratic approach, rotating leadership each year in a delicate game of musical chairs. Now in the final year of four-year council terms, the shuffle has had a couple incidental consequences: Pulley and Syracuse, for example, will now lead committees they hadn’t previously served on.
