@startleseasily is a fervent observer of the Metro government's comings and goings. In this column, "On First Reading," she'll recap the bimonthly Metro Council meetings and provide her opinions and analysis. You can find her in the pew in the corner by the mic, ready to give public comment on whichever items stir her passions. Follow her on Bluesky here.
Every Metro Council meeting needs a bit of levity. East Nashville resident Joe Lee provided that on Tuesday night, in the form of a Zanies-worthy tight two minutes.
Wearing a West End Chili’s shirt, Lee, a Taiwanese immigrant, spoke in support of a resolution to recognize Immigrant Heritage Month. After thanking the sponsors, Lee added, “And also, you’re welcome, for doing all the work you can’t do, or don’t want to do, and putting spices in your food.”
Congressional rep says mayor is ‘aiding and abetting illegal immigration,’ urges law enforcement statewide to cooperate with ICE
That earned him some laughter and cheering from the gallery, but he’d only just begun. “Like at least one of you here,” Lee warned — referring to Councilmember David Benton’s recent appearance at a “Stop the Invasion” press conference with U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles — “I am worried about an invasion coming from our southern border.”
“I am, of course, talking about our border with Williamson County.”
I died. Like, fully dead. Had to be resuscitated. Barely survived.
“They’re stealing our jobs, they’re bringing traffic, they don’t pay property taxes, and they have the audacity to complain about their view of the city coming in from I-65!” Lee complained. “So I implore you to also pass a resolution to stop the invasion from Williamson County.”
A Chronic Case of Foot-in-Mouth Disease
Councilmember Benton, who rarely speaks and should perhaps get back to that, has yet again made himself look foolish just by opening his mouth. Last week, he bemoaned an alleged “invasion” at our southern border, warning of hordes of undocumented immigrants pouring into our streets and pillaging our communities. Tennessee, as you may know, does not share any kind of border with Mexico.
I guess Benton got a taste of the spotlight and couldn’t help himself. During a lengthy Public Health and Safety Committee meeting, he questioned the need for a resolution requesting that Mayor Freddie O’Connell initiate an investigation into the work culture at the Department of Emergency Communications.
According to the resolution's sponsor, Councilmember Tasha Ellis, 911 workers have been anonymously contacting the councilmembers for quite some time with disturbing accounts of a toxic workplace. Representatives from SEIU, the union that represents many Metro employees, have been working with DEC leadership and Metro’s Human Relations department to address these concerns. Ellis previously deferred her resolution to allow time for these talks to play out, but she pressed forward with her resolution this time in a show of solidarity with the workers.
Benton wasn’t convinced. “The mayor brought this up in his State of Metro ... that the 911 dispatchers had answered 95 percent of the calls in 15 seconds year-to-date, which is above the national standards,” Benton said. This “indicates that something good is going on in the department, actually.”
Are you kidding me? I wouldn’t think this would require an explanation, but thankfully, Councilmember Russ Bradford provided one. “I understand what it’s like to work someplace and meet metrics every day, but be stressed because of a hostile work environment,” Bradford said. “While you’re under heavy stress, while you feel you’re being taken advantage of or potentially being abused by your employer, you’re still getting your job done, because at the end of the day, if you don’t do that, you lose your job.”
Duh. It seems Benton is constitutionally incapable of keeping his offensive opinions to himself.
At the council meeting, Ellis successfully defeated a deferral motion from Councilmember Joy Styles, and her resolution passed 32-1-1. Styles was the lone no vote, and Public Health and Safety Chair Erin Evans abstained.
It’s the Same Old Song
The majority of the meeting was taken up by the public hearing on the budget.
I honestly don’t know what else there is to say about this. Every single year, we hear requests from residents to redirect police funding to preventive measures like housing, community safety and social services. And every single year, we hear the same plea from Metro employees: Give them at least enough money to live in the county where they work. At the risk of stating the painfully obvious, this is not an unreasonable ask!
The pay situation for Metro employees is a little complicated this year. A multiyear, million-dollar compensation study revealed that many Metro employees are underpaid relative to the broader market. The mayor’s proposed budget includes upwards of $50 million to implement certain recommendations from the study. This should result in sizeable increases for employees near the bottom of the pay scales. As you move up the ladder, those increases are smaller or nonexistent.
The mayor’s budget proposal also includes 2 percent merit increases for employees who meet certain benchmarks, and a 1 percent “across-the-board” increase. That “across-the-board” increase will replace the concept of a cost-of-living adjustment.
If you combine the potential merit increase with the across-the-board increase, you get a 3 percent bump for most employees, which roughly tracks with the rate of inflation this year. Sounds good, right?
Wrong! Merit increases should not be factored into a discussion of cost-of-living adjustments, because merit increases are not guaranteed. A merit increase is discretionary and dependent on your performance. A true cost-of-living adjustment recognizes the impact of inflation on the — you guessed it — cost of living.
A new pay plan would have been a great opportunity to build in automatic cost-of-living adjustments based on actual inflation. That one simple trick would obviate the need for a yearly fight. It's also the right thing to do for the people who make our city run! Pro tip: If you, an elected official, are hearing the same budget requests from your constituents year after year, you are not meeting their needs. So maybe we can do something about that. Just spitballing here.
The Power of Language
I’m usually a stickler about keeping legislation on the consent agenda. I don’t love to see legislation that has been unanimously approved in committee pulled for separate discussion and debate on the council floor. But there are times when it’s appropriate — even necessary — to meet the moment with a statement of shared purpose. This was one of those times.
The council’s discussion of the resolution recognizing Immigrant Heritage Month had me in tears. Not choking back tears. Not a single tear down my cheek. Real, honest-to-God, boo-hoo crying.
The moment that sent me over the edge was when Councilmember Jeff Preptit, the child of Haitian immigrants, spoke in Haitian Creole. “This was the first time that a person has spoken the language of my mother and father in this chamber,” Preptit said.
After the meeting, I spoke with Preptit. “Being able to speak Haitian Creole on the council floor is symbolic,” he explains. “It shows that, regardless of where you come from, you can reach any heights, and regardless of what language you speak, you are American.”
He shared a story with me about his parents’ immigration experience. Like many immigrants, they were pushed to assimilate, and told to speak English even in their home so they could blend in. “That strips people of their culture and their language,” Preptit says. “My Creole is not great, but I still make the effort to keep that language alive, to show that you can hang on to your culture, and your culture is actually a strength.”
Unsurprisingly, Councilmember Benton departed the chamber before the vote on the resolution. The rest of his colleagues picked up his slack, unanimously approving the resolution.
