Confusion and skepticism around a city agreement with the Nashville Downtown Partnership, now twice deferred by the Metro Council, leaves $15 million waiting with the business nonprofit for at least five weeks. For more than an hour at its Dec. 16 meeting, the council debated a memorandum of understanding inked by the mayor’s office that included controversial tech upgrades for police acquired via a new state grant for public safety. Members narrowly chose to defer approving the agreement until Jan. 20, the next full council meeting, with a 19-17 vote.
Many members — notably Sandra Sepulveda and Zulfat Suara, as well as downtown Nashville’s Jacob Kupin — considered deferral the best option to further consider the city’s options amid fierce and vocal pushback from anti-surveillance activists. Many advocates and councilmembers are also skeptical of further city coordination with the Nashville Downtown Partnership, a nonprofit steered by business interests that manages contracted programs like the city’s Downtown Ambassadors and which managed the Nashville Public Library garage when it was severely damaged by a fire in June. Ironically, deferring the MOU leaves $15 million with the NDP without clear spending oversight until an MOU can pass the council.
Skeptical councilmembers will review $15 million resource-sharing agreement Tuesday night following Dec. 4 deferral
After several rounds of amendments and debate, members discussed the importance of proceeding with public trust. They also cast blame on the mayor’s office for failing to clearly explain the grant.
“As someone who works hard on downtown safety, I didn’t know that this was happening, and I wasn’t part of this conversation,” Kupin said on the chamber floor. “And again, money for downtown safety is important. But every page I turn on this thing, it gets more convoluted and complicated.”
The council’s deferral was also a direct repudiation of work from the mayor’s office to secure money outside the city budget for police upgrades, including a $415,000 armored SWAT vehicle and data-crunching law enforcement software. The mayor’s office, at the direction of chief of operations and performance Kristin Wilson, had coordinated with the NDP to receive $9 million in “grant-funded gifts.” Some of these would have likely triggered a public oversight process required by an ordinance passed after tense council debate over automated license plate readers.
"We've worked closely with MNPD, NDOT and the Nashville Downtown Partnership to secure $15 million for downtown safety," O'Connell says in a statement to the Scene. "We collaboratively identified a balanced mix of safety priorities that would let us spend state money on initiatives like additional lighting and camera upgrades that we would otherwise have to spend local money on. ... Surprisingly, given the chance to add common sense guardrails to this funding, the Metro Council declined. The good news is that the funding is available, and we'll just have to keep working to make sure the Metro Council is ready to spend it on shared priorities."
O’Connell helped lead council efforts to limit police surveillance during his time as a councilmember.
