@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 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 Twitter here.
With a series of Twitter-approved mayoral appointments to boards and commissions at Thursday night’s council meeting, the posting-to-politics pipeline has never been stronger. Finally, our Very Online Mayor Freddie O’Connell is putting some Very Online Nashvillians in a position to do more than scream into the void.
Neil Kornutick, whose baby had a starring role in my column about parking minimums, was appointed to the Traffic and Parking Commission. Explaining his decision to accept the nomination, Kornutick says, “I am a multimodal transportation user who believes strongly that the safety and function of our networks lead to a more inclusive city for all.” Unfortunately, the baby will not be joining him at meetings. “This might be the one benefit of having meetings early enough in the day: Day care is open until 5:30,” he tells me.
Resident Bike Mom Katherine McDonnell and newly minted American citizen Matthew Hertz, who hasn’t driven a car in 15 years, were both appointed to the new Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Commission.
Now if we could just get self-described chaos agent Kelly, aka “that Kelly kitty girl from Twitter,” appointed to something, we’d really be cooking.
Life and Death at Colemere Mansion
As audience members held pastel-colored signs reading “Save the Manor,” Michael King, the owner of Nashville staple Monell’s, pleaded with the Metro Council to pass a resolution requesting that the Metro Nashville Airport Authority preserve the historic Colemere Mansion, home to Monell’s at the Manor.
Metro Council passes resolution urging preservation of MNAA-owned historic building
“I want to make it clear: It’s not about Monell’s losing the lease there at the manor,” said King in a still-strong Boston accent that’s survived his quarter of a century spent living in the South. “It’s about Nashville losing another historic property.” He recounted fruitless efforts to work with the MNAA to preserve the manor. “The airport would like to demolish the building ... because they just don’t want to deal with an old building,” King lamented.
Councilmember Russ Bradford, whose district includes the Nashville International Airport, has over the past year developed a somewhat adversarial tone toward MNAA leadership. This decision to demolish a cultural landmark and unceremoniously evict a revered tenant is just the latest instance of MNAA’s overreach, Bradford contends.
“As we all know, the airport is growing, and that growth is now negatively impacting not just people who live in my community, but people who own businesses in my community,” Bradford told his colleagues on Thursday night. “We’re being threatened with losing a part of our city’s soul.”
The council unanimously approved the nonbinding resolution. I asked my Magic 8 Ball whether MNAA will reverse course and spare the manor. The response: “Outlook not so good.” Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, y’all.
When Settling Isn’t an Option
Perhaps the most controversial item on Thursday night’s agenda was a resolution authorizing Metro Legal to settle a “First Amendment retaliation” lawsuit brought by Nashville Fire Department Capt. Tracy Turner for $105,000. In 2020, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, Turner posted a series of inflammatory and arguably racist remarks on Facebook. In a series of posts, he referred to violent protesters as “animals” and Black Lives Matter supporters as “thugs.”
Public backlash was swift, and Turner was temporarily demoted from captain to firefighter. Six months later, he was reinstated to the rank of captain.
Speaking during the public comment period, two NFD elders urged the council to approve the settlement. “In 2022, a Nashville firefighter posted his opinion about license plate readers on social media and called the majority of Metro Council members ‘white supremacists,’” firefighters’ union president Danny Yates said, referring to comedian Josh Black’s controversial Twitter post that led to a $450,000 settlement in Black’s favor. In Yates’ estimation, Captain Turner simply “called a few people some names, just like the firefighter did.”
Yates conveniently left out a couple of highly relevant differences between the two cases. First, Josh Black uses a stage name online and never identified himself as a firefighter in his social media accounts. Turner, by contrast, uses his legal name and identifies himself as a Metro fire captain.
Second, Black’s comments targeted a very specific group: the Metro Council. He was expressing dissatisfaction about his government. Turner’s comments were directed at entire swaths of the Nashville populace: “the very public that he is supposed to protect and serve,” as Councilmember Jason Spain put it.
Spain, a quiet councilmember who jokingly referred to himself as a “longtime listener, first-time caller,” highlighted the subjectivity of the balancing test that courts use to determine whether the government has overstepped in disciplining employees for their speech. If Metro were to lose the case at trial, Spain argued, the appeals court might well see the issue differently.
Metro won a similar case on appeal in 2020. A police department employee posted a racial slur and was fired. She sued Metro for violating her First Amendment rights and won at the trial court level, but lost at the appeals court. Meanwhile, Turner, who called protesters “animals,” is still a fire captain. He’s suing Metro over a temporary demotion. If you ask me, he got off easy.
Ultimately, the council voted to reject the Turner settlement, with nearly every councilmember voting against it. Even the most right-wing councilmembers didn’t have the heart to vote for the settlement, instead opting to abstain.
