@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.
At Tuesday night’s meeting, the Council held a public hearing on the budget, bought some more real estate, and really made me cringe.
A Whole Lotta Cringin’ Going On
I don’t know if it’s because the chamber is so big that it’s hard to do a visual scan, but something is interfering with people’s ability to read the room. Case in point: On Tuesday night, Council passed a resolution recognizing June as Pride Month in Nashville. CM Nancy VanReece shared a touching story about coming to Nashville with her wife more than 30 years ago and seeing Nashville’s first Pride Festival. CM Joy Styles decided this would be the perfect moment to crack a joke? “I’m happy to have signed on to this resolution,” Styles said, “and really my question is for the members of the [LGBTQ] caucus: Does anyone have a ticket to see Leslie Jordan?” Yikes.
Your Friendly Neighborhood RE/MAX Agent
Are you looking to sell some property? Well, the mayor's office might be looking to buy! Not really sure what they’d want to use it for? That’s OK, neither are they! Concerned that this lack of clarity and operational focus could kill the deal at Council? Don’t be! Worried you might be setting the price too high? Go higher!
Before the dust has even settled on our $44 million dead-mall purchase, Council has approved the $20.3 million acquisition of the state-owned property at 88 Hermitage Ave. As with the Global Mall site, the administration has advanced all manner of exciting possibilities, from housing to park land to greenways to a new Opryland! (OK, not that last one. Sorry, CM Henderson.) And as with the Global Mall site, the administration has not committed to any of these uses.
On Tuesday, CMs attempted to nail the administration down on potential plans to provide affordable housing on the property, with CM Johnston even filing a late amendment that would have required it. CM Zach Young — who objected to the amendment along with CM VanReece, effectively killing it — told me he felt it was too prescriptive. “I feel the amendment would box us in for any other future uses we might want to see on the site,” Young explained.
We Hear You, Loud and Clear
The big-ticket item on Tuesday night’s agenda was the annual public hearing on the mayor’s proposed budget. The themes mirrored those back in March at the “pre-budget public comment period,” with residents raising concerns about affordability, education and policing. Members of SEIU Local 205 and the teachers' union showed up in full force requesting that the Council reject the mayor’s proposed 4 percent cost-of-living adjustment and instead adopt the Civil Service Commission’s recommendations, which included a 5 percent adjustment. People spoke passionately, at times tearfully, about their struggle to live in Nashville at a time when the cost of living is becoming, for many, too much to bear. They expressed shame, embarrassment and frustration that they should have to publicly ingratiate themselves to the Council in an attempt to get their basic needs met.
Honey Hereth — a paraprofessional who works with exceptional education students and who also happens to be my favorite public speaker ever — summed it up nicely when she called out the Council’s earlier presentation of a proclamation recognizing the bravery of the staff of Inglewood Elementary School, who recently tackled an intruder and held him down until help arrived. “They just came down here, y’all clapped, y’all gave them a proclamation, all that stuff. That very same year, they gotta fight to get a living wage.”
The public hearing lasted a little less than two hours, shorter than recent years but just as powerful. At the end of it, CM At-Large Burkley Allen, the current Budget & Finance Committee chair, responded to expressions from multiple speakers who felt like the Council doesn’t really care what they have to say. “Yes, we are listening,” said Allen, “and yes, we do care.” And because she knows that actions speak louder than words, she added, “I just put in an email to Metro IT asking if they would create a link from the Citizen’s Guide to the Budget to the schedule.”
I did not have serial killers, pit bulls summoned to attack by silent alarms, or the Right to Farm Act on my bingo card, but CM Tonya Hancock didn’t let that deter her from giving a truly spectacular soliloquy late in the meeting. Hoping for more chaotic energy like this going into the final reading of the budget on June 21.
