@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.
On Tuesday, the Metro Council held its annual public hearing on the budget, approved a grant to Planned Parenthood, and rejected a proposal to loosen the prohibition on fireworks.
Déjà Vu All Over Again
I looked at my recap of the public hearing from last year, and the themes were eerily similar: Metro employees aren’t paid enough; our government invests too much in police and punishment; Nashvillians can’t afford to live in Nashville. That should tell you something about the way our city continues to fail its employees and residents.
For years, Metro has used MIT’s Living Wage Calculator to determine the appropriate hourly wage floor for Metro employees. For a single individual, the living wage in the greater Nashville area is estimated at $17.99 per hour. Metro’s lowest-paid full-time employees make just $18 per hour. At the public hearing, Ashley Bachelder, director of policy and research for Metro’s Human Relations Commission, advocated for the use of United Way’s ALICE tool. The ALICE tool estimates that the “survival budget” — the minimum to simply get by — is $21.16 per hour for a single adult in Davidson County. The “stability budget” for a single adult — which includes a 10 percent savings category — is $33.65 per hour.
Sure, it’s great that we’re not paying Metro employees literal poverty wages, but our current pay plans are nothing to celebrate. Honey Hereth, a longtime MNPS paraprofessional, captured the feeling of the moment perfectly — as she does — when she informed the council that she will be inviting them to her “begging party” this summer if they don’t give employees the 7 percent cost-of-living adjustment recommended by the Civil Service Commission. Mayor John Cooper’s budget includes a 4 percent COLA. Normally, Ms. Honey has her son with her at public hearings, but this time she gave him the night off from his “child labor job of begging for money at Metro Council.” That line elicited some chuckles in the chamber, but if you’ve heard Ms. Honey speak before, you know the woman does not joke when it comes to providing for her child.
No, We’re Not Over It
In October, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the ensuing abortion ban in Tennessee, the council voted to appropriate $500,000 from various departments’ unencumbered fund balances (essentially, extra money they haven’t used) to Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi. The money was to be used for sex education, contraception and other preventative measures to equip Nashvillians with the tools we need to retain our bodily autonomy in a forced-birth state. That resolution was approved on a vote of 19-13-3, with many CMs citing concerns with outsourcing this vital work instead of letting Metro’s Health Department handle it.
Due to bills pending in the state legislature that could have prohibited Metro from an appropriation like this, the city held off on drawing up a contract. The coast is clear (for now), putting the city in a position to finally execute the contract. In a contentious committee meeting, CM Robert Nash said he didn’t see the need for the funding now that “some of the emotion has died down.”
CM Porterfield proceeded to put on a masterclass in pushing back on tone-deaf comments from that one guy who always thinks you’re just blowing things out of proportion. You know that guy? Yeah, we all know that guy. “As a woman of childbearing age,” Porterfield calmly explained, “the emotion has not died down, and it will never die down until this decision is reversed and until I have the same bodily autonomy that you have.”
Ultimately, only four CMs voted against the resolution: Hall, Swope, Pulley and Nash. CM Thom Druffel abstained. Pulley, who is currently running for an at-large seat, explained the reasoning for his vote in committee. He thinks PPTNM is a well-run organization with plenty of funding, and he couldn’t bring himself to take money from Metro departments — money the departments are not using — to help Nashvillians avoid being forced to give birth.
Cue the Fireworks
Not to be outdone by the public hearing, the council put on a show of its own during debate over a bill from CM Dave Rosenberg that would’ve made fireworks street legal for 10-and-a-half hours on July Fourth. Things got really goofy, really quickly. Love was in the air, as a series of CMs shared their adoration and respect for Rosenberg before speaking against his bill.
CM Joy Styles painted an apocalyptic picture of a city on fire; trash littering the streets; residents running amok, shooting off bottle rockets at every doorstep. “It is a nightmare already, come sundown on the Fourth,” lamented Styles. CM Russ Bradford was fully on board with the Purge vibes. “We have people out there shooting and murdering one another, which is illegal,” Bradford said, as Styles nodded vigorously from the back row. “Should we go ahead and make that legal, since people are doing it?”
CM Antoinette Lee, who rarely speaks on the floor, shared her grave concerns with the proposal on behalf of her constituents and her “four-legged babies.” “I can read the room ... I think this looks like it’s going to pass,” Lee said. She must need reading glasses, because the bill failed, and it wasn’t close: Only 13 people voted in favor.
You still have time to share your thoughts on the proposed budget! Email councilmembers@nashville.gov before June 20, and be sure to include your address or council district in your signature line so they know you’re a constituent.
