@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.
The council’s sergeant-at-arms, a Metro Nashville Police Department officer, stood by with his phone drawn, camera app opened and ready to document the final tally of a resolution from Councilmember Courtney Johnston condemning the recent attempt to assassinate former President Donald Trump.
The resolution wasn’t without controversy; at the last council meeting, two members objected to the late-filed nature of the resolution, stopping the council from considering it. Johnston (who last week lost to fellow Republican Andy Ogles in the Republican primary for Tennessee's 7th Congressional District) stormed out in disgust.
In her latest recap, @startleseasily reports on the Metro Council banding together to keep each other safe despite disruptions from a neo-Nazi group
And the hits just kept on coming. In advance of Tuesday’s meeting, Councilmember At-Large Delishia Porterfield filed a proposed substitute resolution. Porterfield’s proposal would have essentially rewritten Johnston’s resolution, replacing the condemnation of the attempt on Trump’s life with a condemnation of all political violence in America.
It was a hostile takeover.
Before the council meeting, Porterfield and Johnston were spotted walking silently toward Vice Mayor Angie Henderson’s office, accompanied by the council director, like a couple of kids headed for the principal’s office after a scuffle in the hallway. Eager to avoid a showdown on the council floor, Henderson worked to broker a last-minute truce.Â
By the time Johnston’s resolution came up on the agenda, the council’s staff had spun off Porterfield’s proposed substitute into a separate resolution for consideration by the body. Porterfield’s new resolution received unanimous support from the council. Johnston’s resolution was approved on a vote of 30-3-1, with Porterfield herself voting in support.
Thankfully, there were no security breaches while the sergeant-at-arms neglected his duties in order to score a pic for the MNPD group chat.
Choose How You Move to Defer
After an hour-and-a-half spent hemming and hawing over a series of proposed amendments to the Metro Charter, the council ultimately elected to defer further consideration of any charter amendments to 2026.Â
As a result of the council’s inaction, voters will see only one Metro-specific item on their ballots this November: Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s transportation improvement plan, “Choose How You Move.”
Initial cost would fund new transit centers, bus service improvements and traffic signal upgrades
This was by design. As Councilmember Clay Capp, the chief proponent of kicking the charter amendment can down the road, explained, “We’ve put, unanimously, a historic, meaningful, potential giant transformation for Nashville on the ballot already this year, in the form of the transit referendum. I think we ought to do what we can ... to focus on and campaign for transit.”
“Let’s give transit its best shot.”
One proposed amendment — which would, if approved by voters, lower the minimum age to run for a Metro Council seat from 25 to 18 — received the lion’s share of scrutiny Tuesday night. It failed, with just 10 councilmembers voting in favor.Â
Most of the body expressed support for the idea, but there was widespread concern about using the term “qualified voter, pursuant to Tennessee state law” as a stand-in for “18-year-old.”
“The language, as it relates to Tennessee Code Annotated,” said Councilmember Jeff Preptit, “provides me deep concern about the ability of other institutions” — read: the state legislature — “to have an undue influence.”Â
Say the state randomly decided to amend the definition of “qualified voter” to exclude, for instance, alt-weekly editors. Patrick Rodgers wouldn’t be eligible to run for a seat on the Metro Council. Sorry, Patrick! (Editor's note: Damn it, foiled again.)
If there’s one thing our city should have learned by now, though, it’s that the state doesn’t need an invitation to unduly influence how local governments function. If they want to screw with us, they’ll find a way to screw with us.
By contrast, the council was supportive of a proposed charter amendment that would eliminate September council meetings, voting 32-6-1 to include the proposal in a future charter amendment package.Â
I sure am looking forward to repeating this entire debate in 2026!
Dead on Arrival
While the majority of the housing reform bills died in the nest before they ever got a chance to spread their wings, the overreaction to their introduction continues. Councilmember Jennifer Gamble, who chairs the council’s Planning and Zoning Committee, authored a resolution that would have asked the Planning Department to provide recommendations to the council on how to increase public awareness of proposed amendments to the zoning code.Â
In the recitals — the “whereas” clauses that indicate the need for the legislation and provide clues to legislative intent — Gamble hints that the request was prompted by the proposed zoning reforms introduced earlier this year. She claims that “members of the community have been generally unaware” of proposed changes to the zoning code “until well into the approval process.”
Let’s press pause right there. Unless you were living under a literal rock, you must have heard from someone, somewhere, somehow about the proposed zoning reforms. Thanks in part to Gamble and like-minded councilmembers whipping their constituents into a frenzy over the slate of legislation, the majority of those bills didn’t even make it past first reading, let alone “well into the approval process.”
Councilmembers file bills aimed at encouraging more types of housing
Gamble won that fight. Since then, though, her efforts to impose her will on the council have been less successful. She received a negative recommendation from her own committee for a proposed amendment to Councilmember Rollin Horton’s adaptive residential bill; only two committee members, including Gamble, voted in favor of the amendment, while nine voted against it. Sensing that the council vote wouldn’t be any more favorable, Gamble abandoned her amendment and pivoted to trying to kill Horton’s bill. She failed again there; the council voted overwhelmingly in support of Horton’s bill, which passed 27-7.
During the committee discussion of her latest resolution, Gamble denied any connection to a particular bill. But coming so close on the heels of that one-two punch, the resolution reads as Gamble lashing out because she didn’t get her way.
Horton alluded to this himself. “Reading the recitals, I think it’s difficult to escape the sense that this is a direct response to the housing bills, including my recent [adaptive residential] bill,” he said.Â
The committee voted to indefinitely defer Gamble’s resolution on a vote of 7-3, over her objection, effectively halting the legislation in its tracks. Gamble could bring it back after 60 days, but why would she want to keep taking L’s in her own committee?Â
Honestly, at what point do you stop and think, “Wow, what I’m doing really is not working”? I hope it happens soon, because late-night Facebook screeds aren’t good for anyone’s mental health.
Nothing good happens after midnight, y’all.Â
