@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 night, the Metro Council put plans to form a Nashville Entertainment Commission on ice, offered an olive branch to the state legislature and debated the Titans stadium deal.
No Encore, Please
Councilmember Joy Styles’ plans to spearhead the formation of a Nashville Entertainment Commission appear to be dead on arrival, after a rare committee move squashed debate on the proposal. During Monday night’s Budget and Finance Committee meeting, Styles and Chief Nemesis CM Jeff Syracuse sparred over vanishingly small differences in approach. For instance: should commission members serve a three- or five-year term? Neither Styles nor Syracuse is willing to budge, both seemingly more intent on getting credit than actually creating the commission. At one point during the committee meeting, CM At-Large Sharon Hurt sought “courage” from the mayor’s office. “This has been very convoluted ... and I just need to know: What is best?” Hurt asked Mike Jameson, Mayor Cooper’s Council Whisperer. Jameson, being Jameson, got snippy. “I’m sorry I can’t offer you guidance on the minuscule differences between these two. I think that’s what you’re hired to do.” Hurt, being Hurt, returned fire. “I didn’t think I was hired — I thought I was elected,” she said, before moving to indefinitely defer the legislation over Styles’ objection, effectively killing the bill. (Procedural nerds: see Rule 8.)
CM Styles has the option to attempt a resurrection, but in an oddly tense exchange after Tuesday’s council meeting, she told me she wouldn’t be pursuing that. I asked if she’d be trying again with a different bill, and she suggested that I “come back next time and find out.” I’m chalking up her venom to being in the vicinity of her Associate Nemesis, CM At-Large Bob Mendes. He provoked her ire in recent weeks with comments on the stalled Vanderbilt University Medical Center deal at the Global Mall — another project Styles hopes to resurrect — and he seconded Hurt’s motion to kill her Entertainment Commission bill.
Mendes likened that decision to refereeing a fraternal squabble. “I was channeling my mother,” Mendes explained, “when she told me and my brother that if we couldn’t agree on what to watch on TV, then no TV for anyone.”
Stadium Slippage
On Tuesday, the council considered for the first time the “definitive documents” on the proposed Titans stadium. Normally there wouldn’t be discussion of a bill at this stage, but this isn’t a normal bill. CM Ginny Welsch, of “You can pay for this fucking shit yourselves” fame, attempted to kill the bill, railing against the Titans, the mayor’s office, and even her own colleagues in a fiery floor speech. “I’m not really sure why some of my colleagues are even on this body,” Welsch proclaimed, “when they allow the administration to treat us that way, as if we are just supposed to rubber stamp these large expenditures that are not in the best interest of the city.” She went on to mix some metaphors, calling any decision to move the bill forward a “dangerous game” and “political theater.”
CM Kevin Rhoten, who chairs the council’s Budget and Finance committee, was not amused. “If nobody in this body has sat through 25 meetings, like I have on this ... then they don’t need to stand up and say that we haven’t done our due diligence,” Rhoten shot back. The debate was topped off with a classic Vice Mayor Jim Shulman maneuver: a hybrid voice vote/roll call that created unnecessary confusion for everyone involved. It was procedurally messy, but it did illuminate a slight erosion in the council’s support for the deal. When the council considered the initial term sheet for the stadium in December, there were eight no votes. On Tuesday, at least 10 CMs voted against the definitive documents. It’s not anywhere near a death sentence, but losing votes is certainly not good news for the deal’s proponents.
State of the State
CM Robert Swope has been working overtime to help the council navigate its strained relationship with the state legislature. I can’t say I feel confident about a far-right Republican wheeling and dealing in the halls of power on our behalf, but given the current shitstorm, a MAGA umbrella is better than no umbrella. In the Public Health and Safety Committee on Tuesday, Mike Jameson had an impromptu tête-à-tête with Swope about a plan for mutual disarmament. Swope assured Jameson that he’s persuaded his “guys” in the legislature to drop — for now — legislation that would severely restrict Nashville’s ability to place requirements on developers for public goods like trees, sidewalks and infrastructure improvements. In return, CM Kathleen Murphy agreed to withdraw a council bill that would have strengthened Nashville’s tree protections. Because everybody knows, the best way to stick it to the libs is by clear-cutting our tree canopy.
Just one month after she got Vice Mayor Shulman to let me gavel the council meeting to order, my fairy godmother CM Ginny Welsch introduced me to LIVING LEGEND PAT NOLAN on Tuesday. A longtime fixture in local media, Nolan currently serves as a sort of town crier for the council. And I hear he’s in the market for a successor ...
