@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.
In a meeting brimming with procedural intrigue, the Metro Council on Thursday further narrowed the path for Mayor John Cooper to get his speedway deal through this term and moved forward with a contentious rezoning in Bellevue.Â
It was the longest agenda in the history of the Metro Council: a whopping 96 pages, with 265 items. The gallery was packed with red-shirt-wearing supporters of Mayor Cooper’s proposed speedway deal and yellow-shirt-wearing opponents of a proposed rezoning in Councilmember Dave Rosenberg’s district. There was a literal mariachi band in the hallway. For what purpose? I don’t know, and frankly, I prefer it that way.
Don’t Start Your Engines
You may have heard that the walls are closing in on Mayor Cooper as he attempts to win the council’s approval of his deal with Bristol Motor Speedway to revamp the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. One barrier to landing the deal before this council term ends is a rarely triggered provision in the Metro Code of Laws stalling the consideration of the lease of certain Metro-owned property until the district CM — in this case, District 17 CM Colby Sledge — holds a publicly noticed community meeting.Â
Sledge has set that meeting for July 25. This leaves only two regular council meetings before the end of the term, but the deal needs three readings. So CM Zach Young, an ardent speedway supporter who wants to see the deal inked before Cooper leaves office, introduced a bill to change the rules. On Wednesday, the Planning and Zoning Committee voted to defer Young’s bill for one meeting, rendering it effectively useless for Young’s purposes.Â
CM Kathleen Murphy framed the bill as a way to help overburdened district CMs, but as CM Ginny Welsch correctly noted, “I don’t believe [Sledge] asked for this help.” It was an interesting move from Young, who on Wednesday derided his colleagues for their gamesmanship. “What we are not sent here to do is to try and play games,” he said, framing his bill as a way to “get around the games.”
Cut to 1:30 a.m. on Friday, when Murphy abruptly moved to adjourn the council meeting. That motion failed, but opponents of the speedway deal speculated that Murphy’s goal was to engineer a special-called meeting to get Young’s bill back on track. Murphy disputes this interpretation. “Everyone had been making tired faces at each other,” she explains. “I did see Tonya [Hancock] miss her mouth with her snack.” Pressed on whether the move was at all motivated by a desire to see Young’s bill passed, Murphy says that “didn’t factor in” to her decision. “Had it been mentioned to me? Yes. Did I agree with it? No. Did others know I planned to make the motion? Yes.” Murphy says she can’t recall who mentioned the idea to her.
The Lobbyists Made Me Do It!
The main event came about four-and-a-half hours into the meeting: a public hearing over a proposed rezoning in CM Dave Rosenberg’s Bellevue district. Decked out in yellow — color coordination is a time-honored tradition at public hearings — opponents of the rezoning heckled Vice Mayor Jim Shulman when he called a recess around 10 p.m. to give the council staff a respite and guffawed as proponents of the project — most of them on the development team — stepped to the podium. One opponent, an older woman who was particularly fired up, questioned the supporters’ Bellevue bona fides. “Do y’all live in Bellevue?” she asked, gesticulating wildly. “I don’t know you! You don’t look familiar!”
After a lengthy public hearing, Rosenberg moved to approve the bill on second reading, with an amendment that addressed many of the opposition’s concerns. CM At-Large Sharon Hurt, who lives in Rosenberg’s district and is currently running for mayor, moved for a two-meeting deferral. “This is a complicated situation here, and I think it is very serious, and I think that we should stand up and at least defer this,” Hurt said, to deafening applause from the opposition.
What followed was a masterclass in Metro Council debate prep. Rosenberg moved to table Hurt’s motion. That set up a showdown between the two Bellevueans. Rosenberg was up first. “I’d like to read a letter, if I could please,” he began. He recited an eloquent missive in support of the project sent to the Planning Commission earlier this year. Brows furrowed. How could this help his case? What was he aiming at? Hurt looked on with a blank stare as Rosenberg concluded, “Respectfully, Sharon Hurt, Councilmember At-Large.” He didn’t drop the mic, but he might as well have.
Hurt attempted to regain the high ground by explaining that she wrote the letter at the behest of a lobbyist, but had since changed her mind. Folks, this woman is running to be the mayor of our city. She openly admitted to doing the bidding of a lobbyist without bothering to gauge support from the neighborhood. But as soon as it became politically advantageous for her to oppose the project, she threw on her yellow shirt and joined the resistance. Her colleagues weren’t here for it. They supported Rosenberg and voted overwhelmingly to pass the bill on second reading.
We’re down to the wire. Just three regular meetings left until the end of the term. Early voting starts July 14 and runs through July 29. You can vote at any of the locations! Election Day is Aug. 3. If you wait until then, you’ll have to vote at your assigned polling location.
