Vice Mayor Jim Shulman
Newly re-elected Vice Mayor Jim Shulman will soon make his first committee assignments of the new Metro Council term, but first he’s working on a new type of special committee to focus on specific issues facing the city.
The special committees are designed to be a more targeted version of already-existing groups dealing with affordable housing and other, broader issues. The new committees will include Metro Council members and possibly nonelected officials and will be tasked with updating the Council regularly and providing deliverables within a year.
Here are the categories for the eight new committees:
1. Why are Nashvillians not voting, and what steps can be taken to get more citizens engaged?2. What steps can be taken (working with the School Board) to make sure that teachers do not have to pay out of pocket for school supplies for their classrooms? While you are looking at that issue, what about the textbook situation? Are there enough to go around and, if not, why?
3. It seems like almost everywhere you go (especially downtown), there are full and partial street closures. Are they all properly permitted? Before an entity is allowed to close a street, are plans established (and carried out) to deal with traffic back-up? If they are not permitted or allowed to be blocking streets, why is no one enforcing/stopping them from doing this?
4. Sidewalks—a perpetual issue for Nashville. Who has the list of current and future sidewalks? How is that list determined? How much does it cost to build a linear foot of sidewalk in Nashville? How does that cost compare with other peer cities? And is there a way to reduce the cost so that we can get more sidewalks?
5. 37208. It has, according to reports, the highest percentage of incarceration in the country. What do we need to do to correct that?
6. Teachers, firefighters, police, Metro employees. Where do our employees fit on the pay schedule? How do we compare to our peer cities? Do our employees feel valued? What can and should we do about this?
7. What are the current afterschool opportunities for our young people in Nashville and what should they be?
8. Enforcement of our Code. The Council can pass all the ordinances that it wants to but if the law is not being enforced, the ordinances do not mean much. Working with the Codes Department, determine the extent of our enforcement efforts. What is being enforced, how quickly are we able to respond to a concern, are we properly staffed, what areas need updating?
With eight committees, it’s expected that five Metro Council members will be assigned to each group.
Shulman says that the past special committee system was less effective because the “issues were too broad.” In addition to the special committees, the vice mayor says he is exploring ways to make the regular committee structure more effective.
“Our committee structure doesn’t work all that well, and we’re taking a serious look at how to fix it,” he says.
The changes, so far unspecified, are needed to give committees more time to consider and discuss issues.
