Council Members, Please explain your vote.

Kay Brooks in response to my last post asked, who were the council members who voted for the Limo price fixing bill and are they up for election this year.  The answer is all who voted, except for Councilman Todd who abstained, voted for it and many of them are up for reelection.

Here is the list. I have highlighted in red those council member who disappointed me, who I assumed were conservative. I did not expect much better from the others.

....the following vote: “Ayes” Garrett, Barry, Tygard, Steine, Maynard, Matthews, Harrison, Hunt, Craddock, Hollin, Jameson, Cole, Bennett, Forkum, Ryman, Jernigan, Gotto, Burch, Stanley, Claiborne, Page, Moore, LaLonde, Gilmore, Baker, Langster, Crafton, Evans, Holleman, McGuire, Adkins, Foster, Dominy, Wilhoite, Toler, Coleman, Duvall, Mitchell (38); “Noes” (0); “Abstaining Todd (1)."

 I am writing an email to all of the Council Members highlighted above, with this message:

Greetings Councilman,
I have been disappointing to learn that the city recently passed a price-fixing bill to protect the high-end limo service providers against competition from those who would supply cheaper limo service.  I am very, very disappointed  in your vote.  I have always thought you were one of the "good guys" of the Council and a conservative. I can see two possible reasons for your vote:
(1) I don't have all the facts and their is a very good reason you voted the way you did. If that is true could you please explain your vote. I will publish your response on my blog. 
(2) You did not know what you were voting on.  The bill passed the committees with unanimous recommendations, you do not serve on any of those committees so you were unaware of the issue involved and relied on the Committee recommendation. If that is true then, that is not a good enough reason, however, I can understand that. If that is the case, will you introduce legislation to reverse this legislative action?

I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,
Rod Williams

I will report any response I get.

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Nashville's Sedan Drivers Fight City Effort To Run Them Off the Road

Until 2010, sedan and independent limo services were an affordable alternative to taxicabs. A trip to the airport only cost $25. But in June 2010, the Metropolitan County Council passed a series of anti-competitive regulations requested by the Tennessee Livery Association-a trade group formed by expensive limousine companies. These regulations force sedan and independent limo companies to increase their fares to $45 minimum.

The regulations also prohibit limo and sedan companies from using leased vehicles, require them to dispatch only from their place of business, require them to wait a minimum of 15 minutes before picking up a customer and forbid them from parking or waiting for customers at hotels or bars. And, in January 2012, companies will have to take all vehicles off the road if they are more than seven years old for a sedan or SUV or more than ten years old for a limousine.

These regulations have nothing to do with public safety. Nashville could have limited its requirements to those regulations that are designed to genuinely protect the public's health and safety, such as requiring insured and inspected vehicles, and driver background checks, but instead, Nashville is stooping to economic protectionism to put affordable car services out of business in favor of more expensive services that happen to have more political power. Many Nashville residents who regularly use limos and sedans will be forced to spend twice as much money for exactly the same service and hard-working sedan drivers will be driven out of business.

On April 20, 2011, the Institute for Justice teamed up with three Nashville entrepreneurs and filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee to vindicate the right of Nashville's limo and sedan operators to earn an honest living free from excessive government regulation.

My take on this: 

This is an absolute outrage!  Where were the Republican and conservative Democrat council members when this passed?  Are there no believers in free enterprise in the Metro Council?  Are we living in  the Peoples Socialist Republic of Nashville? 

Even if if fails, I call upon those council members who call themselves conservatives to introduce a bill to repeal this anti-competitive, price-fixing piece of legislation. 

We need some new voices in the Metro Council. We need some real conservatives. Most issues the Council deals with are not particularly ideological or partisan. There are only a few issues that distinguish a liberal from a conservative in the Metro Council. This is one of them. Where were the conservatives?

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Glenrose Avenue gets a bright new mural

My drive to work just got more pleasant. Every day I drive to work and back home again for lunch and then back to work and back home again at the end of the work day. My short drive includes traveling busy Glenrose Avenue between Nolensville Road and Foster Avenue. This segment of Glenrose is an area of modest homes close to the road and some businesses. While the area is not terribly depressed, it is somewhat drab and run down and I don't think anyone would call this street an attractive street. About mid way in this section of the Glenrose, the street narrows for an underpass and retaining walls border the street approaching the underpass.

Artist Tarri Driver chats with neighborhood leader Cecil Lillard. 

The walls of the underpass and the retaining walls have long been a site were graffiti "artist" deface the walls and where gangs "tag" the walls. The city does a good job of trying to keep the graffiti removed but it is a constant battle. The result is that the walls had become covered with different shades of paint that have been used to cover the graffiti. It was ugly.

This week I got a pleasant surprise when I noticed that the walls were being painted. A mural was emerging on what had been an ugly wall. The project is the work of PASTL.

I stopped by today while the artists were working to tell them I admired their work and got to meet Michael Kavnaugh the founder and project manager of PASTL and artist Tarri Driver. Tarri is an Art Therapist who describes her job as working to help at-risk kids express themselves through art. I leaned that this is the first big public project for PASTL. Previous projects have included murals at Johnson School and Spectrum Academy. The project is being funded by a grant from the Neighborhood Resource Center.

Tarri expressed hope that the wall would not be defaced by graffiti and said that there has been a history of practitioners of graffiti (I hate calling them "artist") leaving alone murals when they have been have been painted where graffiti had previously prevailed. I know that when the railroad overpass on Nolensville Road at the Nashville zoo was repainted with the lifelike animals perched in the painted niches of the overpass, I was fearful that that beautiful artwork would be defaced but surprisingly it has not. I hope that Tarri is right and this work of art is not defaced either.

Thanks to all involved in this project for making my drive more pleasant.

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Glen Casada and Jim Gotto at Southeast Breakfast Summit

Rise and Shine

for the

Southeast Davidson County Breakfast Summit
(formerly known as the Priest Lake Pastry and Politics)
 

with special guest

Glen Casada

State Representative Glen Casada has served in the State Legislature since 2001. In 2007, Rep. Casada was elected as Chairman of the House Republican Caucus making him the ranking Republican in the State Legislature. He was a leader in the effort to defeat a State income tax and has championed many conservative causes in the House. Glen will be speaking on issues facing the State Legislature.

And

Jim Gotto

Speaking on The Budget, Educational Reform and other issues facing the State Legislature

Representative Gotto is a freshman legislator just elected this past November, taking a house seat long occupied by a Democrat.  Jim serves on the House Judiciary Committee and the House State & Local Government Committee. Jim also serves in the Metro Council representing Council District 12.

Councilman Robert Duvall moderating 

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Fellowship, Pastry and Coffee 8:30 AM, meeting 9:00 AM

Southeast Davidson County Breakfast Summit

Meets at

The Spirit of Life Church

 3646 Murfreesboro Pike
Antioch, TN

(map)

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Green Hills Breakfast Summit- This Saturday!

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Swett’s – Green Hills – 2209 Abbott Martin Rd.

Breakfast begins at 8:15 am ($8.75 cash, no credit cards)

Meeting begins at 9 am sharp

                                                           

LEGISLATION SATURDAY

SPECIAL GUEST:

REP. DEBRA MAGGART

REPUBLICAN MAJORITY CAUCUS CHAIRMAN

Join us and hear a prominent member of the TN House of Representatives bring us up to date on what's happening in this exciting legislative session.

Bring your own questions on legislation (past, present or future). This is your chance to ask a GOP leader directly.

Take advantage of this special opportunity. Invite your friends!

Event Chairs:

Peter and Gail Voysey

Kathleen Starnes, DCRP Chair

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Standard & Poor's downgraded the United States to negative

"Because the U.S. has, relative to its 'AAA' peers, what we consider to be very large budget deficits and rising government indebtedness and the path to addressing these is not clear to us, we have revised our outlook on the long-term rating to negative from stable," the agency said in a statement.(link)

Anyone who is not alarmed, is not paying attention.

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West Nashville Eggs and Bacon April Report

by Matt Nemauth

Thank you to all who attended the West Nashville Eggs and Bacon yesterday morning.  This meeting marked our 1 year anniversary and I am still proud to help moderate this event.  None of this could happen without your support.

As a reminder, Chuck Grimes will be "locked up" as a MDA Jailbird in an effort to raise money for Jerry's Kids.  Chuck currently heads up the Young Republicans of Davidson County and works for the state legislature.  He will need to raise $2400 by July 27th.  I have already donated and if you wish to as well, please click here.

Ralph Weber was an incredible speaker.  He is the President and CEO of MediBid - an service dedicated to finding medical services for people at the free-market level.  Along with his company, he served as a consultant to Rudy Guiliani and Mike Huckabee during their Presidential campaigns in 2008.

Ralph made some incredibly eye-opening remarks regarding our health care industry and what he feels would be true solutions.  One fact that he revealed was that by using nurse practitioners in an effort to reduce medical costs, those costs actually increase.  This is because nurse practitioners are likely to order more tests than necessary to properly diagnose a patient.

Again, Ralph is a wealth of knowledge regarding the health care industry.  Check out his company at: www.medibid.com.

Thank you again.  We are trying to get a health care panel setup for a future meeting.  All details will be provided once solidified.

Regards,

Matt Nemeth
West Nashville Eggs and Bacon Summit Moderator
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