Budget hearings, Fairgrounds and more
If you want
to follow along with the agenda, the council staff analysis, and my analysis
follow this link where you can find them.
This meeting
is only one hour and thirty-eight minutes long, which considering that is the
night of the public hearing on the city budget is not that long of a meeting.
Confirmation of Mayor's appointees to Boards and Commissions:
Hundreds of
people serve our city by serving as members of boards and commissions. These entities include everything from the Board of Zoning
appeal, the Historical Commission, the Planning Commission, and the Beer Board to
the Sexually Oriented Business Licensing Board. These
citizens serve without pay and often without recognition, simply because they
care about our city. In most cases the Mayor appoints the members and the Council
confirms them. These commissions can be
quite powerful. The Council really is a pretty weak body. One of the few powers they have is the power of the
budget and the power to approve the Mayor's appointees to these unelected bodies. The Council almost
never rejects a mayor's appointee.
Tonight
seven of the members of the seventeen member Human Relations Commission are up for confirmation of their appointment
or reappointment. The HRC is a commission that served no useful purpose.
Anything they do that is worth doing could be done by other agencies or private
entities. They are essentially Metro's agency for political indoctrination.
They serve to promote political correctness. I do not think there has ever been
a conservative or traditionalist appointed to this commission. One of the
things they do is sponsor a youth pavilion at Nashville's Gay Pride Festival.
In my view Metro government should not be in the business of normalizing a gay
lifestyle among our city's youth. Tonight the Council had an opportunity to take
a stand against Nashville sponsorship of the youth pavilion at the Gay Pride
Festival. I had hoped that members of the council would question the Mayor's
appointees to the HRC and reject those appointees who support this. I don't
know that if in Committee anyone was questioned about their position on the appropriateness
of Metro's sponsorship of this youth pavilion at the gay pride event or not. If anyone council member or member of the
public was at the committee, I would appreciate knowing what happened. Among
those appointees to the HRC:
- Mr. Richard
Kennedy's nominations was withdrawn.
- Reappointment
of Ms. Sharon Kay was deferred one meeting.
- Reappointment
of Mr. Don Peterson was deferred one meeting.
Other
appointments to the HRC were the following and they were all approved by the Rules
committee 7-0 and were approved by the council:
- Reappointment
of Ms. Debra Palmer George for a term expiring April 18, 2016.
- Appointment of Mr. Richard Kennedy for a term expiring April 18, 2016.
- Appointment of Ms. Tasha French Lemley for a term expiring April 18, 2016.
- Reappointment of Mr. Avi Poster for a term expiring April 18, 2016.
- Appointment of Mr. Frank Trew for a term expiring April 18, 2016.
Budget Hearing:
The budget
hearing starts at 15:13 and ends at 45:20
in the video. Only a few people speak on
the budget. Several metro employees speak in favor of a pay increase.
At 27:19 in
the video Rick Williams, Director of Save Our Fairgrounds, speaks in opposition
to the budget making a plea to fund the fairgrounds. While I usually take a
position that those entities which could operate off of their own revenue
should do so, this time I make an exception for the fairgrounds. In my view,
there has been a cynical effort on the part of the administration to destroy
the financial viability of the fairgrounds by creating uncertainty in order to
justify selling off the property. I
support subsidizing it for one year and then bringing about a process that ensures
stability so it can return to profitability. George Gruhn of Gruhn Guitar also
speaks in favor of the fairgrounds. Over a million people attend the over 500
events a year at the fairgrounds he says.
I am surprised that there was no
speakers in favor of fully funding the school budget request.
Usually you
can count on several people speaking in favor of greater school funding. None
do this time. The budget passes second reading and is rereferred to Budget and
Finance Committee. The budget is amendable on third reading.
Resolutions on the Consent agenda:
All except
three resolutions were on the consent agenda. A resolution is put on the
consent agenda if it is likely to be non-controversial and it stays on the
consent agenda if it passes the committees to which it was assigned
unanimously. Bills on the consent agenda are usually not controversial and tend
to be routine matters, such as accepting grants from the Federal or State
Government or authorizing the Department of Law to settle claims against the
city or appropriating money from the 4% fund. Resolutions on the consent agenda
are passed by a single vote of the Council rather than being considered
individually. Any member of the body however may have a bill pulled off of the
consent agenda.
Other Resolutions:
RESOLUTION NO. RS2012-522
authorizing the purchase of property on Smith Springs Rd to build a public
school. This location been controversial
in the effected community and Councilman Duvall ask for a two meeting deferral.
By a vote of 10 "yes," 23 "no" and 2 abstentions, the deferral
fails. He then moves to defeat the bill and that motion fails with a vote of 4
in favor of a defeat and 29 against and 4 abstentions. The bill then passes
31-1-2. (see 50:27-59)
RESOLUTION NO. RS2013-670 which establishes the certified tax rate in
both the General Services District and the Urban Services District is deferred
to track with the budget.
All bills on First Reading pass.
Bills on Second Reading:
BILL NO. BL2012-291 amends the definition of
“recycling facility” to clarify that it does not include the conversion of
material into a fuel product or asphalt. Public works says this bill is not
necessary since state regulations do not permit a C & D landfill to have an
incinerator anyway. This bill is disapproved.
Bill NO. BL2013-360 requires that there be a compensation and benefits
study for the mayor, vice mayor, and members of council. Included in this will
be a review of the lifetime health insurance benefit provided to former council
member who served at least two terms. This generous and costly benefit was up
for repeal or reduction twice before in this council and failed. This bill calling
for a study passes.
BILL NO. BL2013-420 creates a small business economic
development incentive grant program. As
you are probably aware, Metro Council has been picking winner and looser by
bribing big companies not to leave metro and "enticing" big companies
to expand or relocate to Davidson County. Some have argued that this is wrong
and the same enticements should be offered to small businesses. I do see this
policy as a problem. By paying companies to locate or not to leave we create an
incentive whereby a company would be foolish to move here unless they get their
pay-off and we have created an incentive for companies to threaten to leave
unless we pay them to stay.
Unfortunately, it is hard to stop playing this game since other cities
are also playing it. Cities have created
an environment to where they have to pay the incentive or another city that
does pay the incentive will get the big corporate headquarter relocations and
manufacturing plants. I don't think the way to fix this problem is to expand it
to small businesses. This bill was deferred last meeting to track with the
budget ordinance. It passes by voice vote. If no one asks to be recorded as
voting no, then it is assumed they voted for it.
BILL NO. BL2013-423 would swap some Metro land for
some State land. The land that the School for the Arts sits on and the land
that will be the site of the future STEM charter school located on the old
Tennessee Preparatory School site on Foster Ave, would be swapped for the old
Ben West Library site downtown at Eighth and Union Ave . Metro now owns the
library and the State owns the TPS site. There is some opposition to tearing
down the old Ben West library because some preservationist consider the
building architecturally significant.
The most persuasive argument against the deal is that there is a deed
restriction that requires the site to be used as a library or revert to the
heirs of those who gave the land to Metro to be used as a library. I think deed
restrictions should be honored as a matter of principle but as a matter of
practicality we should not move forward with this deal until the title issues
have been resolved. It is again deferred one meeting.
BILLNO. BL2013-432 which establishes the tax
levy for the fiscal year 2013-2014 passes and is rereferred to Budget and
Finance.
Bills on Third Reading:
BILL NO. BL2013-348 is a
massive rezoning increasing the density in midtown. The rezoning will likely impact
the probability of getting funding for federal funding for the proposed Bus
Rapid Transit development. It passes by a vote of 34-1-1.
Below is a news report on the council meeting.
Council holds public hearing on Dean's budget, approves small cities agreement
By Steven Hale, City Paper, May 21, 2013 -
It was a familiar scene at the Metro Courthouse Tuesday night, as
red-clad fairgrounds supporters turned out for a public hearing on Mayor
Karl Dean’s proposed $1.8 billion budget.
Their numbers did not approach the unprecedented crowd that showed up
for a hearing on the property’s fate in 2011, but members of the Save
Our Fairgrounds group arrived Tuesday intent on reminding Metro Council
members of that night as well as of a referendum on the century-old
fairgrounds later that year.(link)Below
is the video. It you haven't watched it, wait and I will watch if for
you and tell you where in the video is the good stuff and also give you
my opinions of what happened. check back.
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