Charlie Tygard not reassigned to Budget and Finance. Pledges to ask the tough questions from the Council Floor.

Charlie Tygard

Charlie Tygard, in my view, is one of the best  members of the Metro Council.  When it comes to fiscal matters he ask the insightful, probing questions that I want someone to ask.  He is often the lone voice raising concern about Metro's pension liability or debt capacity or getting the details about financial deals.  Knowing Charlie Tygard is on the Budget and Finance Committee, I feel that decisions made by the Council are probably usually fiscally sound or at least more sound than they would otherwise be.

When committee assignments were made this week for the coming year, Charlie Tygard was not reassigned to the Budget and Finance Committee. I guess Charlie Tygard has asked too many hard questions and someone does not want him on that committee. Knowing this was going to happen, he had let it be known that if he did not get the assignment, he would ask his questions from the  council floor. Vice Mayor Neighbors has tried to keep council meetings moving at a fast clip and have all real discussion take place in committee meetings. That is one reason Council meetings are so boring. The vice mayor is not pleased by Charlie's intention to ask questions from the floor.

I have written Charlie a word of encouragement  urging him to stick to his guns and ask the hard questions that should be asked whether he is on the B&F committee or not.  Charlie is term limited and I think he would make a great Mayor and I wish he would run for that office.  If he is not ready to run for Mayor, I would love to see him run for the office of Vice Mayor. He has been elected county-wide as a councilman-at-large and I think he could run a strong race for vice mayor. As vice mayor he would be the one making the committee assignments and the voters of Davidson County could have his expertise for possibly eight more years. 

This story was reported in the Tennessean and you can read about it at this link: Vice mayor, councilman at odds over committee snub.

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