(update) What's on the Council agenda for 8/15/17: More time to drink beer and more corporate welfare.

The Metro Council will meet Tuesday, August 1, 2017 at 6:30 PM in the Council chamber at the Metro Courthouse. This will again be a meeting that is more boring than usual. There is nothing on the agenda likely to generate passion or debate. To watch the Council meeting, you can go to the courthouse and watch the meeting in person, or you can watch the broadcast live at Metro Nashville Network's Government TV on Nashville's Comcast Channel 3 and AT&T's U-verse 99 and it is streamed live at the Metro Nashville Network's livestream site. You can catch the meeting the next day (or the day after the next) on the Metro YouTube channel. If can stand the suspense and just wait, I will post the video on this blog the day after or the day after that and provide commentary.

If you are going to watch the Council meeting, you need a copy of the Council agenda and the Council staff analysis or you really will not know what is going on. You can get the agenda and analysis at the highlighted links. This is going to be another boring meeting.  There is not much that will generate passion or controversy on this agenda. Below are the highlights.

Election of President Pro Tem.
The first order of business following the Call to Order and Invocation, Pledge of Allegiance, Roll Call, and Approval of Minutes is an election of the Council President Pro Tempore for a one-year term ending August 31, 2018. This person's primary duty is to conduct the meetings in the absence of the vice mayor.  The pro tem also conducts the meeting that precedes the regular council meeting at which council members make announcements. This position is prestigious and sometimes candidates really lobby for it. Others times only one person wants the position and they get it.  Council member Sheri Weiner is the only one seeking the position to my knowledge.

Resolutions
There is one insignificant resolution on public hearing which approves a distance variance for an establishment seeking a beer permit.  There are eight resolutions on the agenda all of which are on the consent agenda. None appear controversial. Two are allowing signs to overhang a sidewalk and most of the others are accepting grants and one is honoring Judge J. Randall Wyatt, Jr. upon his retirement.

Bills on Second Reading
BILL NO. BL2017-829  would require the Department of Public Works to replace, at no cost to the homeowner, government-supplied waste containers that are stolen, lost, or damaged beyond repair. Currently if someone runs over your waste container at the back of your house on the alley, or if someone steals it, you the occupant have to pay to replace it. I support this bill. It was on the agenda last meeting but deferred to this meeting.

BILL BL2017-834  would amend the time restriction of when beer could not be sold or served

for on-premises consumption.  Now, beer cannot be sold or served between the hours of 3AM and 6AM Monday thorough Saturday and 3AM to 10AM on Sunday by an establishment with a beer permit.  This would allow it to be sold or consumed anytime except for one hour a day, 3AM to 4AM. This came about due a change in State law allowing establishments with a liquor license to sell liquor anytime except that one hour.  If we do not change our beer law, then an establishment with a liquor license could sell mixed drinks or shots of tequila from 4AM to 6AM but not beer. Beer is not regulated by the State but by local governments.  I support this bill but think we should just go ahead and make it available 'round the clock. I wish someone would offer an amendment to that effect. 

BILL BL2017-836 is a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) deal for the Keystone Automotive Industries to build an administrative office.  This is the kind of corporate welfare that almost all cities engage in.  We will in effect be subsidizing this company about $1.23 million and they promise to create 120 new jobs. That is a little over $10K per job. I would hope the Council would reject this.  For more on this, read the bill and see the staff analysis.

BILL BL2017-837  authorizes the acquisition of property for the purpose of building a new Metropolitan Nashville Police Precinct on Murfressboro Rd.

Bills on Third Reading
There are 23 bills on Third Reading and almost all are rezoning bills.  The only bill of interest is  BILL BL2017-826  which is a disapproved bill in Scott Davis' district.  I have no opinion on the bill but am simply calling attention to it because it is disapproved.  It takes 27 votes in favor to pass a bill disapproved by the Planning Commission. Some in the media and some neighborhood activist types think the Council should never pass a disapproved bill.

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