Rod's Comment: This seminar is being put on by the Davidson County Election Commission. I know this is short notice for anyone who may want to attend. I am not late posting it, the announcement was just posted today.
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Friday, January 13, 2023
Broadway business owner Steve Smith launches ad campaign against Nashville Mayor Cooper
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by Rod Williams, Jan. 13, 2023- Steve Smith has launched a campaign for mayor, it appears. He is running ads on TV that are critical of Mayor Cooper, but the ads do not say, "vote for Steve Smith for Mayor." It is unusual to see campaign ads for the August election this early. Here is the text of the ad:
August 3, 2023 Nashville residents will step into the voting booth to choose the next mayor. The choice is as easy as ABC. Anybody but Cooper. Paid for by Steve Smith.
Smith is the owner of several bars and restaurants on Lower Broadway. He owns the iconic Tootsie's Orchid Lounge and also Kid Rock’s Big Ass Honky Tonk & Rock ‘n’ Roll Steakhouse, Honky Tonk Central, Rippy’s Bar & Grill, The Diner, and I think some others.
Steve Smith has several differences with Mayor Cooper. Smith was instrumental in the attempt to bring the Republican National Convention to Nashville, which the mayor did not aggressively pursue. Smith opposed Cooper's 34% property tax increase. He opposed the city's early response to the Covid epidemic which closed down the city for a period of time and crippled the tourist industry. Smith thinks the city does not do enough to combat crime and aggressive panhandling.
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| Steve Smith |
Smith grew up in east Nashville. He says he was raised poor in a household of seven people. He is the son of a nurse and truck driver and Smith says his older brother John took care of him at night. When Smith was 19, he moved to New York, where John was a stockbroker, and the two of them opened a disco in Brooklyn.
In the early 1990s, Smith moved back to Nashville. He purchased Tootsie's Orchid Lounge and worked the door and married his wife who was a Tootie's bartender. Over time, fairly quickly, his holding grew to what it is today. He is the largest owner of the property on Lower Broadway and has an interest in restaurants and bars beyond Lower Broad. For more on Steve Smith, see this Nashville Business Journal article.
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Thursday, January 12, 2023
Another source of chaos if the State cuts the size of the Council from 40 to 20 members.
by Rod Williams, Jan. 12, 2023- Metro Councilmember Dave Rosenberg has pointed out that some provisions of the Metro Charter require that some city legislation requires 27 council votes to be approved. That means that if the proposed State legislation cutting the size of the Council from 41 members to 20 should pass, the Metro Charter would also have to be amended. That takes of vote of the public. That may require a special election and if the public rejected the proposal to change the Charter, Metro Government would be immobilized.
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Bill introduced in State House to prohibit Metro from assisting women in obtaining an abortion.
by Rod Williams, Jan. 12, 2023- Rep. Debra Moody, R-Collierville, has introduced House Bill 0090 which would prohibit local governments from assisting anyone in obtaining an abortion.
I don't know if there are other governments other than Nashville that do this or not, but Nashville does. Following the Supreme Court's ruling overturning Roe v Wade, the Metro Council passed a resolution (SUBSTITUTE RESOLUTION RS2022-1734) appropriating $500,000 to Planned Parenthood, "for the purpose of funding a grant to Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi to provide comprehensive sexual health education in Nashville and Davidson County, and distribution of safer sex supply kits, family planning counseling, birth control counseling, and birth control products."
The money to pay for this was taken from a bunch of other departments including $90,000 from the Police. Police took the biggest hit, but Parks and libraries were among the other agencies hit the hardest.
The resolution originally contained a provision to include funding for travel expenses for women in Davidson County so they could travel out of state to get an abortion. That provision was removed after Metro Legal expressed concern that it would threaten Title X funding. Title X prohibits government funds from being used for abortion.
Even if HB0090 is passed, I don't know that what Metro Council did would be prohibited. I hope it is. In October when the Council appropriated money for Planned Parenthood, I wrote "I think it may be time for the State to step in and act to prohibit Metro from funding abortions through the back door."
While there is little doubt that "family planning counseling" will include counseling women on how to get an abortion, I don't know if that would constitute Metro "assisting anyone in obtaining an abortion." It should. Before we would know that, the bill would most likely have to pass and then be tested in court to see if Metro's funding of Planned Parenthood constituted "assisting women in obtaining an abortion."
Passage of HB0090 might inhibit Metro from going even further. With a Democrat in the White House, the Federal Government may be lax in enforcing Title X provisions. If the federal government fails to enforce Title X, then Metro may decide it is safe to fund travel expenses for those seeking an abortion. HB0090 would clearly prohibit that. HB0090 needs to pass.
To read the bill see House Bill 0090. For more on the Council's funding of Planned Parenthood, see this link, and this link.
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Candidates Emerge for Metro Council At-Large Seats
by STEPHEN ELLIOTT, Nashville Scene, DEC 13, 2022 - A handful of candidates so far has emerged ahead of 2023 Metro Council elections.
For the five countywide at-large seats, potential candidates include Chris Cheng, Jeff Syracuse, Russ Pulley, Tony Chapman and Quin Evans Segall. Each has filed paperwork so as to land the opportunity to raise money, though the ballot qualification process is not yet open.
Of the four current at-large members (one, Steve Glover, resigned during the term), two are term-limited (Bob Mendes and Sharon Hurt) and two could run for a second term (Zulfat Suara and Burkley Allen).
Syracuse and Pulley are currently district representatives on the Metro Council. ... (link)
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Tuesday, January 10, 2023
"How Fixing Education in TN Makes Us Freer and More Prosperous" with Justin Owen
AIER’s Bastiat Society program in Nashville will host an in-person event with Justin Owen, President & Chief Executive Officer of the Beacon Center of Tennessee and Beacon Impact.
Few things are more important than a quality education. By fixing education, we can reduce poverty, government dependence, and crime, and increase overall prosperity. Learn what Tennessee is doing to improve its long-failing education system by empowering parents with transparency, accountability, and access to quality options.
Eventbrite Ticket Required. Register Here.
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Monday, January 09, 2023
State House Majority Leader files bill to cut the Metro Council size in half. This bill does not deserve to pass
by Rod Williams, Jan. 9, 2023- House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, and Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, filed a bill today (House bill 48) to cut the Metro Council size in half. Currently, the Council has 41 members composed of 35 district council members and five at-large members, and the Vice Mayor.
Nashville has one of the largest city councils in the nation. Los Angeles has a city council of 15 members, Miami has a council of only 5 members, Detroit has 9, and Memphis has 13. However, Chicago has a 50-member city council and New York City has 51 members. It should be kept in mind, however, that most cities have both a city council and a county council or county court. Nashville's city council represents all of the county. The reason that Nashville ended up with such a large council is that when the city and the county combined to form a metropolitan form of government, elected officials did not want to lose their seats and voters did not want to feel they were losing representation and both the city council and the county court were large bodies to begin with.
Over the years there have been several efforts to cut the size of the Council and all have failed. The most recent attempt was in 2015 when Nashville voters rejected a proposal to reduce the size of the council from 40 members to 27.
While the bill to cut the size of the Council does not have the usual flowery "whereas" section explaining why the bill is needed, the sponsors of the bill are presenting this as an efficiency measure, saying a large legislative body can be unruly. I'm not buying it.
What many suspect is really behind the bill is punishment for Nashville's failure to pursue hosting the Republican Convention for 2024. Nashville was a finalist and could have probably hosted the convention if the city would have wanted to do so. While the governor was pushing the city to pursue hosting the convention and the Chamber of Commerce was advocating for hosting the convention and the Music City Center wanted the event, the city council voted down a draft agreement to host the 2024 Republican National Convention, taking Nashville out of the competition with Milwaukee, Wisconsin letting Milwaukee have it.
Reportedly, hosting the convention would have netted the city $200 million dollars. I favored Nashville hosting the event, but not without reservations. I was a young man in 1968, but I remember the Democratic Convention in Chicago of that year. The 2024 RNC convention of 2024 could resemble the Democrat Party Convention of 1968. No one needs that.
With what happened on January 6, 2022, with the radicalization of elements of the Republican Party, with the presents of groups like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Q-Anon, if Donald Trump fails to win the nomination and claims it was stolen from him, we could see pitched battles in the street with protestors trying to "stop the steal." On the other hand, if he is nominated we could see leftist "defenders of democracy,'' attacking delegates, rioting, looting, attacking police, fire-bombing; and acting like it is Chicago 1968. That is probably not going to happen but it is not far-fetched. While, if I was serving on the Metro Council, I would have supported the bid to host the convention, I respect those who would have come to a different conclusion.
If the bill to cut the size of the Council to 20 members should become law it would wreak havoc on Nashville. We would have our regular Council election in 2023, then another election in 2024. In between, new district lines would have to be drawn and approved. How many members would run in 2023, knowing their district would change and they would have to run again in 2024? Even if it is a good idea to cut the size of the Council, this is not the way to do it. It needs to be done in an orderly fashion.
I have often supported the State keeping Metro Nashville on a short leash and occasionally yanking the chain. When Metro Nashville attempts to make Nashville a sanctuary city or impose "inclusionary zoning" on developers or when our district attorney general says he will not enforce laws passed by the State, then I am for the State taking action to remind Nashville, that Nashville is not San Francisco or Portland and Tennessee is not California. This effort to punish Nashville for not voting to host the 2024 RNC convention, however, is just vindictive. This bill does not deserve to pass.
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Sunday, January 08, 2023
Currently only three unrelated people may live in a house. That may change.
by Rod Williams, Jan. 8, 2023- Currently, it is illegal for more than three unrelated people to share a house. This may soon change. BL2022-1471 would change the definition of "family," as used in the Metro code to say that up to seven people could occupy a dwelling unit and "such group may include a combination of related and unrelated persons."
I support this. Nashville has a housing problem. Anything to increase density will help alleviate the problem. This is basic economics. If you restrict the supply of something people want, prices will increase. Increasing density lowers cost. Restricting supply causes a shortage.
The current code is widely ignored anyway. The street on which I live has several homes occupied by college students and several of them have as many as six people living in them. I wouldn't necessarily be aware of this but my next-door neighbor is the neighborhood community organization chairman and keeps tabs on this sort of thing. The only ill effect I can see of allowing more than three unrelated people to live in a house is that it can cause a shortage of parking. The neighborhood in which I live has mostly on-street parking and sometimes a parking space is not always available in front of my house. The problem is compounded by people who do not live in the neighborhood parking on my street to visit nearby restaurants or other attractions. That we have a parking issue, however, in my mind does not justify making the scarcity of affordable housing worse.
While the current code is widely ignored, the fact that it is on the books means vindictive or busy-body neighbors can cause problems for a landlord who is renting to more than three unrelated people and if someone reports a landlord to Codes, he in turn is likely to come into compliance and evict several people.
Metro government so often makes the housing problem worse by doing the wrong thing such as rezoning large swaths of the county single-family only. When the Council does address affordable housing it is often an attempt to mandate policies that are bound to fail such as "inclusionary zoning" or price controls. Luckily the State keeps Metro from passing a lot of bad legislation.
It is good to see the Metro Council attempt to do something that will help the housing problem. Also, when laws are widely ignored, as is the current law prohibiting more than three unrelated people in a home, enforcement is arbitrary and selective which breeds contempt for law and is unjust.
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