Because They Want Credit for Their Editorials

Southcomm has an editorial today critical of both the Mayor's Office and the Metro Council on the issue of patronage and non-profits.

But the tallest candle stick ain't much good without a wick

Folks are spreading the kudos around today to the Mayor and to the CMs who voted for Ronnie Steine's memorializing resolution encouraging voters to vote against Eric Crafton's "English Only" if when it appears on the November ballot. Let's set aside the question of whether our expectations have sunk so low that we actually give kudos to politicians for just doing the right thing. More importantly, is last night's action going to have any influence at all beyond being more grist for Crafton who may spin this into out-of-touch government trying to impose on voters?

Accuse me of cursing the darkness rather than lighting one candle, but I don't see anything that happened last night as igniting a mobilization of English Only opponents or sparking a call to conversion of English Only supporters. So, I'm not so sure kudos are deserved. If community leaders are spending any time posturing on this issue, it's too cheap to be called bold, and they are wasting time that could be spent planning and implementing strategy to defeat it. Unless journalists can dig up any dirt to discredit Crafton's movement and/or unless our leaders are organizing their communities to help defeat this, last night was more than likely the climax of any attempts to kill Crafton's movement. As such, it was anticlimactic.

The 300K Developers' Friend in the Mayor's Office

Michael Cass seems to do an effective job at grasping concerns that community leaders have expressed about Mayor Dean.

It's past concern for me. It's more like regretting my vote for Karl Dean, and I'm not sure that I can vote for him next time around with his exclusive commitments to over-growth, public schools, and crime prevention. (The crime prevention leg seems rather weak given that the beginning of his term was marked by a significant theft at the offices of the election commission that occurred because of a nonfunctioning alarm, computer protocol problems, and a reproachable security company. And I haven't noticed a drop in crime in my community during his term). Seriously, besides style, what has been the difference between the way Karl Dean has governed and the way that Bob Clement said he would?

All I've ever expected is balance, but seen little of it coming from this Executive. And when Mayor Dean tells a reporter that he is committed to balance, I don't see it. I never expected a clone of Purcell or a guy committed to installing sidewalks at breakneck pace. It just would have been nice to have a Mayor who could include neighborhood advocates in leadership positions in his administration. It would have been nice to see him commit to an Office of Neighborhoods rather than "refine" it. It would have been nice to know that once and a while the Mayor would govern as if growth and development are not restricted to economics and private structures, but also pertain to community and infrastructure.

Can Anything Good Come from Janel Lacy's Office?

In what looks like another rather half-baked, milque-toast, lawyer-measured statement, Karl Dean supports the school board's rezoning plan:

In response to a recounting of Thompson’s remarks, Dean e-mailed a statement Tuesday afternoon through spokesperson Janel Lacy. As he has previously stated, Dean said he believes that everyone involved in the process has had “honorable intentions.”

“I know the task force worked very hard on the plan,” Dean said in the statement. “Our goal as a city should be to move forward on every aspect of improving our schools. If people feel their voices aren’t being heard that causes me concern. It’s my understanding there is agreement on the majority of the rezoning plan. People should be able to come together and calmly work through the few areas of concern.”

Mayor Dean talked a good game about being out in front on education in Nashville early on, but if he is so committed to the school board action to rezone north and west zones, why isn't he stepping up in drum major fashion on behalf of this cause?  The heat gets turned up, and an anemic statement about pavers for the road to hell is the best he can do?

City Paper Continues to Conveniently Leave Karl Dean Out of the Rehab Zoning Flap

CP reporter Nate Rau constructs the same partial time-line of the Metro Council's rejection of rehabilitation services in agricultural districts that he has in the past incessantly and without reference to the seeming failures of Karl Dean's Metro Legal Department to discourage the council in 2006-07.  If Rau had been covering the introduction and passage of bill at that time, I would accuse him now of possessing a rather selective memory.

Despite the fact that the Metro Charter establishes a strong executive, Rau reasserts his or his editor's meme that the council was solely responsible for the original passage of the bill.  Mayor Bill Purcell could have vetoed the bill, but he did not.  By failing to acknowledge that over and over, the City Paper is actually revising history rather than writing objective copy.

Again, I believe that this is a matter of the NCP sucking up to the Mayor's Office and doing what it can to stay on Karl Dean's good side rather than lashing all of the responsible parties to the whipping post.  The reporter and his editors simply refuse to see that there is enough blame to go around.  They're choosing the soft targets, and I'm sure the Mayor's communications office is thankful for that solid.

Dean Talks with DMI's MayorTV.com

Nashville's Mayor discusses mass transit, English Only initiatives, green developments, and wages vs. economic "competitiveness" with DMI and The Nation:

The Education Mayor?

Jeff Woods has some choice words for the School Board and Nashville's white progressive leadership, personified by Mayor Karl Dean et al.:

Under pressure from the Chamber of Commerce and their own white constituents a month before elections, they were obviously hell bent on ramming this through, even if it meant pissing off an entire segment of the city ....

No matter how hard the white board members try to dress up this plan, essentially the idea is to fix it so white kids in Hillwood don’t have to go to school with black kids from North Nashville. As the NAACP’s Marilyn Robinson puts it, “They want to keep all the poor, black kids together” ....

Last night’s meeting recalled the dark days of Nashville’s racially polarized past. Toward the end, I almost expected the board to turn fire hoses on the crowd. Here’s a good question: Where were the city’s so-called progressive white leaders in this fight? None felt compelled to take a public stand. Not Karl Dean, Diane Neighbors, Mike Jameson or Ronnie Steine. (Oh wait, Steine's kid goes to USN. What does he care about this?) Thanks guys. That’s leadership! ....

And later in the comments section, Woods again takes aim at Mayor Dean, whose central, winning plank was education:

Speaking of cowardly white liberals, it's particularly galling for the mayor to sit on his hands on this. After yammering incessantly about education during the entire mayoral campaign and forever afterward, he's suddenly struck mute as the school board makes this historic decision ....

I asked the mayor's office for Dean's position on the rezoning. Here's his statement: “I believe everyone involved in this process had very honorable intentions. Clearly it was a difficult decision for the Board of Education. The members of the community task force worked very hard on this plan for a number of months. It's important that we all stay focused on the goal – providing schools in which every student has a chance to succeed.”

Allow me to suggest that Mayor Dean is where he always seems to be on various issues: hiding behind empty platitudes about education that signify the absence of bold leadership.

Media Matters, Except in the Local Paper

Once again in a follow up to last night's predictable Council vote to give religious-based halfway houses special considerations in zoning issues in the wake of a lawsuit against Metro by a religious-based halfway house, one local paper avoids laying any fault at Metro Legal's or the Mayor's Office doorstep in rehashing their time-line of precipitating events.

I've admitted that I'm torn on this bill given that I don't think rural areas should generally be exempt from social and charitable services.  However, I don't think that history should be revised to saddle Metro Council with the responsibility for this mess.  Red lights and alarms did not seem to be going off in Karl Dean's Legal Department back in late 2006 and early 2007 when the thorny rose first bloomed.  But the mayoral honeymoon being what it is, even with the media, that is an ignored narrative, a boat they dare not rock.

The Muse is Vindicated

Other good dates to avoid public scrutiny include those near the 4th of July ....

- - Developers' Playbook, Occasional Muse

Next week's Metro Council agenda is out, and almost as if Nashville's legislative body took its cue straight from the developer's playbook, the meeting is dominated by public hearings on 20 rezoning and planning requests. July 1 does not seem very convenient for the public to attend hearings designated for them; in fact, it seems most convenient for Council Members and developers because of the broader inconvenience.

Also on that agenda is perhaps this Council's most significant black mark, the do-over bill to include controversial rehabilitation services within agricultural zoning, which was prompted by investigations by the Bush Justice Department. But it was also a black mark against the Purcell Administration and Karl Dean's Legal Department, since the original bill passed by the Council in 2007 should have been reviewed by Metro Legal in 2006, and could have been vetoed instead of being returned unsigned.

All in all, it looks like a pre-holiday, conflict-avoidance slate of public hearings.

In Your Face, Metro Council Purcell-Haters

That's Harvard, Metro Council. Not the "Harvard of the South." There is no other.

And for all of your trashing of his name during this month's budget love-ins for our current Mayor, you cannot take away the fact that Bill Purcell is now a bigger deal than you are because of his new Institute of Politics appointment at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

I'll take Caroline Kennedy's judgment of Bill Purcell over any council member's:

Bill Purcell will be a wonderful leader for the IOP .... His extensive experience in elective office, his bipartisan governing style, and his commitment to public service as a way of life will inspire a new generation of students.

Congratulations, Bill Purcell. I didn't always agree with you, but I always felt that neighborhoods stood a better chance with you at the helm (and the last seven months have confirmed that). You deserved a better fate than you received from many of these council members, and I don't think you can have a much better fate public service-wise than teaching politics at Harvard University.

Living well should be the best form of revenge. May the local yokels eat your dust, and please kick up as much as you can.


UPDATE: Something we should have seen more prominently the past 7 months when the Purcellophobes were dragging his tenure through the mud: council member gives him his due, some proper respect.

BREAKING: Mayor Makes Room on His Schedule for Baseball, Communications Director Clarifies Controversial Change

Give credit where it is due: local newspaper was the first to go deep inside the Courthouse Communications Office to scoop before anyone else. Hopefully, they'll generate 5 editorials on the story between now and next year to prove that they are not just granting another elected official a lot of uncritical, fluffy coverage. No word on whether Richard Lawson will handicap the Sounds' chances.

Mayor Dean Surfaces at the U.S. Mayors Conference

According to Harry Moroz:

Mayor Dean of Nashville talked about some of the benefits of No Child Left Behind (true, while decrying the program’s lack of funding and pointing out other important deficiencies)

No Child Left Behind? Our only Mayor's Conference dispatch from Mayor Dean, and his answer to a question on addressing "widening wealth inequality, climate change, and immigration" was No Child Left Behind?

Are we living on a speck?

Metro Council Approves Substitute Budget and Gives Bill Purcell a Few More Licks for Good Measure

CM Erik Cole said that public transportation was the highest priority in the substitute budget, and the Budget and Finance Committee put money for the bus routes that the Mayor eliminated back into the budget. Substitute budget provides an additional $1,000,000 for MTA. Money was also provided for magnet school students riding MTA.

Vivian Wilhoite told they council that they missed the mark on the issue that they ran on: public safety. She's voting for it, but called it "tough" with regard to supporting fire fighters. Wow. We actually have some debate on the Mayor's budget.

Charlie Tygard thanked the Mayor for his "openness and willingness to listen." He called last year's finance department numbers "bogus reality." Looks like he's using the occasion to continue his vendetta against the Purcell administration. He was out of order for focusing on Purcell and the Vice Mayor didn't stop him. And the symbolism of CM Tygard supporting Mayor Dean is ugly to me.

Michael Craddock also blamed Bill Purcell, saying that the problem was not the council's (oh yeah? What about those discretionary funds that Metro Council was in charge of last term that got spent on very few Metro services, like summer Parks programming?) and not Mayor Dean's. He totally ignored the sidewalks and other infrastructure that got funded under the Purcell administration. It's also an exaggeration to lay this year's budget challenges completely at the feet of the previous administration, which had no control over the tanking of the economy. He should have blamed George W. Bush's inept domestic policy and Republican-controlled Congresses (including the current one that is Democratic in name only).

Well, we got a minuscule amount of debate and the expected absolution and praise of Karl Dean. Substitute budget passed. Next year they won't be able to blame Bill Purcell. He should be free and clear.

Not Just Any "Cat Herd" Round-Up Tonight

The "Cat Herd" meets tonight, and look for the Mayor's budget to sail through without even the slightest hint of criticism and with a lot of self-congratulations and tributes to Mayor Dean.

Since effectively herding cats is not really hearding cows, Cowboy Karl is more of a Catboy, given his skill at driving the these "half-wild shorthairs" down the budget trail.


UPDATE: Freddie O'Connell comments that thanks to CM Erik Cole, it will not entirely be the Mayor's budget, as cuts to MTA were mitigated:

Erik Cole actually passed an amended budget out of the Budget and Finance Committee yesterday that reallocated an additional $1 million to MTA to help offset their $2.9 million budget gap. That's the only significant difference between the Council budget and the mayor's that I know of, though.

C'mon and Take a Free Ride

M. Cass points out that third and final reading of the Mayor's budget has been moved up ahead of schedule. I interpret that to mean that it will sail through with no council resistance. Talk about your soft touch. With practically no resistance at all, they are putting themselves in a seat next to Mayor Dean that could get very hot over the next 13 months.

Karl Dean Earns Kay Brooks' Endorsement

When a homeschooler--who stepped ahead of the constituents and rode the local GOP through the backdoor of the School Board--advocates turning the public education reins over to the Mayor, is there something terribly wrong in the Mayor's Office? Or has Nashville fallen completely down the rabbit hole and tumbled into the land of the absurd?

I'm just saying.

Rex Needs to Learn a Little English, Too

The word "gentry" is generally associated with a ruling class. Compared to developers, their lawyers, and the truckloads of money that they donate to political campaigns (like Mayor Karl Dean's), neighborhood "forces" are quite meager resistance. Follow the donations and the lobbyists. They ain't coming from the neighborhoods. Rex needs to get a grip on the reality beyond the condescending terms that the true elites ("moderates" and their development clientele) use to poke fun at the modest influence of neighborhood groups. Get beyond just Janel.

Now I'm going out to mow my own lawn and pull some weeds on hands and knees. I wonder how many elite Court House moderates and developers do that?


UPDATE: Kay Brooks says that good government advocates are "nuts."

She also takes some shots at HGI President Stacy Mosley:

I understand they took a chance on that part of town but also ensured, as best they could, that their children would attend 'high-performing Hillsboro cluster' schools. Would they have taken that same chance if the Hillsboro Cluster hadn't been available? No one really believes they would have. Likely what they'll do is what the East Nashville GooGoos did, opt out of the neighborhood school and create an enhanced option or design school. These 'urban pioneers' shouldn't pat themselves on the back for their support of public schools when they've done that.

NashPo's blog took their own shots at Stacy wanting it "her way" this morning in Gentrification Is Not Like Burger King.

This Is Where Mayor Dean's Budget Cuts Damage Neighborhoods Most

CM Emily Evans blogs the depressing news on the proposed cuts to Metro Planning, Libraries, and Parks. She mentions that Planning is popular with her constituents, and so I'm kind of wondering what they think of the flap over the possible discharge of neighborhood-friendly David Kleinfelter. CM Evans lets us know about cutbacks in library hours, including one of the libraries proximate to Salemtown: Looby (MetroCenter). Finally, since Parks will likely be getting a +11% cut to their budget (especially since no council members are acting like they are going to push for changes at third reading), I would like to know how that will affect restoration of the Morgan Park playground and greenway spur.

Extra Council Meeting This Week to Adopt Capital Budget

It is rare that Metro Council has back-to-back-week meetings, but on Tuesday they will meet on the heels of approving the Mayor's Budget on second reading to consider the Capital Budget. According to the Council Analysis:

ORDINANCE NO. BL2008-229 ... adopts the capital improvements budget for 2008-2009 through 2013-2014. The capital improvements budget is a planning document and does not in itself appropriate any money. All capital projects must be provided for in this document before a capital improvement can be approved by the council, except in the case of a public emergency.

In the past, the Capital Budget has been a great source of friction between members and the Mayor's Office that gave me a lot to write about. This year, with the exception of Mike Jameson, the Metro Council seems in submission to Mayor Karl Dean like pack dogs who bend to the alpha male. So, I'm not expecting too much nipping and barking on Tuesday.

We've seen little debate or dissent from Mayor Dean's agenda. That cannot be good for democracy. Even the council conservatives are hushed and lying low.

"There is No Democracy in Nashville"

A commenter points out the troubling make-up of the Planning Commission and Mayor Dean's priorities:

Mayor Dean recently failed to renew the Planning Commission appointment of a neighborhood friendly commissioner Ann Neilson. Her replacement was Hunter Gee, architect and developer. His first meeting was in May and his new seat was placed between Jim Gotto and the end of the table (as if Mr. Gotto was coaching him and keeping him away from other commissioners).

Commissioner Stewart Clifton helped run Diane Neighbors campaign. We know Gotto and Ponder are pro-development. Tonya Jones and Jim McClean are both contractor/developers. Victor Tyler owns Tyler Construction. Minister Judy Cummings is the one of the few non-developer associated members of the commission and pro-neighborhood. Look for her not to be renewed when her term expires. Derrick Dalton is the husband of General Sessions Judge Angie Blackshear Dalton. Does anyone believe that the vote on Mr. Kleinfelter will not be controlled by the influence of developers?

A developer/contractor should not be allowed to partipate in decisions where he/she would stand to make a financial profit. A Metro Policeman cannot serve on the council because he would vote on the council budget and have influence on a vote that might make him a profit with his salary. A developer/contractor can serve as a commissioner or a member of council and rake in millions with their decisons.

Let's face it-there is no democracy in Nashville. Mayor Dean has sold out already to developers. Did they pay off his campaign debt? Does the ex-public defender have the guts to defend the law and the citizens or is the developer mafia actually going to continue running this city as they call all of the shots from behind the curtain?

What is next, gang controlled police officials firing police officers for enforcing the law?

Why are developers allowed to sit on the Planning Commission? Is Mayor Dean turning the planning and zoning process into an oligarchic system that excludes neighborhood influence?


UPDATE: Planning Commissioner and former Metro Council Member Stewart Clifton comments below in order to object to the quote above.