Today I received a forwarded letter from CM Karen Bennett to her District 8 constituents explaining why she voted against the council's bill to prohibit businesses that contract with Metro from discriminating because of sexual orientation last night. She said that she voted against nondiscrimination because she received more e-mails from them against the bill than e-mails for it.
That justification for voting on this particular issue is shaky enough, but most troubling to me was this portion at the end of her letter that equated open records requests and the public's right to know with a threat to her personal life. And as you can see, she encourages her constituents to communicate with her in a way that evades transparency:
I want you to know the Council office has received a public records request for my emails from Jan 1st to yesterday from someone outside of our district. This person has worked actively for the proposed legislation. I will not be bullied or threatened either in my personal life or as I represent you on council. Many of you phoned your views to me and I would encourage you to continue to use this form of communication.
Let's hope CM Bennett's voice mail box is as large as her nashville.gov e-mail account.
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