Metro Council votes to approve Brady Banks' rezoning request despite receiving a neighborhood petition with 400 signatures against it

Admittedly, I don't know a lot about this "Plum Orchard" rezoning ordinance in Brady Banks' Brentwood district because I have not been following it like some in the community have, but here is what I learned about from last night's council meeting:

• There were many more people present in the council gallery opposing his ordinance last night than favoring it. One of them even presented a petition against it with 407 signatures.
• The primary person speaking in favor of it was Tom White, land use lawyer and registered lobbyist for the Home Builders Association. The last time I saw Mr. White, he was defending the controversial proposal to introduce rural Whites Creek to more suburban sprawl. The rezoning request CM Banks is proposing would subdivide Brentwood farmland into 78 suburban plots.
• Former CM and current engineer-to-developers Roy Dale also spoke in favor of the project as he is on this development team. Does Mr. Dale ever work on a project that does not raise questions?
• Reportedly, there are opposition signs against the project "all over" the area around the intersection of Church Street East and Cloverland Drive.
• Opponents said during last night's hearing that they do not oppose development, but they oppose the rezoning, which they say would generate more auto traffic. They support the owners' right to develop the property within the zoning, which would mean tracks larger than the current plan, but still smaller than those in surrounding neighborhoods.
• One opponent said that when he asked CM Banks during a phone call which side he was on, the CM replied that the opponent did not understand that there were "some highly politically influential [unnamed] people involved." The same opponent pointed out that Roy Dale claimed that the development is within walking distance of Brentwood, but that Metro had not provided sidewalks or any other pedestrian infrastructure along the route to Brentwood.
• After the public hearing was over, council engaged in practically no debate in spite of the petition. To his credit, CM Bruce Stanley rose in opposition and reiterated that Metro's infrastructure is "substandard" to suit the plans that developers keep concocting. He also said that a "progressive" development is one that "shows benefit for the entire community, not simply the developer."
• Mayoral candidate and at-Large CM Megan Barry, who is running on the promise "not to lose sight" of neighborhoods in favor of economic development, said nothing about Plum Orchard rezoning and ultimately voted to approve Brady Banks' ordinance. As at-Large, she is technically this area's representative, too, but she did not lift a finger in advocacy for the neighborhood last night.

In the end the council approved CM Banks' rezoning proposal. The moral of this story: 1 lobbyist carries more weight with this Metro Council than does the petition of hundreds of neighbors in the impact zone of developments.

Being a council progressive means shielding the corporate polluters

False reporting? New anti-litter ordinance won't prohibit that yellow roll of spam litter.

Less than 24 hours ago WSMV reporter Patrick McMurtry contacted me to get my views on a council ordinance to regulate the delivery of non-subscription materials to homes (like when the Tennessean throws their "free Wednesday edition", which is full of advertising circulars). He asked me to call him. I reminded Mr. McMurtry via Twitter that the ordinance to discourage the Tennessean from littering our neighborhoods was defeated in June.

I didn't blog about the ordinance in June because I was more concerned about the move to shrink the council. That is where I put all the writing energy that I had. Several years ago I blogged at length about a similar ordinance that was designed to regulate the proliferation of news racks in neighborhoods, so readers can imagine my response to the latest news media hijinks.

Mr. McMurtry's request prompts me to return to the question of whether the Tennessean should be allowed to litter neighborhoods like Salemtown with paper that few people read let alone subscribe to. In June, the Metro Council voted 21-10 to kill the proposal that would have enforced our requests not to have the circulars thrown every Wednesday at our homes. Almost farcically, the council's bill would have placed stupid demands on people like you and me to stop the Tennessean litter: we would have to send our request to Gannett by certified letter and we would have to swear out an affidavit with Metro Codes that the Tennessean is violating the agreement. Who should have to do that?

In June, the Tennessean responded to the bill by making some "concessions" to the council. Those concessions included two phone numbers given to each council member providing a direct line to managers in the circulation department who would see that constituent opt-outs were being honored. Why should we need to lobby our council members to get the Tennessean to do the right thing? Again, it's adding extra steps that many people don't have time to take, especially with unresponsive council members.

Another Tennessean concession was that they would audit the distribution and opt-out lists to make sure that delivery people were only delivering to subscribers. The paper also promised to ride around with delivery people and clean up litter that had previously been left. As far as I'm concerned, those concessions never materialized. I can remember at least 6 deliveries of the "free edition" deposited on the sidewalk in front of my home since June, none of which were cleaned up by the Tennessean. All of the editions were kicked out into the street. Over time 2 were pulverized by auto traffic. The remaining editions were picked up out of the street by a volunteer last week before Germantown's Oktoberfest. Gannett/The Tennessean is not keeping their promises; the same promises 21 council members used as an excuse to defeat the ordinance.

And look at the list of progressives who voted against attempts to discourage litter in neighborhoods: Ronnie Steine, Lonell Matthews, Brady Banks, Scott Davis, Peter Westerholm, Anthony Davis, Burkley Allen, Erica Gilmore, Jason Holleman, and (last, but not least) Megan Barry. CM Barry spoke out against the ordinance, but she did not focus on the question of stopping litter in neighborhoods. Instead, she zeroed in on the bill sponsor whom she alleged was trying to force the Tennessean to write an article:

The conversation has led to some really good things that the Tennessean is doing. Having said that, I … think that this is an overreach and I am incredibly uncomfortable that we as a body would ever compel a newspaper to write a story. I heard a colleague of ours earlier tonight talk about the fact that he had actually lived some place at one point where the government could tell newspapers what to write and that was called “a dictatorship,” and I know that that’s not the intention of the sponsor here but tonight I am going to go ahead and say, “Let’s just put this to rest” and I’m going to vote against it.

On the heels of Ms. Barry's comments, CM Fabian Bedne rose to say that he was the one who related his experiences of living under a dictatorship, but he added that CM Barry's use of his own comments against this anti-litter ordinance was "missing the point." While he wholeheartedly disagreed with forcing a newspaper to write a story, he would vote for the ordinance to protect neighborhoods from "trash and litter". Phil Claiborne, the sponsor of the bill, added that he was not trying to force a newspaper story.

To CM Barry's clipped and obfuscating remarks that the Tennessean is doing "really good things," I would respond that the Tennessean has done absolutely nothing "really good" from where I sit in Salemtown. Again, folks, Megan Barry is a 2015 mayoral candidate who claims to be a progressive. How can a progressive stand with a big corporate polluter against the wishes of a community? We are getting a glimpse of what kind of mayor Megan Barry would be.

Before closing, I want to circle back around to WSMV's request for an interview. Patrick McMurtry told me that the ordinance "is back on the agenda." That is not exactly true. The ordinance on the agenda now would regulate any advertising materials except the Tennessean's. The bill's sponsor, Sheri Weiner, believes that controlling some advertising is better than none. And yet, the biggest litter nuisance at my house is the Tennessean. CM Weiner was absent from the June vote, but her bill is toothless on arrival and would actually give the Tennessean a monopoly on un-subscribed advertising litter. The council had its chance to regulate litter and they failed.

By the way, I never called the reporter back, I have better things to do with my time than waste it on a bill that would not make a dent in the Tennessean's misbehavior or on a reporter who does nothing to hold the 21 council members who voted no in June accountable for enabling the Tennessean's misbehavior. After seeing Patrick McMurtry's story, I have no regrets. My time was well spent doing something else.

Rehabilitating Brady Banks: a question I would definitely ask Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors if she ever decided to run for Mayor

Could you explain how it shows responsible leadership on your part to appoint to the position of Chair of the Metro Council Human Relations Committee a man who was arrested for and who admitted soliciting prostitution near my neighborhood and even closer to 3 Metro public schools in the same year?

Brady Banks names his "best part of the county"

The most galling dimension of Brady Banks' continued presence on the Metro Council is that he never bothered to speak a word of remorse directly to the North Nashville community for soliciting prostitutes a year ago in MetroCenter, which is alarmingly close to where we live and send our 3rd grader to school. I'm sure that CM Banks would prefer that we all just forget about his little North Nashville peccadillo and go on acting like there was nothing exploitative to see in February 2012.

In his latest email to his constituents, CM Banks gushes that he lives in the "best part of the county", which could imply, given his interest in the local sex trade, that the seedier parts of Davidson are those like ours:

Date: Tue, Feb 26, 2013
Subject: UPDATE: Villages at Holt Road proposal and Southeast Community Plan Amendment ....

Dear neighbors,

....Councilman [Fabian] Bedne and I have had a number of conversations with the Planning Dept. staff and the applicant/developer about the proposed site development. Following the three community meetings where the applicant, Planning staff, and Councilman Bedne and I were able to hear your feedback and thoughts on the proposal, the applicant for this proposal has withdrawn both their request to amend the Southeast Community Plan and their proposed development for the site.

This means that, at the March 14th Planning Commission meeting, the applicant will formally withdraw their proposal for Villages at Holt Rd. and the proposed amendment to the Community Plan. Practically speaking, this means neither item will be considered at this time .... The applicant would have to refile and go through the process of developing a proposal, applying to the Planning Dept. for any future changes, and schedule more community meetings, if they wanted to try this proposal again ....

On a personal note, I want to thank all of you for participating in this process. The planning/zoning process can be a messy one for many council members and communities. I'm proud to say that my constituents and Councilmen Bedne's went through this process and participated in an open and honest way. I couldn't be happier with the way you shared your thoughts, concerns, and with the way you communicated them fairly on this matter. We truly live in the best part of the county, with the best people ....

Sincerely,
Brady Banks
Metro Councilman, District 4

We're obviously not "the best people" here in North Nashville, else CM Banks would have been drawn to objectify women and set a bad example for progressives elsewhere in Davidson. I just wish he would have treated our part of the county the way he would like his own part of the county treated. Surely he grasps The Golden Rule. He is married to a minister.

In his first media interview CM Brady Banks should have apologized to North Nashville for bringing crime here

CM Brady Banks finally speaks to reporter Joey Garrison. He is mostly apologetic toward his wife, family, friends, and constituents. He indicates that he has no intention of resigning from Metro Council. But he has no apologies for North Nashville neighborhoods:

I have been dealing with what is most important — my wife and my family — and trying to get all the help I need to start rebuilding trust and healing my relationships. I plan to work as hard as I can to regain the respect and trust of the people I was elected to serve ....

I want to continue to work hard, do a good job and continue to listen to my neighbors and try to do what they elected me to do on the council. I have always wanted to serve people, and I want to continue to serve ....

[Responding to why he came late and left early from the last council meeting] I was elected to do a job for the people of District 4. Part of that job is to represent them at council meetings. I take that very seriously. With regard to leaving before the end of the meeting, I didn’t think it was appropriate for me to participate in the end of the agenda given my situation.

Brady Banks's actions affect more people than just his family or his constituents. They also touch on the lives of people in North Nashville. If he ever runs for a position larger than District 4's he should have to answer for his failure to acknowledge the effects of his attempted sex trafficking on those outside his district.

I didn't see CM Banks represent District 4 at all during the council meeting he attended. He came late. He sat quietly watching everyone else. He left early. His explanation in the interview does not clarify anything. And it has been his supporters who insisted he needed to be away from public scrutiny to spend time on his family. In that light, attending the council meeting was nothing more than empty symbolism. That vacuous image will stick with me whenever his name comes up again in future.

Council member comes out of hiding to sit in council chambers for 15 minutes but remains mum about MetroCenter hooker hook-up

Photo credit: WKRN

Brentwood CM Brady Banks sidled into last Tuesday's council meeting after it had already started, sat at his desk for 15 minutes, and then left before it was over. Why did the man even bother, given that he is supposed to be focusing on repairing his private life with his family before putting on a public face again? The City Paper hints at a couple of reasons:

Banks’ exit, more than anything, created confusion. Attending Tuesday’s council meeting seemed to signal an intention to keep his council seat. But council members weren’t sure why he departed early. Perhaps he wasn’t ready to face the cameras, many concluded, or he wanted to keep his perfect-attendance council-meeting streak in tact.

None of these is a valid reason to show up at a Metro Council without intentions of taking care of the people's business. Each reason is self-serving. If CM Banks is going to make symbolic public gestures to subtly cue that he is stiffening his back against the firestorm, then he can also respond directly to questions about what the hell he was thinking when he arrived in North Nashville last week to pad our crime statistics. If he treats his council attendance as a self-aggrandizing game, then he does not appreciate the seriousness of his current situation.

The council member's apologists complain that it is too soon to criticize him and he needs a private period to work with his family. But they did not utter a discouraging word on Tuesday, when their champion appeared in public in his official position of council member and sat mum. The Banks entourage should not get to have it both ways. Either he shows up at council and performs, and he addresses questions about why he engaged in illegal behavior (that should have landed him in jail for a mandatory 7 days), or he stays at home and works on keeping his family together.

But his appearance at Metro Council indicates to me that Brady Banks is likely more focused on rehabilitating his future electoral chances that suit his political aspirations. Otherwise, where was the appearance of contrition on Tuesday night?


UPDATE: In a 2010 United Methodist article on pre-marital cohabitation, Brady Banks said that faith is the "central dynamic at play" in his marriage.

Brentwood council member arrested in close proximity to North Nashville public schools, but not charged with the proximity code violation

I have obtained the affidavit and arrest warrant of CM Brady Banks, who was charged last week with soliciting sex in a North Nashville hotel during a police prostitution sting. The details are in the document I post below. Click on the image to enlarge:

The law (TCA = "Tennessee Code Annotated") cited in the affidavit distinguishes between "Class B" and "Class A" misdemeanors; the latter prompting a stiffer penalty of at least 7 days of incarceration due to the illegal solicitation occurring within 1.5 miles of public schools. Metro Police charged CM Banks with the less severe misdemeanor, which allowed him to bail out of jail within hours of his arrest:

(a) A person commits an offense under this section who patronizes prostitution.

(b)  (1) Patronizing prostitution is a Class B misdemeanor.

         (2) Patronizing prostitution within one hundred feet (100') of a church or within one and one-half (1.5) miles of a school, such distance being that established by § 49-6-2101, for state-funded school transportation, is a Class A misdemeanor.

        (3) A person convicted of patronizing prostitution within one and one-half (1.5) miles of a school shall, in addition to any other authorized punishment, be sentenced to at least seven (7) days of incarceration and be fined at least one thousand dollars ($1,000).

        (4)  (A) Patronizing prostitution from a person who is younger than eighteen (18) years of age or has an intellectual disability is a Class E felony.

                (B) Nothing in this subdivision (b)(4) shall be construed as prohibiting prosecution under any other applicable law.

(c) As used in subsection (b), "school" means all public and private schools that conduct classes in any grade from kindergarten through grade twelve (K-12).

There are 2 public schools roughly within .5 mi of the hotel where Brady Banks was arrested:

Hull-Jackson Elementary & John Early Middle close to Marriott

There are 3 more public schools within a 1.5 mile radius of where Brady Banks was arrested:

Jones Paideia Elementary, Buena Vista Elementary,
and Robert Churchwell Elementary are within 1.5 miles of Marriott

I do not understand why Metro Police charged the Brentwood council member with the lesser charge. Maybe some of you legal types can help me understand what I am missing here in my reading of the code, which seems straightforward. Should Brady Banks have spent 7 days in jail with a "Class A" misdemeanor before his release or not?

Postscript: jump to the MNPS map of the schools in and around MetroCenter.

Gail Kerr with the talking points on the "self-mutilation" of Brady Banks

Tennessean political columnist Gail Kerr has apparently received her talking points from the 1 Public Square Glitterati on the whole affair of the council member who allegedly attempted to traffic sex in MetroCenter.

The shorter Kerr:

• He was stupid to get caught at indiscretion.
• Only time will tell whether the short but happy political life of Brady Banks and his potential as the next hip thing in the Tennessee Democratic Party are ruined by his alleged peccadillo.

It makes for a rather interesting (and by "interesting" I mean "shallow") tractate on moral reasoning in politics (or in Kerr's case the absence of moral reasoning in politics, since the moral question seems only raised by Banks getting caught).

However, what becomes apparent is that the chatter class intends to fill the void caused by its own immediate silence after the transgression with more uncertainty about ethical questions and wobbly reputations.

One thing is certain: the political rehabilitation of Brady Banks begins by holding him up to come-back-kid stories like Bill Clinton and Ronnie Steine, and Kerr obliges. The power calculators downtown (and on Capitol Hill?) no doubt intend to keep any future options open.


UPDATE: Consider the contrast between the license Gail Kerr gives the council member to her morally loaded description of the other possible person engaged in the black market transaction as a "whore". She calls Banks an "idiot", but that does not have any of the indelible sexist baggage that "whore" does.

Despite an unforgiving political context, the council's resident reverend preaches forbearance for Brady Banks

There has been practically no backlash at CM Brady Banks' arrest during a prostitution sting coming from the Courthouse elite. Typically council members have done far less than soliciting sex and still raised righteous indignation Downtown. Opposing the Mayor's capital plans or yelling at each other in the parking garage has gotten council members labeled opportunistic, out-of-order or inappropriate by fellows in Metro government.

But the Banks affair has prompted little response outside Reverend CM at-Large Jerry Maynard preaching love and forgiveness in a letter--based on the gospel of John (the question of casting stones at the woman caught in adultery) and on the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans (the strong showing restraint toward the weak)--responding to District 4 criticism:

I hope that at this time you will pray for the Banks family and not throw stones at Brady .... There will come a time to address whether he can continue serving your district .... But, now is not that time. For those of us who believe in the Holy Word of God, the Bible says when a man finds himself fallen down in sin, those of us who are strong must bare the infirmities of the weak and not please ourselves.

What I find interesting is that the preacher totally ignored the context for both Christian passages, and in so doing applied the prescription for apples to the problems of oranges.

In the case of the woman caught in adultery, she had no power whatsoever to fight for herself due to the gender double standards of the period. Jesus's challenge to the men to cast the first stone was turning the power equation on its head. Brady Banks (who himself has a divinity degree) worked for 2 governors and this mayor; now he is a Metro Council Member with a campaign war chest of $14,000 according to the Election Commission. His power status bears no resemblance whatsoever to the woman about to be stoned in John.

It is a similar context for the Paul's letter encouraging the strong bearing the infirmities of the weak: Jews, including Jewish Christians, were being persecuted by Rome, and Paul encouraged the Jewish Christians and the Gentile Christians to put aside their differences and support the weaker members who faced persecution and animosity. Once again, Brady Banks may be facing some criticism, but he is hardly persecuted or weak in terms of real power equations.

That is some tortured exegesis on Reverend Maynard's part.

And the thing is, Jerry Maynard has not always modeled self-restraint and forbearance for people weaker than him in the past. Take his attacks on inconvenient questioners on a North Nashville call-in show last year.

Despite the selective application of Christian forbearance, CM Maynard serially claims that he fights for North Nashville. It seems to me that fighting for North Nashville in the current context is holding one's influential colleague accountable for pursuing criminal activity here.

Crime alert: this one involves a council member

MNPD staged a prostitution sting at a MetroCenter hotel tonight mere blocks away from Salemtown, and officers arrested 3 people, one of whom was District 4 (Brentwood) council member Brady Banks, who was also Karl Dean's manager of the Mayor's Office of Neighborhoods a few years ago. According to WSMV:

A Metro councilman was arrested Thursday for allegedly patronizing prostitution during a sting at a motel in the Metro Center area.

Councilman Brady Banks, 33, is accused of paying $100 to a female undercover officer in exchange for sex, police said.

Banks allegedly met the officer Thursday just after 4:30 p.m. while responding to an ad posted by the police department on the Internet.

Banks is married to a Methodist minister and is a new father.

According to the Sheriff's Office, Banks was released on $1,000 bond tonight after being booked.

CM Banks has been considered an up-and-coming young Democrat who was being marketed and groomed as a viable challenger to Tennessee Republicans. I was never concerned about his partisan chops, but I was fairly underwhelmed by his tenure in the Mayor's office in what was supposed to be an advocacy role for neighborhoods.

Now I question his judgment and his willingness to bring alleged criminal activity to my North Nashville community rather than risking it in his quiet suburban hamlet near bucolic Radnor Lake.


UPDATE: I can always count on Mike Peden to point out the interesting coincidences in Metro politics. He referred me to the fact that CM Banks, arrested at a MetroCenter hotel, received 2011 campaign financing from the Greater Nashville Hotel and Lodging Political Action Committee.


UPDATE: Is any criticism of CM Banks's alleged criminal activity a partisan or hateful "game" or "relish" in damaging news?

I don't experience anything close to satisfaction, joy or catharsis in the news that a council member may have misconducted himself in my North Nashville community. Just like folks who live in Brentwood, we want a safe and crime-free community, even though North Nashville is popularly depicted, especially in the news media, as a nest of criminality and violence. If Brady Banks trafficked sex in MetroCenter he contributed to those narratives. And he is not just someone's personal friend. He is an elected public figure who should not be entitled to a moratorium on scrutiny because he may or may not have wreaked havoc on his own personal life to boot.

The larger point

One thing you can say about the debate over Mayor Karl Dean's paradoxical plan to give LifePoint tax breaks for a move over the county line to get back a few tax revenues: at least it hasn't been conducted like last July's IQT relocation debacle. Before Canada realized it, Nashville offered IQT subsidies to lay off 1,200 Canadians. Before the news media realized it, social media reported that IQT shuttered completely. Before Karl Dean realized it, IQT announced that they would not be coming to Nashville.

At least in the case of LifePoint, it feels more transparent than it did with respect to IQT, which finally declared bankruptcy in November, and is now facing government pressure to meet its financial obligations of worker compensation.

While LifePoint does not stand to be the same unmitigated embarrassment, the buckling blow to the Mayor's narrow, unexamined thrust of economic development, it generates a new set of obstacles that can hurt an administration that just claimed that it had no clue that the state orchestrated the diversion of sales taxes from Metro coffers to the Nashville Predators. For all the times we're admonished to trust the Mayor's access to information, he seems to come up clued out when the chips are down (cue IQT).

The most glaring obstacle is the Dean Administration's readiness to overbarter in order to sate commercial desires even at the expense of the balance that reason brings. One prominent Nashvillan described the LifePoint deal to me thusly, "Giving away an eroding resource to move less than a few miles into our county. If they needed consolidated space, then that alone should be enough incentive." But Metro is bound and determined to pile up special-interest incentives at greater future risk to service to the rest of us.

Consistent with past unwillingness to rock Rich Riebeling's boat, the Tennessean reporters editorialized the move as a "victory for Davidson County" and a "significant boost" for the area on north of the Williamson County line.

They also claimed the move will "boost" Metro tax revenues, even though the Mayor's bill before the Metro Council (co-sponsored by CM Sean McGuire, CM Brady Banks, and CM Karen Johnson) requires LifePoint to pay zero property taxes the first 4 years, markedly less than half of property taxes the 7 year after that, and only 75% of property taxes until year 15 of their lease. At that rate how can the Tennessean reporters claim that LifePoint is going to "boost" our revenues with any journalistic credibility?

Incidently, The council could also give LifePoint a break on personal property taxes for roughly $50 million worth of computers, software and other equipment (like "supplemental HVAC," a.k.a. "extra air conditioning for computers") that will go into the data center that it plans at the new building. What computer equipment lasts 15 years?

So, the other obstacle to this project is the Mayor's own logic behind how revenues work. With a decade and a half of paying no or very few property taxes on their property, how is LifePoint supposed to be bringing new revenue into Davidson County coffers? Depending on when LifePoint takes up occupancy, Karl Dean could be done with his last term as Mayor by the time the healthcare company starts paying any revenues to Metro.

But Hizzoner insists to all those media who will listen with unconditional regard that deferred scratch is better than none at all:

“If this project didn’t exist – if we didn’t do this arrangement, they would be paying no taxes. So you’re talking about taxes that only exist because we’re doing this deal. And then you start talking about the things that come from this deal.”

Dean says jobs will flow from construction of the headquarters, spurring restaurants and shopping that could lure other investment. And Dean says jobs in the healthcare sector build on one of Nashville’s core strengths, saying “LifePoint could be anywhere they want to be.”

Again with benefits for the restaurant industry? That was a talking point used to sell Music City Center, too.

This seems like just another expansion of the Dean bubble, a small chimera in a sequence of capital plans--convention center, fairgrounds redevelopment, new ballpark among them--that form a slickly marketed, yet profoundly ungrounded dream of a common good.

LifePoint looks like one more notch on the baton of a Mayor who would someday be King. But after IQT, can we have faith that the Mayor has thought out this process carefully or that Nashville won't be fooled again?