Metro Departments List Scenarios for Service Cuts in Response to Mayor Dean

Tennessean blogger, Michael Cass has got his mitts on possible service cuts that Metro Departments are proposing in response to Karl Dean's directive to see how they would be affected by 5, 10, & 15 percent cuts.

Here are a couple of the more disconcerting ones for neighborhoods:

The Nashville Fire Department could cut the equivalent of 194 employees, delaying its response times for some fires and medical emergencies.

Metro police might not be able to hire any new officers.

Looks like we are headed toward a cut-because-you-can approach to dealing with the budget this year. If the Mayor accepts these kinds of cuts, it is safe to say that neighborhoods may not have the priority that they had during the previous administration.

How is Karl Dean going to achieve his initiatives against youth violence with fewer cops? And if the first responders and police are going to be cut, you can count on Community Centers like the one at Morgan Park staying closed all weekend for the foreseeable future, but then we're going to need more cops to deal with the increased violence and vandalism of bored youth who have no Parks programming to keep them occupied.

Accused Laptop Burglar Admits to Christmas Eve Heist

News release from Metro Police:

Accused burglar Robert Osbourne, who surrendered at police headquarters early today, has admitted to the Christmas Eve break-in of Metro’s Election Commission offices on 2nd Avenue South. Osbourne has been booked on a charge of burglary and is being held in the Metro Jail in lieu of $80,000 bond.

The ongoing investigation into this case by Central Precinct detectives led to this afternoon’s recovery of a computer router taken during the burglary. The place from which the router was recovered is not being disclosed at present. Detectives continue in their efforts to recover two Dell laptop computers also taken from the Election Commission.

Osborne's admission that he is the burglar on Christmas Eve puts to bed the fired Security Guard's contention that the laptops were stolen before he was on duty on Dec. 24.

CRIME ALERT: Homeless Convicted Burglar is Suspected by Police in Metro Laptop Theft

A former resident of the Union Rescue Mission who has a buglary and cocaine-related rap sheet has been linked through a DNA-match of blood left at the Metro Office Building broken into on Christmas Eve. The suspect is still on the lam.

The Union Rescue Mission has a women's facility on Rosa Parks Boulevard near Garfield Street, so we have a number of homeless individuals who hang around the intersection of 7th Avenue North and Garfield and over on Rosa Parks near I-65. The 45-year-old suspect is Robert Osbourne and police have released the following photo:



If you see this man contact the police, because he likely has information as to the whereabouts of Election Commission laptops containing 337,000 Nashvillians' social security numbers.

Some Folks Were Born Above Identity Politics; Oooh, They're Red, White, and Blue

The other day I dared to differ with local Republican favorite son Bob Krumm on his dualistic contention that Republicans (the Children of Light) don't talk about identity politics and Democrats (the Children of Darkness) do.

Of course, all one has to do is start sorting through various Republican rhetoric to discover that the fortunate one's contentions are, in fact, false. For example Jonah Goldberg--a conservative Republican commentator whose penmanship often appears in the City Paper--made quite a splash on the Jon Stewart show recently touting his book "Liberal Fascism," which Stewart pointed out is a little obsessed with -isms (besides being nakedly hypocritical by describing people who "throw around the word, 'fascism'" as being fascists).

Being hung up on -isms and delineating liberal vs. progressive identities (including claims of which one is more fascist) amount to a Republican talking about identity politics (besides being an exercise in Orwellian doublespeak).

HT: R. Neal

Contrary to Political Myth, How Ronald Reagan Almost Lost the Cold War

#1 on a list of 10 worst IT disasters of all time:

The threat of computers purposefully starting World War III is still the stuff of science fiction, but accidental software glitches have brought us worryingly close in the past. Although there are numerous alleged events of this ilk, the secrecy around military systems makes it hard to sort the urban myths from the real incidents.

However, one example that is well recorded happened back in 1983, and was the direct result of a software bug in the Soviet early warning system. The Russians' system told them that the US had launched five ballistic missiles. However, the duty officer for the system, one Lt Col Stanislav Petrov, claims he had a "...funny feeling in my gut", and reasoned if the US was really attacking they would launch more than five missiles.

The trigger for the near apocalyptic disaster was traced to a fault in software that was supposed to filter out false missile detections caused by satellites picking up sunlight reflections off cloud-tops.

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), a late Cold War approach to engaging the USSR, almost became a self-fulfilling prophecy, and this was one of those inadvertent hazards that Nuclear Freeze proponents warned people about in the mid-80's.

Cavalcade of Capitalists: Financing TV Pioneers Without People of Color

This evening we watched PBS's "Pioneers of Television" segment on variety shows (from the 1950s to the 1970s). I was once again struck by the vacuum of morals, the sheer moral relativism of financial relationships.

Case in point: the unwillingness of financial sponsors in the 1950s to buy commercial time on variety shows that included African American guests or hosts. The most dramatic case in point was Nat King Cole's 1957 variety show, which sponsors refused to finance for fear of alienating southern audiences. NBC refused to bow to the market and financed the show itself all the while losing money. After one year, the show was cancelled for lack of advertising money. The market ruled African Americans out-of-place and money forced them out of TV variety shows.

It would not be until 1970, when Flip Wilson hosted variety show "Flip" and after more than 10 years of government enforced promotion and protection of civil rights for all that the market would come around to financing shows promoting black entertainers. Segregating advertising was a sad episode in TV history and it further sustains the argument that markets require government to move it toward a higher moral plane.

FCC Finally Starts Net Neutrality Inquiries on Broadband Providers

I don't think that I would necessarily praise the FCC for doing what they should be doing: making sure that corporations like Comcast and Verizon are not manipulating internet traffic to squeeze more money out. However, the federal regulators' willingness to regulate should be acknowledged given that it is so remarkable in an era when regulation has been cut off at the knees and providers are given license to do whatever they want.

Cyberirony: Metro Computer Security Chief Had Laptop Stolen from Car Last Week at the Height of Security Audit

Seriously, when are high level managers going to start being sacked for Metro Government security breaches? The failure occurred when an IT official who is in charge of computer security left his laptop in his car at his Franklin home and thieves broke in and stole it (video). That's right: the official in charge of security, the guy who is helping study how vulnerable Metro's computers could be, the person who probably makes recommendations to other departments on how to secure laptops had his unsecure laptop stolen!

I can't help but think back on all of the seeming distancing IT Director Sandy Cole did at the Jan. 3 Public Safety meeting between her department and unsecure computers elsewhere. This just reinforces my perception that there was some bureaucratic ass covering on the 3rd. And what of her explanation that IT employees take laptops home so they can be available 24 hours a day? Was the security official staying in his car in the driveway all night to be available? And finally, someone in the Mayor's Office needs to explain why no one was told about this event for an entire week; not even Council Members knew until the media asked them today. Why was it necessary to keep this story on the down-low? Did they think it would take the wind out of the Mayor's new initiative?

HT: VV

Memorialized in Motion

All of tonight's breathless action in Metro Council came at the end with memorializing resolutions, 3 of 5 of which were sponsored by Eric Crafton, who once tried unsuccessfully to limit the number of memorializing resolutions members could offer to one per meeting. Mr. Crafton offered resolutions on tying student driving privileges to academic performance, on requesting paper ballots for elections, and on asking the State Education Commissioner to recommend whether Pedro Garcia should be removed.

The latter resolution was unanimously disapproved before the Council Meeting by the Education Committee and Mr. Crafton moved to defer but not before getting into an argument with Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors who tried to herd him back to the subject of the deferral when he was giving his reasons for introducing the bill. It wasn't as classic as some of his battles with former Vice Mayor Howard Gentry, but he was prickly and curt toward her. Ms. Neighbors seems to give the members less leash on which to run than Mr. Gentry did, so we need to keep an eye on whether Mr. Crafton spits the bit harder as this term wears on.

Belafonte on Obama

CatMac conveys:

"From a place of color, I am happier than a pig let loose in the farmyard," he said, before describing the great enthusiasm and joy Obama's candidacy elicits. But then he tempered his response to say, "From a place of humanity, however..." and described his disappointment in the lack of specificity in the Obama campaign.

It is a dilemma.

Election Commissioner Changes Course on Laptop Passwords

If we can believe it, good news comes from the Election Commission today. Back on January 3, Ray Barrett told the Council's Public Safety Committee that he did not know whether one of the MEC laptops stolen on Christmas Eve was one of the laptops that he reported as having passwords taped on the outside.

Today the Tennessean reports:

A password taped to a laptop stolen from the Davidson County Election Commission had been changed and could not be used to access voters’ Social Security numbers in the computer, a commission official said Tuesday ....

Barrett said that contrary to reports, a laptop left under a desk was inside a bag not visible to a thief and had an old password taped on top.

The reports I saw on the laptops were based on Mr. Barrett's own comments that I heard him give to the Council committee nearly two weeks ago.

Let's hope that this is the final word on the facts about the passwords and that we other shoes don't drop in the future. It seems fantastic at this point.

Council Votes to Request that General Assembly Consider Getting Rid of Social Security Numbers

Citing the recent theft of the Metro Election Commission's laptops containing 337,000 voters records, a memorializing resolution introduced at the end of tonight's Metro Council meeting asks that the Davidson County delegation to the General Assembly consider legislation that would either end the use of social security numbers or limit their use to identity verification when voters arrive to vote followed by discard of the numbers.

In what turned out to be an unusually impassioned debate for a memorializing resolution (which attempt to persuade rather than force action), bill supporters claimed that voters are looking to the Council to do something to give them confidence to return to the polls. Opponents--like at-Large Member Jerry Maynard--expressed concern that asking the state legislature to stop using social security numbers could lead to a system of voter IDs, which he argued would disenfranchise the elderly and the poor.

The Council lawyer advised the group that the current system of using social security numbers has already been tested by the courts and has passed, which left me with the impression that this resolution is moot. The resolution passed by roll call vote with a small number of members either voting against or abstaining.

Obama's IAF Connections Help Him Move Between Mainline and "Evangelical"

This is not extraordinary. It would be quite natural for Democratic candidate Barack Obama to move from his mainline, UCC background to a "born-again" African American environment. Why? First, because there are more social-justice affinities than differences between mainline denominations and the bulk of African American churches, even "born-again" ones. Second, Obama has an IAF background. The Industrial Areas Foundation has made a habit of building coalitions for decades between mainline and African American churches by focusing on their common interests.

Believe me. I'm not talking out-of-school. Or basing this strictly on my own opinion.

Tonight's Another Tuesday Night Metro Council Night

The "Cat Herd" meets tonight: head 'em up and move 'em out.

Computerworld Picks up Nashville's Laptop Theft Story

While I thought the Christmas Eve security breach of 337,000 voter records was newsworthy at the national level, I have seen little coverage of it outside of Nashville on it. Metro Government deserves to be somewhat more embattled by widespread news of their failures than they have been. Even the Computerworld story fails to mention the lack of alarms and the non-operating security cameras.

Computerworld also has a link to privacyrights.org's chonology of data breaches from 2005. It lends perspective on how big Nashville's breach is.

In Iraq Until Just about the Time the Nexus-6 Replicants are Declared Illegal

The codependent Iraq government wants our soldiers there until 2018. By then the continuous loss of American resources to that war will reduce us to a cyberpunk dystopia.

Delayed or Improbable Gratification?

According to the Metro Council office, the Bellevue Mall project resolution sponsored by Eric Crafton and others would permit tax increment financing (in which tax revenues pay construction debt) for 83 acres. Council advisers warn that TIF could result in Metro--including the public schools--giving up its claim to future increased tax revenues generated by the facilities "for as long as the TIF is outstanding, or up to 30 years, whichever occurs first."

Mr. Crafton's bill would authorize the TIF plan, which forecasts post TIF-property taxes at $1.8 million per year. Might I suggest that any forecast of the real estate market and future property taxes is like looking through a glass darkly? Will that rosy forecast hold if property values continue to sink due to the untreated national mortgage malaise?

Metro is probably going to face decreasing revenues with dropping property values in the near future, which would make any long-term promise of value high enough to sacrifice short-term funding seriously open to question. Is TIF wise right now or would local services suffer in the short-term because of it? How does $1.8 million (if that much) help us more in 30 years than continuing property taxes on the 83-acres help us right now? Hopefully, some non-sponsoring Council Members will ask those kinds of tough questions at tomorrow night's meeting when the resolution is up for consideration.


UPDATE: City Paper says the bill does not have Mayor Karl Dean's support and it will probably be deferred.

States Have Options on Fixing the Mortgage Crisis Caused by the Lending Industry

The Progressive States Network considers the conservative hypocrisy of holding subprime borrowers accountable without faulting lenders:

[I]f economic irresponsibility is supposed to be punished, why did bonuses for Wall Street executives rise 14%, despite those firms having a direct hand in the subprime crisis, with the top four investment banks paying out almost $30 billion in bonuses?

Why were they awarded rather than punished? Because the wealthy have the resources to write themselves off the ledger of responsibility and the poor--once easy targets for predatory advertising--do not have comparative resources to deflect disproportionate blame.

PSN has some ideas for state governments in the absence of leadership in Washington: imposing a moratorium on foreclosures, allowing homeowners to become renters rather than being evicted, and requiring upkeep by those who control foreclosed properties. With the cost of declining property values in the hundreds of billions of dollars and with animal control shelters filling with abandoned family pets resulting from foreclosures, local communities like our own will only be broadly hurt by the failure of states to at least implement some of these ideas.


UPDATE: In the meantime, apartment prices rise in Nashville. Another sign of a declining mortgage and housing market.

Blogging Local Media Mogul Featured at BusinessWeek Online

Rex Hammock's concept of "mediacasting" is today's subject at Blogspotting.

Tennessee Poverty Rate Rises

Around Middle Tennessee, the suburban donut counties are hit harder. There are two Tennessees: one getting wealthier and one falling into poverty. And the suburban counties are no longer simply middle class sanctuaries, but regressively polarizing pockets of wealth and poverty.

The Best Places to Eat Breakfast or Brunch around the North End

Here are my favorites (with apologies to the vegetarians):

1. Muddea's (MetroCenter/Clarksville Pike) -- fried chicken and waffles! They also serve other breakfast fare like eggs and biscuits. Both the waffles and the biscuits are some of the best I've had in Nashville: crusty and ever-so-slightly sweetened (and I gobble them up even though I don't have a sweet tooth; it is a good example of "less is more"). They pipe in jazz to breakfast by. Very diverse crowds.
2. Germantown Cafe (5th and Madison; Sunday brunch only) -- shrimp and grits! The frittatas and the french toast are the ones I usually angle for. Your late morning Reuben fix can be realized here. And you cannot beat the view of Downtown. Whenever we go, we usually look like sweat-shirted slobs compared to bulk of patrons who seem to view the Cafe as demanding more dressy than drab style.
3. Monells (6th Avenue) -- family style! They pile so much brunch food of different varieties in front of you that I really can go no more than 2 or 3 times a year. You want to carbo-load before the Music City Marathon? This is the place to do so. It is carbohydrate heaven. The atmosphere here is the best of the three: you are seated inside a historic and kitschy Victorian Germantown house.

A Germantown Transformation

My friend and neighbor Kate O shares photos of the progress she and her significant other, Karsten, have made in the transformation of their historic house. It has been truly amazing to watch the place bloom since we moved in down the street three and a half years ago. I have no doubt that some day will be seeing a story on Kate and Karsten's abode in Cottage Living.

Something Ageless

(One of the many random photos that I took at last year's Germantown Oktoberfest that I like but had not yet published).

Tennessean Analyzes Local Views of Mayor Dean's First 100 Days

And prospects for the future under his administration.

The Monster Tennessee Media Could Become

There is an observation from Molly Ivins' 2000 bestseller "Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush" that seems relevant to the relationship between the mainstream media in Tennessee and Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson.

Ivins writes of the media and Mr. Bush:

It was clear to insiders Bush was going for president well before his second gubernatorial campaign, and it also became clear that at least some Austin bureau chiefs had decided to hitch their stars to Bush's wagon. He was their ticket to Washington, their entree into the bigs, their chance to become talking head on the Sunday chat shows. The result was a genuinely embarrassing amount of ass-kissing by some political reporters.*
....
*This tendency to brown-nose is so pronounced, The Texas Observer once opined that if the press corps' noses got any closer to Dubya's behind, reporters would be in violation of the state sodomy laws.

When I reread this today I was reminded by the promotion mode that the papers around Nashville went into shortly before and after Fred Thompson announced his run for the highest office in the land a few months ago. All of that uncritical press seems to have cooled with Mr. Thompson's lackluster start out of the gate.

However, if his numbers and prominence start to rise, we should be as vigilant of the closing distance between media noses and Mr. Thompson's own bum. I imagine that there are some reporters around here who would love to accompany the Hollywood actor to the big beltway dance and they are willing ignore some unflattering facts or to cut corners on critical news to make that glass slipper fit.

No Alarm on No Alarms?

The Tennessean published a long comment from Mayor Karl Dean this morning on the Metro Action Commission break-in and on his Office's reaction to contract with a private identity security company (Debix) to provide coverage for Davidson County voters. While pointing out that the state bears responsibility for the Christmas Eve security failure (e.g., social security numbers and login passwords easily accessible on the stolen lap tops), Mayor Dean said he is directing ITS to implement their own security recommendations immediately, which is a course change from the distancing the ITS Director seemed to be doing in her comments to Metro Council on January 3.

But it is not clear in the Mayor's comments that Metro is making the turn toward accountability that it should. Conspicuously missing from the Mayor's comments are any reference to his administration's and the preceding Purcell Administration's (of which he was a member) failures to alarm the Metro Office Building that housed MEC. This is the dirty little secret, the elephant in the room that nobody seems to want to talk about. How could the Mayor's Office have failed to alarm offices prone to what looks like one of the largest one-shot identity theft cases in history? And how could a freshly elected Mayor Karl Dean have overlooked a total audit of all Metro offices during his first days in office? There are multiple levels of security failure, both virtual and actual, and Metro IT's disconnect from the security process is not the only one. Both Metro General Services, which oversees real-world security (including cardkey access records of AWOL security guards, a non-functioning security camera system, and unalarmed windows), and the Finance Department, which failed to authorize an alarm system for the MEC offices, are responsible. And the Mayor should answer for them and tell voters how he intends to reform them.

A couple of weeks ago, I put the Mayor's Office on the bubble between good and bad in Enclave's 2007 Best and Worst Rankings of Metro Services. If I had rated the Mayor's Office after the Council's Public Safety Hearing on January 3, its bubble would have burst. I would have had a hard time deciding whether or not the Mayor's Office would have been worse than the cellar-dwelling Metro Election Commission, because honestly I do not know whether virtual or actual security failures are the more reprehensible in this heist. The alarm, access, and camera failures were horrible, and the Mayor should be publicly accountable for them. Being accountable also means terminating Finance or General Services staff who failed in their oversight. The lone security guard should not be the fall-guy for what is a systems-wide failure.

I wish the Mayor had said more this morning and I hope that he has more reform plans for the future. Implementing ITS recommendations constitutes some progress, but alone it clearly does not go far enough to encourage my faith in the security of Metro buildings or in the officials charged with their management.

Nashville Drops to 25th "Most Wired" City in America

Forbes.com has released their rankings of "America's Most Wired Cities," and Nashville dropped 4 spots from last year's rankings to 25th this year. Forbes bases its list on 3 factors: the percentage of homes with high speed Internet connections, the range of providers of high-speed Internet access, and the number of public Wi-Fi hot spots per capita.

Bicentennial Mall Security Follow-up: Letter to State Senator Thelma Harper

Click on letter to enlarge:


I will keep you posted on any response.

Yet Another Reason Why Living in the City Beats Living in the 'Burbs

One of my neighbors on the road less travelled.

Ever the Diplomat, Freddie T. Wants to Send the Iranians to Their Virgins

Even as the veracity of the Bush Administration's Iraq-War-like dispatch on those Iranian speedboats is coming off its own hinges, tonight Tennessee's Thompson "suggests casually that if Iran’s Revolutionary Guard becomes more hostile, the Iranians will see those virgins they’ve been looking for."

I wonder if he may regret saying that one day like President Bush eventually regretting saying, "Bring 'em on" back in 2003.

The Kind of Accountable Lip Service (If Nothing Else) We Need From the Mainstream Media

Acknowledgement is the first step toward recovery at Politico:

New Hampshire sealed it. The winner was Hillary Rodham Clinton, and the loser — not just of Tuesday's primary but of the 2008 campaign cycle so far — was us.

"Us" is the community of reporters, pundits and prognosticators who so confidently — and so rashly — stake our reputations on the illusion that we understand politics and have special insight that allows us to predict the behavior of voters.

.... Many journalists are enamored with [John] McCain because of the access he gives and, above all, the belief that he is free of political artifice.

Hillary Clinton, cautious and scripted, got the reverse treatment. She is carrying the burden of 16 years of contentious relations between the Clintons and the news media.

Many journalists rushed with unseemly haste to the narrative about the fall of the Clinton machine. On this score, reporters are recidivists. The Clintons were finished in 1992, when Bill Clinton’s New Hampshire campaign was rocked by scandal. In 1993, when Time pronounced him “The Incredible Shrinking President.” In 1994, when Hillary Clinton botched health care and Democrats lost Congress. In 1995, when Bill Clinton pleaded he still had “relevance.” In 1998, when the Monica Lewinsky scandal sent the Clinton presidency reeling.

Hillary Clinton's comeback in New Hampshire this week probably shared a trait in common with those earlier episodes: The media frenzy itself became part of the story, contributing to a sense of piling on and making people more sympathetic to the candidate.

If only more journalists spoke with such candor.

Her Thoroughly Artificial Litmus Test for Election

The re-election of Metro School Board Members is linked primarily to one thing: whether or not they satisfactorily represent their constituents. That is the most natural and intrinsic criterion for judging them.

So, when Kay Brooks says that their performance ought to be linked to the performance of School System Director Pedro Garcia, she is demanding that voters who might otherwise be satisfied with what their representative does for them in their zone should judge that leader by an external frame of reference: the mistakes and poor showing that Mr. Garcia might make on his own.

That is not only unfair to these Board Members, it also violates the spirit of representational government.

Good News and Bad News from the Mayor

While I have not waited to contact the three credit record companies to place a fraud alert on my records (I actually only requested an alert from one of them and before I got the Metro letter notifying me of the laptop theft, I received letters from all three acknowledging the alert), I have held off applying for identity theft insurance, in order to give one of the players in this sorry saga a chance to step up and do the right thing.

Well, the good news is that my patience has paid off: Mayor Karl Dean is authorizing Metro Government to provide free identity theft coverage to Davidson County residents who could be the victims of the Christmas Eve theft of 337,000 social security numbers. According to the contract, any Nashvillian who wants the first full year of identity theft coverage will get it for free, and the second year will cost them a substantially reduced price ($9.50 down from $99).

The bad news is that I and you still have to pay for the coverage: Metro will pay $9.75 per account for the first 20,000 covered and $9.25 for all others. The private provider--Debix Identity Protection Network--looks to make a lot of money off this deal. Because our government is at fault we the taxpayers have to foot the bill, unless Metro can get the private security companies to pay something. They have already been rebuffed by Wackenhut to pay the $109,000 for the original Metro notification letters that went out, so the chances don't look good that Metro could get the hundreds of thousands (the Tennessean says $900,000 for covering less than 1/3 of those whose records were stolen) back it may have to spend to cover Nashvillians. We need to know from where the Dean Administration intends to take those funds, even as we rest easier in the knowledge that we won't have to look far or pay more for identity theft insurance.


UPDATE: Blogging Council Member Emily Evans seems to know from where the costs will be paid:

The cost to Metro is estimated at less than $1,000,000 and it will be paid out of an insurance fund. Presumably, Metro will attempt to recover some of this money from Wackenhut for their negligence.

Well, not so fast. That opens up more questions:

• Is this insurance fund some kind of contingency fund already reserved for 07-08 or does is it something that is being formulated for the next budget?
• If the insurance fund was earmarked for something specific, then what service will be losing money?
• To what lengths is Metro going to go to recover money from Wackenhut if they refuse to pay? Legal means? And how much would a lawsuit against them cost Metro? Will the insurance fund cover all of the amount (which also could be over $1,000,000 if more people than expected sign up) needed to pay Debix in the very likely event that Wackenhut continues to deny responsibility?
• Finally, what assurances do we have from Debix that they won't treat Metro with the same negligence as Wackenhut has? Part of what got us into this problem it the lack of Metro oversight of contracts with private companies. So, who is going to exercise oversight of Debix and protect Metro consumers?

You know, I would like to say that I could place blind trust in the assurances of Metro Officials, but the Election Commission theft from top to bottom, from public to private shows that taking these assurances on good faith is a mistake without some hard questions being answered first.


UPDATE: Emily Evans addresses my questions via e-mail:

My understanding is that this is a self insured fund. We put money in it a long time ago. The money is invested and income from investments are used to pay claims. The cost is basically being treated as a claim. So, this is not part of general fund appropriations and therefore will have no impact on services.

Metro usually prosecutes its own lawsuits. It has a raft of pretty capable lawyers thanks in large part to the guy who used to be the Law Director. So, there is little additional cost for them suing Wackenhut. In a few instances, Metro has used outside lawyers when it did not feel it had the specific expertise. I certainly have no idea what they would do here but the costs could be incorporated into what it normally takes to operate at Metro Legal.

I’ll have to check on the liability issue with Debix. I am not sure the answer.

Neighborhood's Battle of Rose Park Continues

The Nashville City Paper's Christine Buttorff reports this morning on the ongoing war between Organized Neighbors of Edgehill, on the one hand, and Belmont University/Metro Parks, on the other, is once again being waged in court. The Edgehill neighborhood association has filed construction stoppage documents today in an attempt to bar any Belmont upgrades to Rose Park until the dispute is settled (background details after the jump).

ONE is also asking the court to overturn decisions made by Metro agencies (Parks, Zoning Appeals, etc.) to approve Belmont's lease and to judge against Metro Government and Metro Council approval. During the spirited Council debate last August, one CM called the lease "prostituting" parks to the highest bidder. The suit alleges that Metro Parks violated opponents due-process and free speech rights, reports Buttorff.

The court has sided with Parks and Belmont and against neighborhood petitioners previously when the case was before the Board of Zoning Appeals.

Former Wackenhut Security Guards Still Have Metro Uniforms, ID Badges, and Entry Keys

One former security guard who once worked for Wackenhut guarding Metro Water Services properties told NewsChannel5 this morning that when he quit he was not required to return his uniform, badge, or key to Metro. He claimed that he could still get into any Metro Water installation using each of these items. NewsChannel5 said that the story grew out of an investigation they were doing on security at Metro Buildings. I cannot yet find a link to the story on their website.

Some Obama and Paul Supporters See Primary Election Fraud in New Hampshire

Some, especially some bloggers, are still stuck in the Granite State even as their candidates have moved on.

Blackwater Gassed American Soldiers in Iraq to Move Traffic Out of Their Way

Privatization run amuck.

Dynamite As He Says; Don't Dynamite As He Does

Lee Beaman--Republican swift-boat funder and financier of Fred Thompson and Charlie Tygard campaigns--has been called out by the Nashville Scene for explosive hypocrisy. Mr. Beaman and his wife have done their own blasting even as they lead the charge against the Governor's plans to blast for a ballroom. Mr. Beaman's logic that his blasting did not include public dollars seems pretty lame to me, since he has donated so much money to conservative causes that I would suspect he has won himself a few tax breaks and special privileges from government through the years.

New Metro Police Team to Increase Presence in Salemtown in the Coming Weeks

Police sent the following note to Salemtown Neighbors Neighborhood Association:

You will notice increased routine police activity now and in the coming weeks with the creation of a new flex team. This new flex team and increased presence in your neighborhood will help to decrease the gang activity and drug related incidents as well. Although every police blue light that comes on or police car presence does not indicate a problem, you will notice that this police presence in the area includes such things as ordinary and routine traffic stops to ordinary "riding" through the neighborhood.

Wackenhut Executive Resigns

According to a WaPo report tonight, Wackenhut chairman and chief executive Gary Sanders has resigned in the wake of napping security guards in Pennsylvania and the overbilling of the City of Miami and a dispute with the Service Employees International Union. WaPo does not mention Wackenhut's possible implication in billing Metro Nashville for hours security guards did not work October through December.


UPDATE: WSMV news is reporting tonight that Wackenhut is not taking any blame for the overbilling, but is shifting blame to a Mt. Juliet subcontractor whom they argue is responsible for the malfeasance. That might be believable if Wackenhut didn't have significant security failures elsewhere. Don't you just love privatization of government services? I wonder whether back in the late 90s when Wackenhut was lobbying the Mayor's Office and Metro Council for the security contract they would have said right out that they would pass the buck for all security failures under their name?

Which Fraud Do ID Laws Stop?

Proponents of picture ID laws cannot give specific examples to the Supreme Court of voter fraud in Indiana that the laws are supposed to stop.

Gilmore to Hold "State of the Community Address"

District 19 Council Member Erica Gilmore kicks off a series of neighborhood meetings in Salemtown on Saturday, January 12 at noon. CM Gilmore has reserved the Morgan Park Community Center to hold the first of several community meetings called the "District 19 State of the Community Address." She tells her constituents in a mailed announcement this week that various Metro Department officials will be attending to help answer questions and address concerns. What a huge leap of progress this is from the days of former District 19 CM Ludye Wallace. Barring some unforeseen illness or emergency, I will be in attendance.

The Only Poll That Matters or Why Last Night Was Really About Freddie T.

Kucinich beats Thompson by almost 1,000 votes in New Hampshire.

Meanwhile, this is how one of the more regarded Thompson supporters handicapped last night's Democratic race in NH before the bell sounded:

I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that Obama beats Hillary by more than 20 points and approaches 50% of the Democratic vote. Even worse than getting calls for her to drop out of the race, after this thumping won’t get calls at all because everyone, EVERYONE, will know that it doesn’t matter if she stays in the race or not. Tomorrow she is irrelevant.

Lot of wishful thinking over at Freddie's campaign headquarters. They need to focus less on Hillary and more on Kucinich.

Money Quotes of Election Night

I almost wonder if more Dems didn't vote for Hillary to counter the BS media narrative about rejecting the Clintons once and for all. I say this as someone who has given 1500 bucks to Obama, gone to several of his events out here in CA, met him, and plan to vote for him. Part of me, however, was so pissed about this media narrative about Hillary and the Clintons in general that I had in the back of my mind that I would consider voting for her just to piss the media off .... this whole weekend we see people like Andrea Mitchell and Chris Matthews salivating over how the Democrats "rejected the Clintons" and want to puke.

- - Talking Points Memo quoting one commenter

I would not allow the talking heads to tell me who to vote for or declare this race over. And I certainly was not going to participate in the sexist bs that has been spewing out the mouths of the likes of Chris Matthews.

- - Talking Points Memo quoting a second commenter

Either or both of which were picked up by MSNBC's Rachel Maddow and promptly aired in front of Chris Matthews, who replied by asking what "Talking Points Memo" was. I had to laugh.


UPDATE: The signs were in the pre-NH polls, and they were ignored by the pundits. Time to wake up and smell the coffee:

I don't know about you, but I am thoroughly pissed off at the lame, unprofessional conduct of the various networks--MSNBC in particular. They knew that the polls had at least 17% undecided. Rather than simply report that there were a significant number of undecided voters and any projections were not reliable, they danced around like crack addicts celebrating the demise of the Clintons. Hillary is too wimpy. Hillary is too stern. Hillary is too manipulative. Hillary is not manipulative enough.

Special offenders include Chris Matthews, Andrea Mitchell, and Howard Fineman. They were so busy dancing on the Clinton grave that they did not have the decency to do some objective analysis. Hell, they tried to deceive the American people. So much for the death of Hillary's campaign.

For the sake of our democracy, can someone smack the crap out of the media? Jesus! (take that as a prayer and/or a curse).

The Democratic Campaign Turned Back to Where It Should Be Tonight

And where the campaign should be on the priority of replacing Republicans in the White House. Democrats, no matter who they place their faith in, need to keep their eye on the ball. In both Iowa and New Hampshire, Democratic voters mobilized in historic numbers while Republican turn-out declined. Because of Hillary's win, Obama can no longer claim that he is the only Democrat who can motivate and mobilize unusually high numbers of voters to the polls. The reports I'm hearing say that late decision-makers in New Hampshire broke Hillary's way. Rather than concluding that Democrats benefit from Obama's ability to pull in voters, I believe that Obama benefits from a Democratic electorate fired up to take the White House.

Democrats are turning out in droves not because of personalities, but because of purpose. And that purpose includes some important social issues largely ignored by Republicans in power and by Democrats in Congress.

Read me right: this is not an endorsement of Hillary, but an endorsement of a seachange in the American electorate in a fired up progressivism. Hillary overcame a double-digit-Obama-lead and conventional wisdom in both the mainstream media and the "alternative" blogosphere (even locally) that Obama would cruise. His campaign was caught looking past New Hampshire to South Carolina and his "viability" with African-American voters; and New Hampshire Democrats, both young and old stepped in and let the Party and the political wonks know that it should not take them for granted.

At the end of the night, the Democratic race is just about where it needs to be: Obama is young and should have to face sterner trials than coasting in Iowa if he wants my vote (a lack of experience equals a longer row to hoe); Hillary--in her own words during a speech tonight just as remarkable as Obama's last week--listened to others and in so doing discovered her own voice and perhaps more of her human side, which might make her a candidate worthy of my vote; and if a fading Edwards can somehow manage to come back from seeming oblivion, then he may just deserve my vote. A horse race is what this should come down to, and I feel much better with my choices now going into our primaries in February than I did after Iowa.

Thank you, New Hampshire, for keeping us honest.


UPDATE: Like I was saying:

It is important that the Democrats have a bruising, tough, no holds barred contest. Get all of the dirt and problems on the table now. If not, let there be no doubt, the Republicans will be more than happy to dredge up every piece of trash they can throw at folks. Obama has not yet been truly tested. Let him be tested now. Hillary and John have been through the battle. They are proven vets. No surprises come September for them. We cannot honestly say that about Obama.

This is not a slam of Obama. I am seriously worried about the stars in the eyes of Obama acolytes. We can't afford to give him a pass just because he is an inspiring symbol.

UPDATE: Just discovered that Enclave got linked over at the Wall Street Journal. Here's a screen shot of the end of WSJ reporter Laura Meckler's story on the New Hampshire results:

Mayor's Office Says Security Guards May Have Been AWOL During On-Duty Times That Wackenhut Billed the City

From the Mayor's Office via the Tennessean:

Preliminary findings in the building security audit currently underway by the Department of General Services indicate contracted security guards may not have been on duty during all of the hours billed for services at the Metro Office Building that houses the Davidson County Election Commission.

General Services can find no cardkey access to the building by security guards on Saturdays from October to December when Metro was billed for 12 hours of service per day by Wackenhut Corp., which subcontracts the work to Specialized Security Consultants.

Say what you will about the sleeping Wackenhut guards caught on video in Pennsylvania. At least they were physically present to be snapped out of slumber if something bad happened. You absolutely cannot rely on a guard who doesn't even show up to work.

What I would like to know is whether the Karl Dean administration ran a thorough check of the security systems at Metro Buildings immediately after taking office? How can cardkey access not show up as a bogey on some administrator's radar screen? It sounds like some more heads need to roll to me. Also, did Wackenhut knowingly bill Metro for times that they knew guards were not on duty?

Inspiring and Uncertain Vs. Boring and Stable

Slate's coverage of the two major Democratic Campaigns in New Hampshire:

The local blogosphere discussions on the campaigns look a little ugly and culture-war-fractious right now with the sides raising issues of race and gender where they need not be raised (you can find them yourselves; I'm not going to enable). I'm trying not to go down that road because it only leads to balkanization and unnecessary identity politics that ought to stay at the fringes of the political debate. It is unbecoming of people who cling to democratic ideals.

Block Grant Money Makes Real Streetscape Difference in Buena Vista

Federal block grant money has been used in the Historic Buena Vista neighborhood (just northwest of Downtown) to make significant quality of life changes to the streetscape. The changes include a traffic-calming, aesthetically pleasing median on Madison Street, neighborhood identifying signs, and period-distinctive streetlights and street signs. The signage incorporates the rose window feature of the historic building that current houses Hopewell Baptist Church.



Just to the east of Buena Vista, Salemtown has been granted its own federal funds for improvements to its streetscape. Its Citizen Advisory Committee meets tonight at 6:30 at the Randee Rogers Center on Rosa Parks to continue to discuss the possibilities with its landscape architect.

Fired Security Guard: Mt. Juliet Firm's Budget Cuts Were Reason for Lack of Security

Security Guard Brandon Murphy's alternate story on how Election Commission windows were broken on Dec. 22 rather than on Christmas Eve seems a little farfetched, but he does divulge significant information that his former security firm's budget cuts were the reason for the lack of weekend coverage at the MEC.

Not Good for John Edwards

A Wisconsin blogger and consultant with professional ties to Metro Nashville Government writes about his rather illuminating experiences with a "senior economic adviser" to the Edwards Presidential Campaign, Leo Hindery, Jr. Reportedly, Hindery is prone to stretching the truth, including liberties he took with the Metro Council in the late 1990s.

Here's the skinny on his Democratic Party connections:

While Hindery has already maxed his contributions to the Obama, Clinton, and Edwards campaigns, Edwards has been a frequent flier on Hindery's corporate jet, reimbursing over $15,000 to Hindery's Intermedia Partners for charter service at the first class ticket rate.

Besides his deep pockets, Hindery's other campaign role has been to assuage the corporate community that John Edwards, despite his rhetoric, isn't really so hostile to them. But considering his track record, is Leo Hindery's economic advice any more useful than his standard operating procedure of "buy low, pump it full of 'stardust,' and then dump it?"

Can't the Edwards campaign do any better than this?

Is It Zackies Night?

The 3-year-old and I are sort of becoming regulars every couple of weeks now at Zackies hot dog establishment down in Germantown at 5th Av. & Madison St. Tonight was an exceptionally fine night to sit on their street-side patio and down a Chicago-style (brightest green relish I've ever seen) and my own favorite, a dog with their fresh cole slaw and spicy mustard. People-watching across the street at Germantown Cafe is almost as good as the celery salt. It's becoming a daddy-daughter ritual of sorts with the young one requesting Zackies consistently now when she gets out of school (she likes her dog with just catsup and a side of slaw). When mom is otherwise detained, how can I resist that kind of pressure?

Variations on Variance

Blogging Council Member Emily Evans provides a helpful explanation of zoning variances, even for those whose eyes glaze over at the thought zoning issues. You may not think you need to understand them now, but one day you might need her primer.

Ease Up, Kid Charlemagne

A local blogger who calls his blog "a continuing celebration of virtue" confuses tears with weakness as he judges Democratic Candidate Hillary Clinton harshly for getting verklempt while expressing her cares at a meeting in New Hampshire.

According to Nathan Moore, weeping like this disqualifies one from the presidency:

Oh, yeah? Well does the weeping done by the President in the following video footage disqualify him?

Or what about his father? Should we think less of him as a leader because he cried for his son?

And it's not like Republicans haven't complained about how difficult things can get sometimes:

So, it's pretty obvious that Nathan Moore is just grasping at straws for the sake of Republican points. At least accusing her of faking would have carried more credibility than intolerance (which is the lack of virtue) for crying. There are plenty of things to criticize Hillary Clinton for, but weakness is not one of them.

HT:VV

UPDATE: Apparently Republican men aren't the only ones with idiotic responses to Hillary's weepage. Over at the Coffee House, they're busting a Democratic Candidate for being somewhat lame-brained himself:

John Edwards shot himself in a nether region this way:

Edwards, speaking at a press availability in Laconia, New Hampshire, offered little sympathy and pounced on the opportunity to bring into question Clinton’s ability to endure the stresses of the presidency. Edwards responded, “I think what we need in a commander-in-chief is strength and resolve, and presidential campaigns are tough business, but being president of the United States is also tough business.”

Now, this is the kind of response that gives my entire sex a bad name--the "resolve" to rough up the opposition any old way. Where is Edwards' regional charm all of a sudden? I do wonder what it is the reporters heard that led them to paraphrase his first response as "offering little sympathy"--and would be interested to know if any readers see a fuller quote--but in any event, I think what we need in a commander-in-chief is a wise human being, and yes, wise human beings have been known to tear up.

Geez, Mr. Edwards.

Buttorff Reports that Germantown Overlay Bill Will Be Deferred on Tuesday

Quotes Gilmore: "We're allowing both sides to work out issues and reach a general consensus." No word on whether Thursday's Public Hearing at the Planning Commission will also be deferred.

Supposed to Inspire Voter Confidence?

Tennessean reports this morning that former Nashvillians who moved to Rutherford County "likely" don't need to worry about the recent Davidson County Election Commission laptop caper and that their personal information is "believed" to be safe. What an inspiration. But Rutherford County's Election Commission does have something that Davidson County did not: operational security cams and an alarm system.

See What Regulation Has Wrought

Comcast gives in to regulatory pressure to drop closed, proprietary approach and provide "open architecture that will work across cable companies." Amazing how the cable industry finds a way with a little nudge.

Reverse Combustion

Maybe in 15 to 20 years a descendant of a beer-keg-sized prototype may eliminate CO2 footprints and generate gasoline?

Quote of the Weekend

TN is one of only fourteen states without verifiable ballot legislation. You get a receipt when you spend $4.59 at Wendy's on your Extra Value Meal...why should your vote be less important? With the recent theft of laptops containing all the voter ID from the Election Commission of the most reliably Democratic-leaning county in the state, why should we have all that much confidence in any other election-related safety issues?

- - Eleanor A of TennViews encouraging readers to contact the Joint Legislative Committee on Voter Confidence before they meet on January 10

Tennessean Better Late to Elected Metro Bloggers Than Never

If you read this morning's Tennessean piece on a couple of elected Metro bloggers, then you got warmed over news you could have seen first here on Enclave in August and last week. Why wait for the slow pokes at the Tennessean when you can read about elected Metro bloggers here first?

What Are State Dems Up To?

TennViews has a preview of coming Democratic legislation in the TN GenAss.

Not Made Out to be a Lazy Employee; Made Out to be a Wackenhut Employee

NewsChannel5 interviews the unnamed security guard on duty at MEC on December 24 when the laptops were allegedly stolen:

The man, who didn't want his full name disclosed to the public, said he is scapegoat.

He worked the Sunday before Christmas from 6 p.m. until early Monday morning.

He thinks the break-in already happened before he arrived.

"They needed a patsy and I guess I fit the bill," he said.

He said he understands why his company had to save face, but believes they are making him out to be a lazy employee. He said that is not true.

The guy is likely to be right insofar as this security failure involves MEC administrators and IT professionals, General Services security overseers, Wackenhut and the Mt. Juliet security subcontractors, and more than likely officials in the Purcell Administration who failed to install an alarm system.

But he has reportedly admitted that he did not do outside security rounds on Christmas Eve. If the building had been broken into before he arrived then he should have discovered the broken window upon doing rounds. This is no small mistake at any level. He seems responsible for what could turn out to be the largest case of one-shot identity theft in American history. Firing someone in this case is letting them off easy. He'll be lucky if he's not sued if the allegations are correct.

Opulence amidst Crumbling Infrastructure

Tomorrow's NY Times underscores the problem of privately-funded opulence in the heart of crumbling urban infrastructure:

The shift from public money to private wealth in shaping the nation’s cities is evident in national data. Government outlays on physical infrastructure have declined to 2.7 percent of the gross domestic product, from 3.6 percent in the 1960s. Philanthropic giving, in contrast, has jumped to nearly 2.5 percent of G.D.P., from 1.5 percent in 1995 and 2 percent in the ’60s.

Read the entire piece to see how the Times follows an expanding and exclusive urban university in the midst of a declining city--a city within a city--as a case study for alarming, volcanic disparities between public and private. Here's a head-shaking taste:

Yale now spends more than $400 million annually on its renaissance, nearly six times its outlays for construction and renovation in the mid-1990s. New Haven, by contrast, budgeted $137 million in the current fiscal year for all its capital projects, including those subsidized by state and federal governments. That is less than twice the amount budgeted in the mid-’90s.

Germantown Overlay on Next Planning Commission Agenda

Besides being up for Public Hearing during Tuesday night's Metro Council Meeting, CM Erica Gilmore's Germantown Overlay Bill is also up for Public Hearing on next Thursday's Planning Commission Meeting (starts at 4:00 p.m.) Agenda.

Banks to Slow Downtown Condo Financing in 2008

They say they're waiting for demand to catch up with supply. Are banks just managing expectations and PR? Or is the national trend toward urban living really lagging in Downtown Nashville?

John McCain Says We Should Stay in Iraq 100 Years

Live Event Blogging May Be Endangered

Reporters are finding themselves bound by "blogging rules" at various events.

Metro Barely Smacks Wackenhut; Class Action Lawsuit Reaches Farther

The Tennessean reports this morning that Metro's Legal Office is asking private security contractor Wackenhut to pay $100,000 for the $109,000 mailing Metro Election Commission is paying to notify all Davidson County residents warning of Christmas Eve laptop theft (which means, I guess, that Metro rather than the state funds MEC mailings--hasn't the State been conspicuously mum on this matter?). This seem like the bare minimum that Metro should do, and it seems to me that they need to be more aggressive; or as one interviewed lawyer put it, "Notification is no solution. You've got to be proactive and go out there and protect people's identities aggressively." And more aggressive is just what a reported class-action lawsuit being put together against Metro, Wackenhut is. Metro and Wackenhut should be doing more to protect the voters who have been put at risk by their security and protocol failures. If they don't choose to, then they should be forced by the courts to.

The Best Expression of Dilemma in Choosing between Obama or Edwards

This guy articulates better than I have my own ambivalence in choosing a Democratic presidential candidate this time around:

At some level, [Barack] Obama seems to say that the problem [causing people anger] is merely the politicians. Their failures have gotten in the way of solving the problems of the American people. He'll nod to the problem of corporate lobbyists but he usually won't straight out identify the actors OUTSIDE GOVERNMENT, namely corporate power, as a significant target for change.

Ultimately, [John] Edwards is more willing to try to build a message of where the source of problems are. Politicians may not be acting to solve them, but Obama needs to talk more about that source of the problem, not just his vaguer blame of politicians failure to act, to convince me he can turn his organizational prowess into deeper ideological realignment of the populace.

The problem with many Republicans is they operate according to the business=good / government=bad dichotomy, while I see both as equally prone to bad even as we expect that they be good. Money is simply the business counterpart to government power.

How I vote in February will have less to do with who has won the other primaries to that point and more to do with whether I can resolve the question of whether Obama sees the ills of corporations as readily as he sees the ills of government.

In the Jungle, the Quiet Jungle, the Mayor Sleeps Tonight

The Scene wants to know (and I do, too): in the midst of all of this Election Commission laptop controversy, why didn't Mayor Karl Dean's office just advise the press that he was on vacation in Africa, but that he was keeping up with the fallout instead of acting like the word of his family trip would look like he wasn't being attentive? I had wondered myself where the Mayor was during this time, but I wouldn't have given a second thought to news that he was out of the country on a personal trip. That happens. But the way Press Secretary Janel Lacey seems to be handling the details--evading questions and calling editors instead--makes the Mayor's absence look more curious than most vacations are.

Have You Seen the Video of Sleeping Wackenhut Security Guards?

WCBS obtained video (you can also see the video here if you have trouble downloading at CBS) taken by a whistle blower of his fellow Wackenhut security guards sleeping on the job in a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant. The former security guard--who was not among the guards rehired by Wackenhut after the story aired and the company lost a contract--took video footage for several months of other guards sleeping in their ready room. Before they went to the media, two Wackenhut whistle blowers even reported the salaried snoozing to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which apparently did nothing until the story ran last fall.

So should we be surprised that a Wackenhut guard in Nashville listened to Christmas music while thieves broke a Metro Election Commission window and stole our 337,000 social security numbers or that he failed to discover it at any point later because he did not do his outside rounds? And should we be surprised that Metro Government was unconcerned about these security lapses--or otherwise waiting for experience to teach something--until an ugly MEC story blew up in their faces?

That Nutty Wackenhut

PiTW's PJ Tobia responds to my "Wherefore Wackenhut?" query yesterday by pointing to a previous Scene article that has all the dirty details of Wackenhut's threatened lawsuit against Metro and its win-on-appeal in 2006 over a patron favored by the Purcell Administration. I completely forgot that I blogged on that article in 2006 and that even then there was bad news to be excavated about Wackenhut:

Wackenhut has reportedly been at the center of security problems at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, involving mistaken responses to initially unidentified white powder (which later proved to be benign). Thanks to a belated evacuation order, employees had gone to lunch, and they had to be rounded up and quarantined (how about some suspicious white powder to go along with those fries?). Wackenhut whistleblowers reported no WMD training, lightly guarded Homeland Security entrances, and no radios to communicate with each other. The Energy Department also concluded that Wackenhut guards improperly handled the transport of nuclear and conventional weapons during one of their tests. One whistleblower said that when he found a suspicious bag in a parking lot on another occasion he "didn't have a clue about what to do."

So, while Metro may have had its own patronage problems in originally jilting Wackenhut, it looks like even in correcting itself on appeal, it made a bad decision that could have eventuated failed security during the Christmas Eve theft of Election Commission laptops.

Now we know why they were hired, so the question remains, "Why were they hired?"

Identity Theft of Voter Records May Cost Metro Dearly

Last night General Services Director Whittemore told Metro Council Members that the loss of the 2 laptops totaled $300.00. But, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center, the theft of even one laptop costs private businesses 300 times that small amount:

the loss or theft of just one laptop can cost a company as much as $90,000 or more in fines, credit monitoring for victims, public relations damage control, and class action litigation.

So, the monetary loss of the Metro laptops probably starts off at around $200,000 and multiplies exponentially given the 337,000 social security numbers stored on them. And you know who is going to pay for that loss? The very same Davidson County taxpayers whose credit now dangles by a wi-fi.

Some Last Thoughts on Tonight's Council Public Safety Meeting

• CM Megan Barry asked the most direct, soul-searching question of the night when she pondered whether any of those officials speaking to the Council about the Metro Election Commission break-in had any second thoughts on something, anything that they might have done differently. It was frustrating to hear the Director of General Services say that they provide security for people but not necessarily for laptops as it was frustrating to hear the Director of IT address the disconnect between her office and the computer protocols of other departments as it was frustrating to hear Ray Barrett blame the state about social security number insecurities. I appreciate the fact that these people are in difficult positions and to a certain extent they have little authority across departments, but I don't understand why, as Director Whittemore put it, experience had to be the best teacher in this case. It seems to me that an ounce of common sense about security and protocols and confirming that DVRs are operational would have been more valuable than waiting for experience to teach us something in painful retrospect. Do we no longer hire leaders for careful forethought, planning, and prevention?
• Sandy Cole indicated that her office was in talks with Dell Computer to explore technology or knowledge they might be willing to share for tracking down the lost laptops, which were made by Dell. One CM pointed out that Dell owes Nashville a solid for assisting its recent expansion in Middle Tennessee.
• IT Director Cole addressed a question on the lack of encryption on the stolen laptops by saying that, since encryption software is loaded on the same laptops as the information that might have been encrypted then encryption would have done very little. She said that best practices would indicate that sensitive data should never be stored on a hard drive or on a mobile device. No kidding. Does it take an IT professional for Election Commission Officials to see the self-evidence of that? Obviously not, since they didn't listen to Metro IT's advice in the first place.
• CM Emily Evans shares her perspective on tonight's meeting.
• PiTW's PJ Tobia reminds us that the billion-dollar security subcontractor hired by General Services to insure insecurity at MEC, Wackenhut, already has a history of rip offs, lax and botched security at nuclear power plants, and aid to terrorist organizations. I agree with the Council Members who argued tonight that Wackenhut should be relieved of their duties. In fact, may I suggest an investigation into how they got the contract in the first place (to make sure it didn't involve noncompetitive influence peddling or backroom boosterism)? For the life of me, I don't understand why Metro would hire a subcontractor with that track record.
• One CM pointed out that without a police report, credit reporting agencies will charge consumers for credit freezes. For those Nashvillians with access to a computer and printer, Metro has put the police report online here. Now what about those Nashvillians without access to a computer and printer?

The Buck for the Lack of Alarms at MEC Stops at the Metro Office of Finance

CM Erik Cole asked General Services Director Whittemore at tonight's Public Safety Meeting whose call it was to leave the Metro Office Building containing MEC unalarmed. She replied that the decisions not to alarm the building were made by those responsible for construction: Real Property Services in the Office of Finance. So, as the party responsible for the lack of alarms, officials from Real Property Service (perhaps Assistant Finance Director Ken Maynard) should be appearing before this committee to answer questions about their decision not to alarm this and any other Metro Building that stores sensitive information. I also would like to know when General Services took over the building and why it did not consider recommending alarm installation to the Mayor when it did so.

Election Commission's Security Allotment Cut in Half While Metro IT Internal Fees Doubled

CM Mike Jameson asked Metro Director of IT Sandy Cole why the internal fees charged to the MEC by Metro IT (which has not control over MEC computer security) doubled from last year to this year (from $169,000 to $308,000) when, as Ms. Cole said, there was "no appreciable change" in services that Metro IT provided to MEC from year to year. Ms. Cole said that salary increases accounted for increase of service fees. Meanwhile, MEC's General Services security allotment was cut in half from approximately $400,000 to approximately $200,000.

Some Election Commission Laptops Have User Names and Passwords Attached to the Outside of Them!

The Metro Election Commission's Administrator Ray Barrett just told the Council's Public Safety Committee that some of the offices laptops have user names and passwords affixed to the outside surface of the laptops! He said he did not know whether the stolen laptops with full social security numbers had user names and passwords taped on. This is getting worse and worse the more we learn.

By the way, the Tennessean is reporting that the MEC does not have a formal policy for securing laptops. If that is the case, then the jobs of some Commissioners and Administrators ought to be in jeopardy.

Security Cameras Did Not Record Heist of Laptops!

The Director of General Services, Nancy Whittemore, just told the Council's Public Safety Committee that there are several security cameras around the building in which the Election Commission is located. When General Services officials accessed the DVR which records the footage of those cameras, they found the DVR unplugged. The security system in place wasn't even operational! The security camera DVR was not even secure! I can't believe my ears!

First Head Rolls in Election Commission Break-in Investigation

Michael Cass reported a couple of hours ago that a security guard who was supposed to be on duty at 9:45 p.m. on December 24 when the Metro Election Commission was broken into was fired. The guard did not work for Metro, but for a Mt. Juliet subcontractor. My next question is, was this entirely the guard's fault? Or is he also taking the fall for flaws in the services that Metro pays for? What were his supervisors doing? We need to look at the entire chain of security.

We also need to ask tough questions about the practice of subcontracting to private firms. Could this problem--which has now become a very expensive one for Metro--have been averted if the Metro had its own security team (not to mention an alarm system) guarding Metro buildings? I think we would at least have a lot more public accountability if the guard were employed directly by Metro government. There would also be no protective cushion between private and public that gives supervisors easy opportunities to cover their own butts.


UPDATE: The Director of General Services told the Public Safety Committee tonight that the security guard was fired because he was observed and admitted to not making his hourly rounds.


UPDATE: Director also said that security might not have heard the window break at 9:45 because he was listening to Christmas music. She added that General Services is reevaluating its contract with and obligations of the security subcontractor.

Metro 3 to Televise Council Consideration of Metro Election Commission Break-in

If you like me cannot go to the Court House for the Special Public Safety Committee Meeting on the Christmas Eve theft of sensitive voter records, which starts in a little over an hour, then tune into Comcast Channel 3. Metro Government TV will be broadcast live from the Court House. It will be one of the more significant events of the new Metro Council so far.

Metro Security Breach Starts to Mire in Partisan Party Fight

Rather than sitting back and waiting for investigation results of the Christmas Eve break-in and theft of Election Commission laptops, some Republicans are pointing fingers of blame at Democrats. Meanwhile, the Commission employee, Kathy Charlton-Deshotels, who has been identified as the person whose desk the laptops were under on Dec. 24 is already lawyered up for what looks like a defense.

So, are we going to lose the chance to find out the facts that would allow Metro to plug the security holes due to Republican and Democratic Party fisticuffs? If only the partisans could just back off and shut their pie holes for a while and let the facts about this episode come to light. This is more than just political brinkmanship. It involves the security of 337,000 people.


UPDATE: The Tennessean's Michael Cass has details on hours worked by General Services managed security at Howard:

The Metro Office Building on Second Avenue South has had one guard on duty 12 hours a day on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays for about 10 years.

Don't forget or be informed: there is no alarm system in the building, either. So, for 24 hours during weekends and for 12 hours on holidays (I guess 2-day holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas would be 24 hours) there was no form of security at the Howard Office Building since the late '90s. That just seems incredible to me. I also have got to ask, where were the mainstream media watchdogs during the past decade? Why wasn't any local news source asking questions about overnight security in significant public buildings like Howard?


UPDATE: Local columnist Gail Kerr concurs about the partisans shutting their pie holes. And I can think of a couple of partisans who would do well to do so. Here is a local State Republican Party hack who has been constantly stirring the partisan pot from day one of this disturbing story. But the Party pays him to headhunt and spin muck for Republican gain; it's not like he has to believe genuinely in reforming the system, especially if reform costs his bosses some of their power. The whole voter ID argument is a distraction until General Services and the Election Commission get to the bottom of the causes of the security breach.

Back to Kerr's column: she says that the Metro Election Commission is appointed by the county party delegations from the General Assembly. Contrast that to what the State Division of Elections says:

The State Election Commission is responsible for appointing five county election commissioners for every county in the state. This is done on the first Monday in April in every odd-numbered year. After making such appointments, the state commissioners then monitor the activities and performance of the county election commissioners.

Instead, it is the State Election Commission that is directly tied to the General Assembly:

The State Election Commission is composed of five members, three from the political party holding a majority of seats in the General Assembly and two from the minority party. These individuals are elected for a term of four years. This is the only commission in Tennessee state government which is elected wholly by the General Assembly.

Is that a distinction without a difference or did Ms. Kerr get the appointment process wrong?

Where I Stand on the Germantown Historic Overlay

A Metro Council Member recently asked me for my opinion of the Germantown Overlay Bill, which is up for Public Hearing next Tuesday, January 8. I replied that I initially had some serious questions about it given the extension of it through Morgan Park. I also said that those questions were quickly put to bed when Germantown leaders convinced me that it would not affect any of the park's amenities or services to the community, but simply protect the facade of the historic portion of the community center and the old stone wall surrounding Morgan Park.

I now actually support the Germantown Overlay for two reasons. One is that it is a tool that gives residents of the community the opportunity to evaluate and to provide feedback on developments that could endanger the character of the neighborhood. As such, it levels the playing field between residents and developers/investors. So, I support it for extrinsic reasons: residents should not have to be at a disadvantage to developers in the planning and zoning process like they are in many neighborhoods. Since I am under no illusion that historic overlays are instrinsically good, then I do not support them in general without reference to their consequences.

Which brings me to the second, more ironclad reason to support this overlay. Every single time I have asked overlay opponents to give me an example of one Nashville neighborhood with an overlay that has been harmed or stunted by the overlay, I never get a simple, straightforward answer. No one has ever been able to name for me a single living example of the bad wrought by historic overlays; instead, they appeal to scenarios, usually fearful, that have little to do with reality. The overlays that I see around Nashville seem to spur growth. So, until someone can give me sufficient counter-examples, I encourage the Metro Council to support Erica Gilmore's Germantown Overlay Bill on Tuesday. I hope that you will follow-up with your Council Member and encourage them to support it, too.

Metro Security (or Lack Thereof) UPDATE: Mayor Dean Announces Internal Audit in Wake of Security Questions

Tennessean reporter/blogger Jennifer Peebles underscored the question I raised last night regarding the lack of weekend security at the Howard School Building Offices, which are located in a transitional neighborhood. Peebles posts a map that shows that seven homicides occurred last year within a one-mile radius (all southwest and southeast of the campus). She also points out that the campus is proximate to an interstate exit, which makes criminals' access to high-speed flight easier. Finally, she ponders the possible justifications of the Election Commission spending tens of thousands of dollars to send the notification of theft letter out to Davidson County voters. I can't decide whether that is a wise use of funds or not.

The Tennessean is also reporting that Mayor Karl Dean is calling all Metro Departments to conduct full-scale security audits, which--as I argued yesterday--is the right thing to do. In fact, it is common knowledge and constant news that identity theft has soared astronomically; so why are government agencies late in conducting security audits? Common sense should tell anyone that if you require something as sensitive and vulnerable to abuse as a social security number, you better measure and tighten your security protocols and firewalls like an obsessed sentry. Obsession would have kept Metro from being put in the position of merely reacting to fires rather than preventing them in the first place. Let's hope the Mayor learns to be more proactive in the future about forestalling the cascading effects of what looks like a rather apathetic, cavalier, or lax system of governance.


UPDATE: Tennessean reports that the burglary occurred on December 24th at 9:45 p.m., based on on-line records of when the laptops went off-line. Also, the burglars may have left behind physical evidence in the form of blood from the broken window through which they entered the building.

More Criticism of Mayor Dean's December Neighborhoods Meeting

Enclave reader "Disappointed so far" has this to say about last month's Connecting Communities Meeting sponsored by the Mayor's Office for neighborhood leaders:

The mayor was 45 minutes late to start that meeting and left 15 minutes early. His two hours with the neighbors was more like one hour. The MOON staff was not prepared to start the meeting. All that was ready was the donuts. It was a poor reflection on the mayor and his new staff. Mayor Dean cannot do this job by himself. He needs more experienced folks to work with him. With a Metro Council that still seems to be controlled by the money of developers, the MOON will spend most of their time playing catch up. Too bad Mayor Dean didn't enlist real neighborhood leaders into his group instead of Metro Council wannabees.

Two Levels of Security Failures in the Election Commission Laptop Caper

We are slowly getting more and more information about the details of the break-in at the Metro Election Commission Office on either December 22 or 23. Last night Fox 17 news reported that Howard School Building (in which the office is located) has neither security guards on the weekends and holidays nor an alarm system. According to WKRN, Metro's General Services Department oversees security at all city buildings, and that officials in that office said "there is some security over weekends and holidays."

So, the first failure in this sorry episode is that of General Services, which either does not provide security or does not provide sufficient security over the weekends and holidays. Also, I am stunned that a building with sensitive information and expensive equipment has no alarm system in such a transitional part of Downtown. I believe that the building underwent renovations during the Purcell Administration. Why did the last Mayor's Office fail to include an alarm system in the renovation designs?

The second failure is that of the Metro Election Commission Officials or IT personnel who failed to return the two laptops containing voter data to their secure location behind a locked gate. This is a serious violation of security protocol and it needs to be addressed at a disciplinary level. We're not just talking about a small technology theft. A crime like this could have horrible ramifications for hundreds of thousands of people for years to come. From the outside it looks like someone should be fired for opening so many up to the danger of identity theft.

Some call for ending the use of social security numbers with voter records, a point with which I agree. But seriously, Mayor Karl Dean and the Metro Election Commissioners need to close these security holes in General Services and the Commission Office first and worry about the question of social security numbers later. The Metro Council should pass a memorializing resolution at their next meeting asking the Mayor's Office to install an alarm system at Howard as soon as possible, but hopefully before the next election.