Copy of executive memo asking CMs to defer Hickory Hollow lease bill, but to keep privatization power dry

Take note of the first full paragraph on page 2 of today's memo from Rich Riebeling; even as the Mayor backs away from Hickory Hollow lease for the flea market, he still intends to convert the Fairgrounds to real estate to be sold off to private interests:

MEMORANDUM


To:           Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors
                 Members of the Metropolitan Council
From:      Richard M. Riebeling/JKDirector of Finance
Date:       December 1,2010
Subject:  Fairgrounds


     Over the past several weeks, numerous questions have been asked concerning our plans to enter into lease/purchase agreements for property at the Hickory Hollow Mall. Therefore, we have made the decision to ask the sponsors of BL20 I 0-792 to defer that legislation until January. Further, it is our intent to delete from the ordinance the lease for the Dillard's property that was to house the flea market and expo center. In addition, we have requested additional information from the Department of Health on its future space requirements that we will share with you before moving that lease forward.


      It remains our intent over the next several weeks to iron out minor changes and move forward on our plans to convert the former JCPenney's building into a facility to provide much needed city services for Southeastern Davidson County with a new regional community center, larger and improved Public Library and a home for the Metro Archives. That community represents the fastest growing area of our city and currently lacks critical public services. This concept previously was approved by the Metro Council as part of the capital spending plan, and we hope to soon move forward to finalize issues relating to the lease/purchase with the mall owners so planning, and then construction, can commence. Another important step in the revitalization ofthis area will be the location ofa Nashville State campus.


      A number of legitimate questions and concerns have been raised about the mall's suitability as a new venue for the Expo events and Flea Market. It makes sense at this juncture to take a time out and, just like we did with the convention center hotel, do more homework to see ifwe can find a better deal for the City.


     Over the course of the next several months, we will examine all options including alternative sites as well as public/private management ofthese events. Regardless, it is essential that any financial adjustments be made to ensure these activities are self-sufficient and do not


Memo to Vice Mayor and Metro Council
December 1, 2010
Page 2


require any subsidy from the general government. Further, vendors and customers of the Flea Market and Expo can plan on remaining at the Fairgrounds throughout 2011 as this study proceeds.


      During this process, we need to remember the importance of transitioning the Fairgrounds into a site that will enable our City's tax base to grow while creating good-paying jobs. Members of the Council have publicly and vocally spoken of the need for quality infill development across our City. We agree and see the Fairgrounds as a key site in helping us reach our economic development potential.


      Finally, plans to relocate the Tennessee State Fair and permanently end operation of the racetrack remain in place. We are moving forward with plans to develop the flood plain area of the property as a public park along with restoration of Brown's Creek that runs, in part, through the area used by the track. We intend to continue our discussions with the Tennessee State Fair Association and are open to allowing it to use the Fairgrounds for a 2011 fair, but only under terms in which it is fully responsible for the event-while it intensifies its efforts to find a more suitable permanent location.


     Clearly, the racetrack has not been successful since the principal races moved to Wilson County several years ago. Several vendors have tried and have not been able to operate a successful racing series at the track. More important than the financial considerations, however, is our responsibility to the neighborhood around the Fairgrounds. In neighborhood meeting after neighborhood meeting, it is abundantly clear that ending racing is the single most important impediment to the revitalization of the community.


     We will continue to support Nashville neighborhoods and will work to improve the quality oflife for Nashvillians. The people who live around the Fairgrounds deserve a place they can enjoy and be proud of, and Antioch residents deserve access to basic services.


Copy: Mayor Karl Dean
          Jon Cooper

Metro Council's Dean Team suffers their first setback, blinks first on Fairgrounds

According to breaking news at the Nashville City Paper, Karl Dean, via his supporters on the Metro Council, is backing off his plans to exile the Fairgrounds Expo to Antioch's Hickory Hollow mall, and he will wait a year:

After weeks of intensified scrutiny over Mayor Karl Dean’s proposal to transform the Metro-owned Tennessee State Fairgrounds, a handful of Metro Council members have filed legislation that will effectively bail him out, keeping the expo center at the site and all but guaranteeing that next year’s state fair will be in Davidson County.

According to multiple sources, the Dean administration fully supports the plan.

The bill, filed Wednesday evening, would require the five-member Metro Board of Fair Commissioners to negotiate with the Tennessee State Fair Association to keep the 2011 state fair at the Nashville site. The fair association — a nonprofit group of statewide interests formed in response to Dean’s plans — has had difficulty finding a comparable site for a fair in the county ....

The bill would also keep the expo center at the current fairgrounds location, and begin the demolition process of the racetrack on the property to make way for a 40-acre park along Browns Creek.

The Save the Fairground preservationists, who were preparing to release the results of a survey tomorrow of flea market vendors regarding the Mayor's Hickory Hollow proposal, are not still not impressed:

Mayor Karl Dean has agreed to keep the Fairgrounds open for one more year. With 9 months before his re-election, this is nothing more than “election year” politics. It is a thinly veiled attempt to kick the can down the road until after the upcoming Metro elections.

Just days ago, Mayor Karl Dean threatened to raise property taxes if he did not get his way on the Fairgrounds redevelopment bills. We believe this is nothing more than a scare tactic. The Fairgrounds is, and can be, a profitable venture for the city.

Save My Fairgrounds seeks an indefinite continuation of the State Fair, Flea Market and Expo events, and racing. The State Fair issue needs to be decided now, not next year. It is evident the public pressure has been felt by Dean and the Council members, and they clearly do not have the votes to kill the Fairgrounds.

I heard earlier today that the Fairgrounds supporters were going to move this to the state level and to extend the effort to rural leadership around the rally cry that Nashville's Mayor was trying to destroy the Tennessee State Fair. There was also a good deal of anger expressed at the November 16 council meeting with constituents telling council members to their faces that they were going to lose votes next year because of their support of Mayor Dean.

Election-year jitters may indeed be setting in across the Metro Council, but the larger goal here is to make sure that the initiative to privatize the public Fairgrounds does not come up again after next year's election is safely over for Mayor and council members. The lack of governance and quality leadership on the Dean Team during this episode has been breathtaking. They needed to back off.

Preservationists: We are denied Right to Assemble by Metro Nashville on December 7

From the preservationists at Save My Fairgrounds:

Save My Fairgrounds Denied First Amendment Right to Assemble
Group denied rally permit for Courthouse Public Square

Nashville, TN — The “Save My Fairgrounds” Coalition has been denied a permit to hold a small rally on December 7th in advance of the Metro Council meeting to discuss the Fairgrounds closure and relocation issue.  The rally was to be held at the Public Square at the Metro Courthouse, which is controlled by the Metro Parks Department.

Gordon Richard, Event Coordinator for Metro Parks, verbally approved that permit before the Thanksgiving Holiday, but reversed his position Monday November 29th, citing “an edict that came down” instructing him not to award any permits on the nights of Council meetings.  Gordon previously approved a permit for a Council meeting night, November 16th, but a physical permit was never received.

A representative from Save My Fairgrounds re-submitted an application on Tuesday November 30th requesting a rally for December 7th, and was again informed that public rallies on Courthouse Square on nights the Council meets are prohibited.  Gordon refunded the permit fee of $250 and instructed Save My Fairgrounds to speak with Jackie Jones, the Public Information Officer for Metro Parks.  Mr. Richard stated he was unsure if the “edict” came from the Mayor's Office or the Metro Council office.  An email to Ms. Jones was not returned.

Save My Fairgrounds calls on the Mayor and Metro Council withdraw the "edict" and allow a public rally consistent with our First Amendment rights to assemble on the evening of December 7th, prior to the Council meeting.

Jackie Jones may be reached at (615) 862-8400.

Mayor Karl Dean's government is stooping to a new low by spot-prohibiting assemblies and protests on public property. When Mayors can cherry-pick the demonstrators they can tolerate and those that they will not, then they have lost any claim to semblance of legitimate governance. The right to social protest at the Courthouse has been eroding since August. Metro Parks is the latest public service to be converted into a mayoral weapon. This has moved past a question of wise policy to the exercise of outright tyranny against opponents of municipal proposals, even as small groups of Nashvillians more favorable to Mayor Dean may enjoy the prospect of special hearings.


UPDATE:  WSMV has more information, including Parks denials and a council member's skepticism about what was really going on behind the official curtain:

The head of the parks department, Tommy Lynch, said there was no attempt to limit free speech. Lynch said it was a misunderstanding.

"We made a mistake in our office, and it started with me," Lynch said.
He said a person in his office misunderstood comments he made regarding issuing permits on council meeting nights.

"Once it became obvious to us that they had been denied a permit, that decision was changed," Lynch said.

He said the group will get a permit.

Councilman Michael Craddock said he isn't convinced that the city made an honest mistake.

"I think it's absolutely criminal for government to try to deny people the right to speak," Craddock said. "All of these people in the Parks Department and the mayor's office are well-seasoned politicians. They've been around government for a long time. They know what they're doing. They just got caught at this one; that's all this is."

Oh, SNAP! Did "Make the Fairgrounds Green" always really mean "Make the Fairgrounds Green Hills"?

While South Nashville Action People leader Keith Moorman is now styled as a community spokesman in the Mayor's project to sell off the Fairgrounds, his mission to move the State Fair under a banner of pro-developer greenness was viewed with skepticism in 2007 by some in his own neighborhood. Pith in the Wind blogger Steve Haruch provided an early illustration of Mr. Moorman's mission, which included a website now scrubbed off the net:

Rachel, of Women's Health News, responds cautiously in the comments:

The lack of identification makes me skeptical as well, especially given all of the "developers aren't so bad!" language. The only thing I can tell is that the site was registered by a Keith Moorman. I'm also interested in knowing whether they have been in contact with any existing neighborhood groups, like South Nashville Action People, who have been talking about and involved with the Fairgrounds issue for a while now (haven't received a response to my email inquiry). While I'm all for improvement because I live nearby, it's hard to know right now who these people are or what their real intentions are.

We asked around a bit, and no one seemed to have heard of the group or the website. Shannon Hornsby of Walk/Bike Nashville said she had never seen the site before. An email to the Middle Tennessee chapter of The U.S. Green Building Council was unanswered as of this writing.

We were, however, able to catch up with the site's creator. Pith in the Wind spoke to Mr. Moorman by phone yesterday. Mr. Moorman said that the website does not represent any organization, per se, but, rather, "It's just me .... The project's done. I just wanted to put my opinion out there—just to get my point across," he said. "If the city goes forward...if something comes of it, great." That shoulder-shrugging statement seems to sell short the mission expressed on the website:

The mission of makethefairgroundsgreen.org is two-fold:

One, we advocate for an alternative use of the current Fairgrounds site. Of course, right now no one knows what that will eventually be, and besides, whatever happens to a redeveloped Fairgrounds is for all of Nashville to decide. Our single, simple goal for the Fairgrounds is to see a green development that includes pedestrian-friendly spaces, plenty of trees, and no entertainment venues that create noise and draw excessive traffic.

Two, we advocate for relocating the Fairgrounds to an alternative site in Davidson County that can continue the great tradition of the Tennessee State Fair, but with updated facilities, better interstate access, and a more suitable topography for hosting the Fair.

And though the Keith Moorman PITW spoke to called makethefairgroundsgreen.org a "committee of one," he said that his wife, a Nashville attorney, would be filing the papers of incorporation necessary to gain non-profit status.

Moorman seemed eager to ward off the "tone of suspicion" he said he had picked up from some of the emails he had received. "The prevailing attitude seems to be, 'Who are these people? Is there something shady going on?' People think I'm a developer. I'm just a citizen." Later in the conversation, he added, "I'm not affiliated with any developer."

There are a couple of interesting background points that need to be underscored.

One is the early involvement in this project of Keith Moorman's wife, who is employed by a law firm with a primary lawyer for the Mayor's convention center project and close friend of Metro Finance Director Rich Riebeling. When I raised this possible conflict of interest two weeks ago, the blogger from South Nashville Life accused me of reaching and she maintained that Mr. Moorman's wife has been "out of the picture" on the Fairgrounds issue. The Pith post hardly placed her out of the picture in 2007.

The second point is that Mr. Moorman's green vision for the fairgrounds no longer includes a primary emphasis on tree-filled, entertainment-free, auto-limited quiet spaces. On November 9 he told the Metro Council he wanted another Green Hills, 5 Points, or 12South at the redeveloped Fairgrounds. With the Mayor only expressing a willingness to devote around 5% of the land that he is not compelled to devote (because of flooding risk) to green space, it appears that Mr. Moorman's vow to making the Fairgrounds green is much weaker than it used to be. However, his talking point that developers are not so bad still looks strong.

FT: The Antioch Protest Chicken

Building new office space 2 miles south of Downtown may sustain the drain of businesses out of Downtown

Here’s the issue: the fairgrounds is located two miles from downtown. It has access to all the infrastructure that you need to have a successful business growth area.

- - Nashville Mayor Karl Dean

That is the issue in more ways than the Mayor intended when he attempted to compare the Fairgrounds to May Town Center. The mayoral pitch for selling off the Fairgrounds to the highest real estate bidders (no developers are lined up yet) is the creation of 1,000,000 square feet of "Class A" office space that might attract businesses.

However, the current total of available Class A office space Downtown, just 2 miles from the Fairgrounds, is 1,050,919 square feet. Moreover, I am told that a large percentage of available square footage is sublease space that was vacated by companies that relocated outside of the Downtown market. So, developing 1,000,000 more square feet of office space to the south would merely serve to tempt the flight of more businesses out of Downtown.

It would be one thing if the Downtown market were saturated by businesses. That is not the case. The irony here is that commercializing the Fairgrounds park lands would likely have the same aggravating effect on Downtown development drain that critics of May Town Center argued urbanizing Bells Bend would have. Nashville cannot even fill the Class A office space that exists in the urban core. It is not in our common interest to tear down and sell off Fairgrounds property, thusly putting Downtown markets at a greater competitive disadvantage.

More special council hearing privileges for SNAP leaders?

It does not seem to be enough that South Nashville Action People leader Keith Moorman enjoyed the privilege of his own special council hearing time next to Mayor Karl Dean on the Fairgrounds question on Nov. 9. Now another SNAP representative--expressing his displeasure with Metro Council granting a public hearing to those attending first reading on the issue Nov. 16th and with Fairgrounds preservationists' new request for a public hearing during second reading on Dec. 7--is lobbying council for an exclusive "public hearing" only for those who support the Mayor.

Here is an excerpt from SNAP's Fred Agee to all Metro Council members, which was forwarded to the Nashville Neighborhoods e-list:

I would respectfully ask the Council Members to reserve any consideration for another public hearing to those who support the Hickory Hollow Leases that may want to have a public hearing. If SNAP wishes to request a public hearing you will hear from our leadership.

Either Mr. Agee does not understand that a "public hearing" on Dec. 7 would give all sides time to address the council or he believes his group is entitled to continue the same exclusive access that Keith Moorman scored back on Nov. 9. If the former, hopefully someone in South Nashville will help him see that Dec. 7 is his side's opportunity to flex their muscles. If the latter, how many Fairgrounds opponents have Mr. Agee's inflated sense of entitlement that they do not have to play by the rules that everyone else does?

Either way, if Metro Council caves to this request and offers an exclusive SNAP hearing, which could not be called "public" in any sense, then it would be out of order and unfair to all sides.

What the Mayor's Office is not telling us about the Fairgrounds plan

While Fairgrounds preservation opponent Keith Moorman was given 4 minutes to express his support to council members for the Mayor's plan to privatize public property, Fairgrounds preservation supporter and attorney Lewis Laska was told he could only count on 3 minutes to present his case against. That was not sufficient to capture to the breadth of Mr. Laska's published analysis, most of which involves details that the Mayor's Office will not acknowledge openly:

• If two consecutive State Fairs are not held on Fairgrounds property, the land will revert to those who sold it to the County in 1911. The land will not “revert” to the County (which already owns it) as the Metro Law Department asserts. So-called title opinions are limited and moot.
  
• The Fair Board is the only semi-autonomous Metro department. As such, it has the power to mortgage the property, that is, borrow as much money as it needs to operate the State Fair and continue operations for many, many years.
  
• The blockbuster issue is that the Mayor's budget is rigged to manufacture Fairground failure. The Fairgrounds investment fund was taken over by Metro Finance several years ago and bled of its earnings.
• Another budget rig: original Fairgrounds depreciation totals are blown up between original numbers and final reports.
• There are mysterious, untransparent accounting practices shuttling money out of the Fairgrounds budget and overcharging the budget for services rendered. Mr. Laska documents the oddities.
• The fair board outsourced the 2010 State Fair but did not demand any accountability from the private contractor, which kept the entire gate revenue. If there was a plan, it was rigged to make the Fairgrounds look like a loser.

Mr. Laska reports that he called the Mayor's Office requesting a meeting with the Mayor, but they never returned his phone call. Instead, three Metro lawyers agreed to meet with him.

If Mr. Laska's analysis is accurate, these matters are in the public interest and should be acknowledged by the Mayor's Office. They would have an influence on popular perceptions about the wisdom of selling off public land as well as whether the current stewards of the Fairgrounds have exercised proper and thoughtful oversight beyond setting everything up for liquidation.

A dispatch from blogging council member Hollin on his trip to the Fairgrounds

You did not see news media accounts of CM Jamie Hollin fact-finding mission at the Fairgrounds flea market over the weekend, because he did not go with the publicized group of CMs at the Expo (some of whom may just be pandering before voting with the Mayor's planned move to Hickory Hollow mall any way). He struck out on his own and, instead of staging comments for a television audience, CM Hollin blogged his impressions and video-taped feedback he solicited from Expo vendors, which lends a more authentic feel:

Not everyone wanted to be on video, but everyone wanted to speak. I listened. I learned. I searched desperately for someone who supported the move. Couldn’t find such a vendor. I am sure there’s some as Mr. Dozier stated, I just couldn’t find them in the time window I was there. Of course, there is Christmas Village. They have publicly announced their support for the move and had letters spread on all the council members’ desks at the last council meeting. The “everyday” vendor is a little more my style even though I went to Christmas Village this year and bought gifts. They exhibit the entrepreneurship not taught in any school. This is survival of the fittest. In other words, the “everyday” vendor is feeding his or her family on this flea market weekend (and others here and beyond).

Again, I am sure there are vendors who want to go to Hickory Hollow Mall. You will not find them on the videos below. Instead you will find (1) a retailer of made in USA fashion apparel from 37205; (2) a lifelong Nashvillian selling jewelry; (3) a collectibles vendor from Antioch; (4)an environmentally-friendly vendor of household and commercial cleaning supplies from Joelton; and (5) the better half of a wife/husband team selling high-end jewelry and collectibles from Mt. Juliet

Jump to see videos (1), (2), (3), (4), and (5). Each contains some poignant disclosure of how Mayor Karl Dean's Hickory Hollow lease plan has already negatively affected small businesses in Nashville.

We hear a lot of lip service for supporting small business from civic leaders in government and the private sector. That chatter is going to be tested when it comes down to voting for or against Mayor Karl Dean's proposed Expo exile to Antioch. These small business owners are asking for minimal support: being allowed to continue to conduct their business in the same venue as they have in the past. Is that too much too ask anyone outside of the Mayor's Office?

Off the reservation: Hickory Hollow lease critics inside Metro

Over at the anti-preservationist South Nashville Life blog, a Berry Hill small business owner has been putting up a strong, reasonable defense of keeping the flea market and other vendors at the State Fairgrounds. A few days ago he related an experience he had during a meeting within a Metro Nashville government department:

I was at the Metro tax assessor office today on business and asked the representative about the Hickory Hollow lease plan.

A roll of the eyes was the first response followed by the following question, "Why would anyone spend $5.00 sq/ft for mall space that values at between $2 and $3 sq/ft?

It is not a fiscally sound plan that will hurt future development in the mall and surrounding area by setting an unreal precedent."

I found that comment interesting, given that a little over a week ago I received an e-mail sent from someone in that office to council members with the statement:

I was in full support of saving the fairgrounds until we were blackmailed last night with the threat of a property tax increase, what do you all think about that?

It sounds like some Metro bean counters are less than satisfied with the idea of moving small businesses from the Fairgrounds to Antioch.

Council members reconsidering, pandering or hedging bets on Mayor?

The "Save the Fairgrounds" preservationists sent out the following news release the day before yesterday:

Council Members Charlie Tygard, Robert Duvall, Parker Toler, and Tim Garrett will be visiting the fairgrounds this weekend to talk with vendors. We appreciate the past support given by Council Members Tygard and Duvall as evidenced by their vote on November 16, 2010 to make sure BL2010-770 survived the Mayor’s extraordinary effort to have the bill defeated through parliamentary rules of procedure.*

The sudden interest by Council Members Tim Garrett and Parker Toler is shocking. Both voted with the Mayor to kill the Fairgrounds. Fortunately those votes were not successful. If they were successful, this trip to the fairgrounds would be patronizing to the vendors and seem like pandering, perhaps it still is. Or, perhaps the packed courthouse, impromptu public speakers, and thousands of emails and calls in support of saving the Fairgrounds moved Councilmen Garrett and Toler. Regardless, the least they could do while they’re visiting is open their wallets and make some holiday purchases for their friends and family. Better yet would be if they started casting votes in favor of saving the fairgrounds.

If anyone was present for the CM visit, please e-mail report to me or comment below and I'll update.


UPDATE: News 2 has an update on the CMs' visit:

Among the thousands of shoppers at Saturday's flea market were several Metro Council Members who were there to get opinions of shoppers and vendors about the potential move.

"These people don't want this place to be closed," Councilman Robert Duvall said.

Despite shoppers and vendors not wanting the flea market moved, some area residents have complaints about the fairgrounds.

"Their biggest problem is with the noise from the racetrack; at least with the folks that I have talked with," Duvall said, adding, "Some would like to see some development. They believe that development would increase property values, and there's no reason not to want that, but the noise from the racetrack, that's fixable."

UPDATE: Channel 4 has even more of the CMs' responses to flea market vendors and shoppers opinions:

Four Metro Council members spent their Saturday morning at the Nashville flea market listening and asking questions -- for example, would shoppers still go to the flea market if it moved to Hickory Hollow Mall in Antioch?

One shopper told Councilman Parker Toler she hasn’t been to the Hickory Hollow Mall area in years and doesn’t go to that area of town.

Vendor Tommy Turner told Councilman Charlie Tygard he’s against moving from the fairgrounds to an area that has a history of retail failures.

"Hickory Hollow has become a crime scene anymore. It's gone down," Turner said.

Others, like Charlene Johnson, told Council members it's not about Antioch's reputation; they just like to shop in the fresh air.

“I just don't want to go inside a mall. No, not for a flea market,” Johnson said.

In the past, several Council members have spoken out against Mayor Karl Dean's efforts to shut down the fairgrounds. Saturday's group included two longtime Council members who had voted before to support the mayor. That's important, because the Council is split on this issue, and every vote is critical.

Council members like Tim Garrett are balancing what they heard at Saturday’s flea market with the concerns of neighbors who are tired of the noisy fairgrounds racetrack.

"What you want to do as a councilman is listen to the public and keep an open mind as much as you can," Garrett said.

Toler got an earful from vendors and shoppers, who asked him not to relocate the events currently at the fairgrounds. Some vendors have had booths for more than 25 years.

"This is a very valuable piece of land now. So we're just going to have to listen to as many people as we can and try and make a good decision," Toler said.

Dean has said the fairgrounds land has great development potential as an office park, but he hasn't said who, if anyone, wants to buy it.

"Everybody would like to know the plan. This situation hasn't been handled very well from the very start," Garrett said.

UPDATE: NewsChannel5 has a blurb on the visit, but did include comments from CM Tygard:

I think there are other ideas both the redevelopment of this site, improvement of this site or possibly looking for other accessible locations and rebuild from scratch a modern facility that would serve the same needs.

UPDATE: Not waiting around for any "intrepid" reporters, CM Jamie Hollin struck out on his own fact-finding mission and blogged his impressions, complete with video documentation of vendor views on Mayor Dean's attempted Expo exile.

CM Jerry Maynard is one slick at-Large

An e-mail I received from a fairgrounds preservation supporter indicates that ethically troubled CM Jerry Maynard was using council rules to kill a bill for the Mayor. When Maynard's effort failed CM Adkins did what he could to try and force a vote without consideration:

The Mayor’s extraordinary effort began when Council Member Jerry Maynard signed onto BL2010-770 in Budget and Finance committee for the purpose of having the bill defeated. He signed the bill without talking to the primary sponsor, Council Member Duane Dominy. Then Council Member Greg Adkins attempted to pass a Motion to Table the sponsor’s request for indefinite deferral. It ended when the Council voted against the Motion to Table 19-18-2.

Whenever journos start accusing CMs like Mike Jameson of "obscure parliamentary maneuvers" the least they could do would be to acknowledge CM Maynard's own slick moves are based more on power than on principle. I will be posting more on that e-mail shortly. Any moral high ground supporters of the Mayor's plan might have claimed after CM Dominy introduced his bill involving CM Sandra Moore's district without talking to her was lost in CM Maynard signing on without talking to Dominy.

The cloak-and-dagger tactics seem to occur on all sides with the Mayor giving an executive boost to those on his side.

Suffer the little children to come to unchecked retail gentrification at the Fairgrounds

I received an e-mail this week from an insider who pointed out that ending the current events at the State Fairgrounds would adversely affect nearby Fall Hamilton Elementary School, which uses those events to fundraise by charging for parking on its grounds. Leaders at Fall Hamilton have not waited on the Chamber of Commerce's One Nashville to raise money for their school. They created their own source of funds.

While the predominantly white gentrifiers in the SNAP neighborhoods might reduce the community concerns here to racetrack noise, this predominately African American neighborhood school is concerned with providing educational opportunities for its kids. Given the state of Metro Nashville Public Schools, those opportunities have to be bought with outside money. Office parks provide their own parking, so the Mayor's plan could spell the extinction of Fall Hamilton's fundraising efforts.

Where is that money supposed to come from? What plans do neighborhoods who support Karl Dean's plan to move fairgrounds events to Antioch's Hickory Hollow mall (which garners strong Antioch opposition ignored by some leaders in South Nashville) have to help Fall Hamilton make up the financial losses? Or maybe those losses do not enter the equation for supporters. Nonetheless, Mayor Dean needs to come up with a Fairgrounds redevelopment plan that suits community interests not limited to those of gentrifiers and developers.

Depends on whose council member is being gored

During his tenure as a Metro beat reporter first at the City Paper and then at the Tennessean, I do not remember a discouraging word from Nate Rau against controversial CMs like Charlie Tygard (whom Rau once defended as "blogged to death") or Eric Crafton (whose English Only initiative Rau handled sensitively, nearly generously). But consistently with non-ostentatious CM Mike Jameson, Rau breaks out the critical analysis, regularly referencing what the Mayor's Office dislikes about him.

My issue here is not with evenhandedly treating CMs critically. I simply do not think that Rau's treatment of Jameson in particular has been the highest quality criticism.

It is no different in Rau's recent blogging on Jameson's reservations about privatizing the public Fairgrounds.  Rau blogs a somewhat rambling, disjointed, and loaded criticism of Jameson:

Jameson’s indignation could be seen as some what puzzling. He’s been a councilmember for more than seven years. He knows the ugly ins and unseemly outs of city politics.

I’ve heard it said that former Mayor Bill Purcell never used petty tactics like calling down department directors on district council members.

Somebody should tell that to Charlie Tygard and Chris Whitson, because I believe they would paint a different picture.

Since Dean was elected mayor, by my count he’s had five tough votes go through council – the Predators lease, the stormwater fee, the convention center land acquisition, the creation of the Convention Center Authority and the convention center bond resolution. Jameson has voted against three of those proposals; the lease agreement at Hickory Hollow would make four out of six.

It is fair for observers to wonder if Jameson’s opposition, no matter how eloquently justified, is rooted in politics, not policy, especially considering the weight of his stance just a year ago.

Someone needs to tell Nate that his wonderment is only fair if he goes back and actually analyzes Jameson's arguments and points out the logical fallacies point-by-point. I never remember him doing that, and I was reading the City Paper long before he was hired.

The problem is that in previous stories reporter Rau seemed to transmit what mayoral staffers either believe or spin about Jameson. The Mayor's Office told reporters that Mike Jameson was an opportunistic grandstander seeking a judgeship. Rau simply passed that judgment along without expressing any journalistic critical thinking or probing curiosity. When Jameson used the same parliamentary rules that other CMs (including Tygard) have used, Rau assumed without a second thought (or as if it had been spun to him) that Jameson used "obscure" tricks to shut down an unquestionably legitimate policy brought at an unquestionably impeccable pace. Jameson conducted council queries of Dean staffers in ways that casual observers called "polite" and "professional," yet analyst Rau was prompted to call the same act a "deposition" as if Jameson was not able to perform as anything but a slick lawyer.

But politics is an end game. If someone is playing politics then they make a rational choice for benefits that outweigh the risk involved in taking on a popular Mayor under this Metro Charter which relegates CMs to a ridiculously weak position from which to make legislative checks on the executive. While I am not happy with acquiescent CMs, I can understand that in this system their choice is either to be a Dean supporter or to find oneself isolated to the Mayor's dog house. And the fawning print media does not help break the servitude by repeating whatever their Metro PR sources tell them.

So, the insistence that a maverick is somehow gaining more than losing in opposing the Mayor on most of the most contentious issues is absurd. And yet, that seems to be exactly what Nate Rau is insisting. If it's just politics, then what is the benefit to Jameson of continuously sticking his head out of the council trenches only to face Karl Dean's howitzer? Given the Courthouse disdain he faces from the perfect storm of council conservatives, sovereign Mayor, and cynical reporters, what chance does Jameson have to win the end game that Metro politics is? Rau doesn't say, but he doesn't seem to be required by anyone to do so, either.

In the end Nate Rau fell into the same trap as many bloggers: he put up a post based mostly on anecdotes with few warrants, making a flawed case, nonsensical when judged rationally. Granted, it may make airtight sense inside the Courthouse.

Finally facing his Waterloo?

Most of us do not know what kind of deals Mayor Karl Dean is making with various Metro Council members to get their support for his State Fairgrounds plan (maybe a Sulphur Dell ballpark promise to CM Erica Gilmore?) or what kind of threats to service for dissenters' districts might be be floating around (Tennessean bloggers seemed to give assists to the Mayor's Office offensive, especially that against Mike Jameson, who has been a courthouse target since Dean took office).

Richard Lawson notes that while strong opponents to the plan currently outnumber strong supporters, the council finds a way to cave:

The big question, however, arises over whether the Council’s bark is worse than its bite. For a very long time, Councils have wrestled with mayors over big projects only to eventually cave in the end and vote in favor of whatever the mayor has proposed, though with some changes brought by the barking. There has been some discussion of whether the fairgrounds issue could become Dean’s Waterloo; that the council gets a rare win, giving Dean’s Council critics confidence to buck him on other projects.

If he indeed wins the tough battle, you would think the well is getting quite shallow for additional big projects. With a downtown ballpark for the Nashville Sounds on the horizon, a Council shell-shocked by project after project could stand strong and make that process difficult by saying enough already. The flipside, however, is Council members are so weary of fighting that they roll easily on the next one, cementing a beat-them-into-submission tactic.

To no one's surprise the 4 of the 5 at-Large council members seem in the Mayor's pocket and recalcitrant to community concerns about large capital projects that benefit a fewer number of Nashvillians. So, the votes are going to come down to district CMs. If you have not contacted your CM and asked them to delay the sale of the public Fairgrounds to private developers or to stop the madness of paying $10 million for Hickory Hollow retail space on the market for $3.5 million, please do so before the Tuesday, December 7 council meeting.

Help them locate some backbone to stand up to the Mayor's Office.

Mayor Karl Dean saved May Town Center for a time such as this

Let's revisit Mayor Karl Dean's attempt a couple of weeks ago to wrangle the Fairgrounds redevelopment plan from spiraling out of his grasp via one of his rare news conferences. At that time he reanimated the May Town Center monster:

Dean reminded reporters about May Town ... during a news conference to unveil a new Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce report that claims retrofitting the fairgrounds property off Nolensville Pike to suit 1 million square feet of corporate office space would generate 6,500 new jobs, $200 million in capital investments and $2.5 billion in overall economic impact for Davidson County.

“Here’s the issue,” Dean said. “The fairgrounds is located two miles from downtown. It has access to all the infrastructure that you need to have a successful business growth area.

“Go back to the May Town debate,” Dean continued. “When folks talked about May Town — and that debate is behind us, and we probably don’t even need to be talking about it, but I will for a second — the debate became about [how] we have to have an area where we can develop and expand our tax base in order for this city to succeed. You can’t sit back and say, ‘We’re never going to do anything anywhere in all of Davidson County. We’re just not going to expand our tax base. We’re not going to be welcoming to new businesses.’ ”

The fairgrounds doesn’t pose the same problems — infrastructural, environmental — as May Town, Dean said, invoking it again. Instead, recasting the fairgrounds would include boosting a neighborhood, restoring polluted Browns Creek, and creating a new 40-acre park.

First, it is totally disingenuous for the Mayor to insinuate that he does not intend to reopen old May Town Center wounds in this press conference. Of course, his comments were calculated to impel community fear at a new prospect of sprawl and to redivide neighborhoods against each other. The momentum of controversial developments like May Town Center and like the Fairgrounds thrives on community acrimony. We should not be talking about it, but the Mayor's case for the Fairgrounds requires it, so he would not forswear the chance to use the wedge.

As calculated as the timing of these comments may be (Jack May announced new plans to pursue a scaled-back May Town Center shortly after Karl Dean's press conference), they are also misleading. Metro does not hold any of the back country in Bells Bend that Jack May intends to urbanize. The fairgrounds is entirely public property, and the Mayor intends to hawk almost all of the non-flood-risk land to private developers to create an office park in spite of the fact that there is a large amount of unused office space in nearby Downtown. Expanding the tax base in Bells Bend would require the wholesale destruction of one of the largest urban green spaces in the US, and building bridges that would contradict the community plans of several different neighborhoods. If Metro owned the Bells Bend properties, May Town Center likely would have been dead on arrival.

Hence, the greatest deception in Mayor Dean's comments is that opponents of selling the Fairgrounds oppose development anywhere in Davidson County. I opposed May Town Center on its demerits, not on the question of development in general. I oppose selling the Fairgrounds on its demerits, not on the question of development in general. While I oppose any urban sprawl in Bells Bend at all, I can see myself supporting sensitive and balanced mixed-use development with a higher percentage of green space and with Metro maintaining control of most of the Fairgrounds property. I'm not a strict preservationist here, although I have more in common with the "Save the Fairgrounds" group than I do with the Mayor's Finance Director, Rich Riebeling, who has been lobbying to sell the Fairgrounds since the Purcell administration.

I could get behind an initiative for Fairgrounds redevelopment that would protect the public interest rather than pander to wealthy business interests in the run-up to the mayoral election.

Who knows? Maybe the Mayor has been silent on May Town Center so that he could use it as a wedge for a time such as this. But his mislead on the motivations of those who have concerns about both should not pass without correction.

Antioch community leaders insist that the Mayor torpedoed their task force

Despite the positive marks Mayor Karl Dean receives from the media for involving community leaders in task forces to inform a few of his policy measures, Antioch leaders contend that the Mayor ignored their task force decisions about the placement of a health clinic.

The Mayor's Hickory Hollow lease bill for fairgrounds exiles, which is set for second reading (of three) at Metro Council on Pearl Harbor Day (Tuesday, December 7), includes the placement of the WIC clinic within the mall itself. I am not aware that placement of federal services for lower and working class families within shopping malls is a standard practice at other such retail complexes around the country. And given the possible exposure of healthy Hickory Hollow patrons to those infected with more virulent strains of influenza, I would question the wisdom of the clinic's placement in an enclosed facility with other stores inside.

But those seem to be issues that Antiochians have already discussed and resolved. These quandaries are no longer the issue. What is at issue is that the Mayor trumped the task force commissioned to come up with community-based solutions that could be supported by the Metro Council. In an e-mail, Concerned Citizens of Antioch express their frustrations:

On a daily basis we are finding out more and more information that we feel is very important for you to know as to why this [Hickory Hollow lease] Bill is an unfavorable deal for Antioch/Southeast Nashville ....

[Several involved Council Members] knew of the opposition to bring a low economic program, WIC in the mall that would further deploy our means of re-establishing our future to bring in higher end stores and more retail business to Antioch. All were in agreement that they would not support a WIC clinic in the mall, or in any retail center. Sam Coleman deferred the bill indefinitely .... A task force was selected of volunteers from the community to work with the Health Department to find a more suitable location for a WIC center.

The task force location selected was the Tusculum Hill Center on Nolensville Road .... The council accepted and passed the proposed new location in February and the negotiations were to be worked out by the Metro Director of Finance. The clinic never opened. Despite the opposition, the Mayor undermined the people of Antioch and the Director of the Health Department. Bill Paul waited for the right opportunity with the Mayor’s plan to move a Health/ WIC Clinic to the Hickory Hollow Mall retail center.

We are discovering more as time goes on about the surly manner the Mayor has toward regular Nashvillians whenever they question his more inflexible intentions. We should not be surprised that the Mayor has low regard for the Antiochians who express legitimate concerns about the lease.

Tennessee Titans greedily take, give few Metro revenues back

It was a golden opportunity for the Tennessee Titans to demonstrate that they can return money to Metro Nashville coffers and have the positive PR of hosting one of the great international pop bands. But instead they denied a request by U2 to play at LP Field next July. According to the Tennessean, LP field would have afforded 28,000 more seats than Vanderbilt Stadium (where the concert will happen), which could have translated to that many more sales taxes for the city. But each U2 ticket for an LP Field concert would have included a $2 user fee, which would have gone to fund stadium maintenance and upgrades. This loss needs to be thrown back in the Titans face when they come demanding upgrades in the future, which you can bet they will.

What the Tennessean story does not say is to what lengths Mayor Karl Dean went to persuade the Titans to work with U2 on making an LP concert happen given the tourist taxes that will not be made from thousands more music fans who could have bought tickets and stayed in Nashville hotels. Tourists taxes are dedicated to fund in part Mayor Dean's pet Music City Center. Karl Dean could have helped shelter the General Fund from taking hits to pay for his project by encouraging the football team to host the concert. The Titans endorsed the new convention center and joined the Music City Center Coalition, so they should make more efforts now to support Dean's monument to tourism.

Nashville hands the Titans $4,000,000 from the Metro Water System each year as part of the agreement that got them here from Houston. That is $4,000,000 that does not go annually to pay for upgrades in our aging water system. Yet, they fumbled this opportunity to generate more revenues that would have been a minimal cost to them. Their defense about grass is goofy, given that 4 other teams are hosting U2 after July 2.  For his part Mayor Dean is angry about the fairgrounds sitting unused most of the week, but otherwise he seems comfortable enough with a more expensive LP Field never having non-football events outside of CMA each summer.

Both the football team and the county government should have done more to get U2 to LP Field and to generate more revenues into the Metro budget. That neither side felt an urgency about it is shameful with the economic challenges we face locally.

Channel 4 investigates Metro Water's inability to follow through on biosolids promises

I attended the original neighborhood discussions with Metro Water Services years ago on the construction and operation of the biosolids facility at the Central Wastewater Treatment Plant. At that time, one of the selling points MWS used beyond the odor abatement that would finally benefit the surrounding community was the ability to make money by selling the dried biosolid pellets produced by the de-watering and drying process as fertilizer.

Local television journalist Demetria Kalodimos did an effective job yesterday at underscoring the optimistic projections of MWS spokesperson Sonya Havat and contrasting them with MWS hedges after a year of producing pellets that fail to meet fertilizer industry standards:

Those sewage pellets it was producing were eventually supposed to be sold.

"We were paying $30 a ton. We're paying Manco $20 to use it on reclamation sites, so when we have the final product, we'll be selling for $7.50 a ton and not paying for the hauling," Harvat said in April 2009 about the cost of hauling sewage versus baking it into pellets. "It will be a true savings."

A year later, it's a softer sell.

"We haven't sold pellets, but again, selling pellets was not our goal; it was definitely a sidebar, and it's something that we aren't counting on, and it's something that has never truly been counted on," said Harvat.

As a neighbor of Metro Water Services treatment facility, I can accept that projections may be flawed and have to be re-evaluated. I can accept interruptions due to the May flooding. What I have a difficult time accepting is the lack of communication from MWS. That we had to find out about this from the media rather than directly from our own neighbor is galling, and it makes me less sympathetic to the stark contrast in sales assessments from 2009 and 2010.

Metro Water Services should have been communicating with Salemtown on their mistakes and on the reasons why noxious odors emanated from their plant well into September. Otherwise, it just looks like a pattern of covering their collective butts for unrealistic assessments cynically used to get our support.

A vintage Nashvillian questions the truthfulness of the Tennessean's coverage of the Fairgrounds/Antioch debate

George Gruhn, guitar town's guitar man and a rock star at last Tuesday's public hearing on the Mayor's Hickory Hollow lease bill, challenged reporter Michael Cass's characterizations of happenings during council proceedings in a letter to council members:

Based on what appeared in the article, readers would assume that this was a total victory for the mayor’s proposal. What in fact happened was a most unusual turn of events. Bills are routinely approved on first reading without debate. It is virtually unprecedented for a bill to receive a public hearing on first reading. This bill was approved by the Council on first reading only after vigorous debate and with the stipulation that the bill must be modified to separate the three leases for individual approval rather than bundled together and that the leases would need to be renegotiated with better terms ....

Mayor Dean announced his plans to close the Fairgrounds without prior public hearings or consultation with the Metro Council. Although the article goes on to state “Dean wants to clear the 117-acre fairgrounds site a few miles south of downtown so it can be developed. City attorneys say he can do that without council approval.”, in view of very clear public sentiment expressed by a great outpouring of e-mail messages to Council members as well as a council chamber packed with opponents of the mayor's proposal, there are clear indications that it may not be politically expedient to oppose the very clearly expressed wishes of the vast majority of Davidson County residents.

While Mr. Cass did report that "around 40" opponents spoke during the public hearing, I do not recall him observing that the gallery was packed with opponents. And the reporter did make that inexplicable beeline to convey Dean supporter Keith Moorman's indignation at not having foreknowledge of the chance of a public hearing even though so many opponents had come prepared in case they got their chance.

I have already commented that the Tennessean needs to report these events less slanted toward or lead around by Janel Lacy's county-executive talking points and that the newspaper should be more critical and independent. But Mr. Gruhn's comments with a considered gravity that I simply do not possess.

That trashy North End Kroger