A Dark and Daunting Night at the Metro Council

Despite the schedule change and recent presidential election, it was business as usual at last night’s council meeting. Vice Mayor Angie Henderson opened by congratulating the mayor on the overwhelming success of his transit referendum, and shared a few insightful statistics about Davidson County voter registration: “Thank you to everyone who registered to vote in recent months—some 8,000 new voters in October alone, after almost 11,000 new registrants in September.” 

She also addressed the outcome of the presidential election by reminding “those who may be feeling sad and scared” that their “elected officials and local government are always here to support you in an age of increasing misinformation and disinformation and fear mongering.” To quell the emotions aroused by these “dark and daunting” times, she invoked a few words from Vice President Kamala Harris and promised that every member of Nashville’s “local, nonpartisan body” is sworn to uphold the Constitution.

The council went on to make a number appointments and voted on a slew of multi-family residential unit proposals—something we’ve seen a lot of given the current push for more affordable housing solutions in Nashville. But it was the presence of Community Review Board Director Jill Fitcheard during the public comment period that stirred up the most controversy. The director brought up privacy concerns regarding a resolution proposing to outsource DNA kit testing, and called into question the efficiency of the Metro Nashville Police Department given the DNA backlog. 

During floor discussion, Councilmember Ginny Welsch motioned for a two-meeting deferral in solidarity with Director Fitcheard’s skepticism. Councilmember Tasha Ellis also issued a veiled threat regarding comments about Director Fitcheard after Councilmember Bob Nash pointed out that, had the director attended the committee meeting, “she would have got a lot of those questions answered, because a lot of those questions were asked and answered there.”

Legislative Affairs Director David Rosenberg clarified the intention behind the agreement by succinctly explaining how the initiative would help MNPD work through their backlog and bring closure to open cases—something desperately desired by “survivors who would like to have their attackers held accountable.”

There was a period of time where MNPD, which opened the first local crime lab in the country back in 2015, were not able to fill a key position to conduct DNA analysis which meant they had to stop in-house analysis of these kits for some time. The Forensic Biology Unit is fully staffed now, so they're at a place where they're keeping up with incoming cases. So the backlog is not growing, but there's, right now, a backlog of 725 cases. 

He went on to explain that the council already unanimously approved the contract vendor in May, and that the same accreditation standards used in MNPD’s own lab would apply to the outsourced vendor. In the end, the deferral motion failed and the resolution passed, but not without exposing the chasm that still exists between certain council members, the CRB, and the police department.

The council finished out the night by wrapping up a few other sagas. We saw Councilmember Jeff Preptit withdraw his bill that was originally introduced to track affiliations between MNPD officers and “hate groups and paramilitary gangs” in reaction to the Nazi rallies downtown. Last month, Preptit cut the language to monitor social media posts from the bill and proposed to extend its application to all Metro employees. Apparently, his changes didn’t pass muster. Last night, after motioning to remove the legislation from the docket, Preptit thanked his colleagues before hinting that there was still work to be done.

Finally, the council passed Councilmember Burkley Allen’s bill addressing the permitting process for short-term rentals. Approved on the consent calendar without discussion, the final reading of the bill made for an anticlimactic ending to the discussions concerning Airbnbs and other short-term rental arrangements neighborhoods throughout the county. Allen’s legislation added more guardrails to the process and increased the amount of documentation needed to secure a permit. MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

🚍 The Bells CHYM For Transit Freddie is ready to get the ball rolling on his transit initiative following the overwhelming support he received from Nashville voters. On Wednesday, the mayor’s office issued a job posting for a Chief Programming Officer to help implement Choose How You Move. The duties of the salaried position, which will pay $265,000-$295,000 per year, include overseeing the “design and delivery of the program, coordination with Metro departments and private partners, and overall engagement for program projects with our state and federal partners, elected officials, and external stakeholders.”

At this morning’s roundtable, when asked whether the election results would impact the federal grant funding component of his plan, O’Connell was confident that the US government’s commitment to transportation and infrastructure will remain consistent. “We know there's funding available right now under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, that was one of the timing priorities for this,” he explained. “So we will continue to pursue options under those programs, and then we will look at what the priorities for the White House and Congress are moving forward.”

📸 LPRs Coming In 2024? O’Connell also assured the press that an LPR agreement will likely be finalized before the end of the year. Fox17’s Dennis Ferrier asked whether the administration’s efforts are being made in earnest given the involvement of his Director of Legislative Affairs, Dave Rosenberg, who has openly opposed LPRs and other surveillance measures: “It almost feels like asking Harris and Trump to come up with a peace treaty.”

O’Connell took the diplomatic highroad when reassuring Ferrier of his resolve to prioritize the issue. “We have people who disagree about policies all the time, who express skepticism implementing them,” he said. “It's been a history of not just Nashville, but the democratic process, and we are committed to getting this done.”

💸 Freddie Two Tax The mayor skirted around giving a clear answer to a question many Nashvillians feel they already know the answer to: Will there be a property tax increase? “2025, will be an appraisal year,” he hedged. “The history of Metro is that's when you do kind of a budget cycle that plans out the next four years of the cost of growth, and we'll be evaluating that as we welcome a new finance director.”

Many elderly, fixed-income homeowners in Nashville expressed their concerns about another property tax increase during the Unified Housing Strategy listening sessions over the summer. Last night, the council passed a bill on second reading to renew their commitment to provide elderly, low-income residents with property tax relief.

DEVELOPMENT

• Site of previously planned Midtown project sells for $10M (Post)
• Local pet store to open permanent location in 12South (Post)
• Five Points Pizza set for future Gulch hotel building (Post)

✹ WEEKLY FILM RUNDOWN: November 8-14

The latest releases and special screenings hitting Music City this week. For a complete list of upcoming releases, check out our 2024 Film Guide.

Heretic (Scott Beck & Bryan Woods; Starring Hugh Grant) The writers behind A Quiet Place make their directorial debut with a tale of two teenage Mormon missionaries who knock on the wrong door and have their faith tested by the depraved Mr. Reed. An A24 pedigree, the unanimous raves about Grant’s performance, and some serious Halloween hangover buzz make it our pick of the week. Now playing in theaters.

Juror #2 (Dir. Clint Eastwood; Starring Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, J. K. Simmons) In what may be the Hollywood legend’s final film, a juror in a high-profile trial finds himself in the position to exonerate the defendant at the cost of implicating himself. Accusations have swelled that Warner Bros. did Clint dirty by dumping this in a few theaters before its unceremonious streaming debut next month despite an avalanche of critical praise. Seems like an even worse move in light of the week’s events. Now playing in theaters. 

Small Things Like These (Dir. Tim Mielants; Starring Cillian Murphy) The adaptation of Irish writer Claire Keegan’s sparse and beautiful novel finds a coal merchant stumbling onto the local convent's Magdalene laundry asylums in his village on Christmas Eve, a discovery that tests the limits of personal responsibility and charity for the already overwhelmed family man. A strong candidate for our annual best-of list and the most low-key 80s set movie one could imagine. Now playing in theaters.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (Dir. Dallas Jenkins; Starring Judy Greer and Lauren Graham) The director of The Chosen adapts the classic YA novel about how a small town’s Christmas pageant runs amok when an exhausted mom invites a poor family of miscreants to participate. Produced by Franklin's own Kingdom Story Company. 

THINGS TO DO

View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.

📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.

🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.

👨🏻‍🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide and yearly festival guide.

TONIGHT

✨ Tycho @ The Caverns, 7p, $65+, Info

🎸 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band & Friends @ Ryman Auditorium, 7p, $55+, Info

🎹 Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto @ Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 7:30p, $23+, Info

🪕 Vincent Neil Emerson @ The Basement East, 8p, $26.71, Info

🪕 The Cowpokes @ Acme Feed & Seed, 12p, Free, Info

🍀 Live Irish Music @ McNamara’s Irish Pub, 6p, Free, Info

🎸 Kelley’s Heroes @ Robert’s Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info

📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.