Tuesday Night Smackdown

Last Night’s Shaming Ritual & Other Council Business As Usual

From Megan Podsiedlik

Last night’s council meeting was overshadowed by growing tensions during rezoning discussions, which somehow turned into a row between Councilmember Tasha Ellis and Sean Parker. Three-quarters of the way through the meeting, what started as a misguided inquiry by Ellis about how Tennessee Sunshine Laws apply to text communications between council members quickly disintegrated into chaos.

The Drama

The disruption of procedure initially began while Councilmember Parker was speaking in favor of Councilmember Rollin Hortin’s proposed legislation to upzone the 330 acres of his West Nashville district that makeup the Nations neighborhood. Ellis continued to interject as Councilmember Jennifer Gamble was expressing her thoughts on the proposal.

While Ellis is known for speaking her mind, it’s also evident that decorum has never been her strong suit. As a new council member, her failure to observe some of the rules could be dismissed as part of the learning process. But two years into the job, it seems more likely that Ellis recognized what she was doing during last night’s meeting.

According to the Banner, off camera drama led to a fifteen minute recess that devolved into a shaming ritual. Ellis told the publication that her continued disruption was due to the fact that Parker asked her, “What the fuck are you doing?” When Vice Mayor Angie Henderson tried to regain control of the room, Ellis accused her of invoking her “white privilege."

Mics and video feed went offline as the body took a recess. We learned that during that time, multiple councilmembers departed from the council floor alongside Ellis and gathered in a committee room. The group barred the press from entering—ironic given that Ellis was initially making inquiries about Sunshine Laws. At one point, Metro Legal became nervous due to the lack of transparency. The private powwow also prevented the body from achieving quorum, holding up proceedings. 

When the meeting finally resumed, Councilmember Kyonzte Toombs asked for a point of personal privilege on behalf of the Minority Caucus. Vice Mayor Henderson blindly obliged out of optimism, unaware of what Toombs was going to say and hoping it would help smooth things over. Instead, Toombs called out Parker for being racist.

“As the minority caucus, we have to remind our body that the optics of a white male colleague approaching a black female who is seated and using profanity towards her is an act of intimidation, and it can't be tolerated in this body,” said Toombs who then demanded an apology from Parker on the behalf of the caucus and Ellis. Avoiding further discourse, Parker obliged.

We’ve since reached out to Councilmembers Ellis and Parker for comment, as well as asked Councilmember Toombs whether the caucus believed Parker was being racist in his exchange with Ellis. As of this writing, we’ve not received any responses.

The Business

When it came to the actual business of the evening, Horton traded in on councilmanic courtesy and his proposal to upzone the Nations passed on third reading despite multiple members expressing that they’d prefer he defer the final vote to address lingering concerns among his constituents. It’s worth noting that Horton is vying for the chair of the Planning & Zoning Committee position, which would also give him a seat on the Metro Planning Commission.

Council members ultimately passed a resolution establishing a $3.5 million contract with  contractor Depaul USA, Inc. to continue managing the Strobel House. The decision came with scrutiny from multiple members who raised concerns about some questionable bookkeeping going on in Metro’s Office of Homeless Services.

Continuing down the list, a bill on second reading that would create different regulations for party buses and sightseeing vehicles was deferred, as well as the final reading of legislation that eliminates parking requirements for bars and nightclubs within the Urban Zoning Overlay District. 

🦄 Has Woke Peaked? The Nashville Pride Festival hemorrhaged corporate sponsors last year as attendance fell from 125,000 in 2024 to just 75,000 in 2025. To rescue the yearly display of LBGTQ+ hubris, the group has initiated a “Save Nashville Pride” fundraising campaign. “Corporations have never defined Pride, but their dollars have helped cover the costs,” reads the website.

It’s hard to pin down exactly what pre-ambled the turn of corporations away from funding the city’s pride parade, but as we discussed in our reporting on Cracker Barrel, many companies throw their names behind parades in order to remain in good standing with the Human Rights Campaign and their Corporate Equality Index scorecard.

Robby Starbuck’s relentless reporting on corporation’s efforts to promote woke policy internally and externally likely explains why companies like Cracker Barrel opted out of sponsoring this year’s parade. As the HRC’s hold on companies weakens, expect to see more of this.

⛺️ Honing In On Homeless Issues A number of metal benches usually occupied by homeless people along Korean Veterans Boulevard have been replaced by the Nashville Department of Transportation with concrete spheres. Councilmember Jacob Kupin told the Scene that the removal is part of a plan to relocate the benches where they will be more useful to the public. 

In other news related to the homeless, cities across Tennessee are initiating anti-panhandling campaigns. According to Fox17, new signs went up in downtown Murfreesboro this week “encouraging residents to ‘say no to panhandling’ and instead support local charities through the city’s new ‘Better Way to Give’ campaign.” The signs also provide information on places for homeless people to find food, shelter, counseling, and job opportunities.

Aggressive panhandling has come up at multiple community meetings across Nashville over the past few years. “My daughter and three grandchildren were coming to my house in Sylvan Park and they were the third car waiting to turn on 46 and a homeless person, with a big quilt wrapped around them, beat on the window on my granddaughter's side of the car,” explained one concerned citizen during a Metro Nashville Police Department West Precinct community meeting in February. “My daughter was scared to death. He wouldn't go away. My granddaughter’s crying. What do you do in a situation like that when you’re stuck in traffic and you can’t move?”

🤠 Tourism Remains Steady Tennessee’s tourism industry has remained steady even as other states face declines, thanks to aggressive marketing investments and new international flights. Per reporting by State Affairs, Tourism Commissioner Mark Ezell told lawmakers on Wednesday about some weakness in hotel occupancy, but highlighted that nonstop routes to Iceland and Ireland have offset a drop in Canadian visitors, each generating an estimated $50 million in economic impact.

Federal pandemic relief allowed the state to expand its tourism marketing budget from $20 million to as high as $57 million, boosting annual reach from 30 million to 120 million people and resulting in over $600 million in tax revenue. Lawmakers recently approved $45 million to maintain this momentum.

Officials are also exploring new attractions, such as factory tours at firearms makers and Lodge’s cast-iron pan museum, to encourage longer stays—crucial since overnight visitors spend three times more than day visitors. “And tourism is also a green industry … where people come to you and through you and leave their green behind,” Senator Janice Bowling said. “These people are coming with money in their pockets, ready to enhance Tennessee.”

HEADLINES

1. Majority of Guns Reported Stolen in Nashville Taken from Vehicles (nashville.gov) So far this year, 601 guns have been stolen from vehicles in Nashville, 13 were taken from autos just last week. Last year at this same time, 557 guns had been stolen from vehicles.
2. Coalition urges Nashville vote on fairgrounds future over NASCAR plan (Axios) A coalition of neighborhood, environmental and community groups opposing a possible fairgrounds racetrack deal are calling on Mayor Freddie O'Connell and the Metro Council to let voters decide the fate of the embattled property.
3. Brentwood-based CoreCivic Names Swindle CEO, Succeeding Hininger (WSJ) The company has appointed Patrick Swindle as its next chief executive officer, succeeding long-time executive Damon Hininger. Hininger, who has held the position of CEO for 16 years, will continue at the company under a transition agreement after Swindle takes over.

DEVELOPMENT

• Franklin's Wyelea community on the Harpeth River completes phase 1 of construction (Tennessean)
• Tennessee State lands approval for $58M engineering facility (Post)
• Plan for 53-story SoBro tower advances (Post)

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✹ MCKAY'S MEETS THE BARGAIN BASEMENT

Pressure builds in the effort to unionize East Tennessee's used media mecca.

From Jerod Hollyfield

For Knoxvillians, McKay’s had been the epicenter of local yokel burnout long before its Nashville outpost opened. Not coincidentally, it became an early petri dish for retail unionizing almost as soon as the now-regional used media mecca moved into its current warehouse site. Twenty years ago, locals endlessly mocked the “McKay’s is a union buster and I don’t like it” Facebook group. Now, it’s the National Labor Relations Board doing the laughing. 

Last week, the Communication Workers of America gloated in a press release that the NLRB filed a complaint against the Knoxville branch of McKay’s for violating federal labor law. Some petty charges of retaliation aside, the issue was the dismissal of Blake Lemons, who provided twenty-one years of service to McKay’s before the company allegedly dumped him for organizing activity, including trying to put a damper on the store’s headline-grabbing road trip last summer. 

Though Lemons and his proletariat brigade spearheaded a vote to unionize in 2023, McKay’s has still not capitulated on a contract. Thus far, similar efforts have not spread to the outlet’s other stores in Nashville, Chattanooga, and Western North Carolina. 

If all goes as planned, Lemons will soon resume the place behind the counter he’s kept since before the TSA regulated liquids. 

But the real winner is Ray Mehaffey, President of CWA Local 3805. In an era when union membership is at an all-time low, Mehaffey now earns $105,432 annually, largely through unionizing soft-skilled workers in retail positions that, for most Americans, serve as stepping-stone employment.

As a quick glance at the official McKay’s Knoxville Workers’ Union’s TikTok indicates, its members likely won’t appear at the top of most applicant pools in the Scruffy City. But they may find all this hullabaloo will lead to some lucrative careers in organizing like those of Mehaffey or the masterminds behind Stand Up Nashville, Nashville Justice League, the Nashville People Power Committee, and others the union follows on Instagram—affiliations that imply the bookslingers’ revolt has its roots in a web of activist profiteering far more complex than a local labor dispute.

THINGS TO DO

View our calendar for the week here and for more recs, click 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.

TONIGHT

🪕 David Peterson & 1946 @ Station Inn, 8p, $20, Info

🎙️ Teddy Swims @ Ascend Amphitheater, 8p, $72, Info

💀 Tennessee Dead @ Tennessee Brew Works, 6p, Info

🪕 Bluegrass Night @ The American Legion Post 82, 7p, Free, Info

📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.

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More than meets the eye...

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Today's newsletter is brought to you by Megan Podsiedlik (Nashville), Jerod Hollyfield (Crowd Corner), Camelia Brennan (Local Noise), and Davis Hunt (everything else).