Flip-Flopping Freddie

On February 6th, 2018, Metro Council defied Megan Barry’s administration by adding an amendment to change the ballot language of the then-mayor’s transit referendum. Though Barry’s office lobbied to limit the language to the present-day cost of $5.4 billion, the council felt it necessary to include the larger, $8.95 billion, 15-year estimation on the ticket. In stark contrast, this year’s council passed Mayor O’Connell’s Choose How You Move plan without so much as a discussion during its three readings.

Six years ago, 21 council members, a handful of whom still serve in Metro Government, voted to attach the adjusted total to the ballot in the name of transparency. Fast-forward to 2024, and some of those same public servants—including Freddie O’Connell and Vice Mayor Angie Henderson—flip-flopped, furtively omitting the 15-year estimated cost of O’Connell’s plan from this year’s ballot.

Instead of disclosing the $6.9 billion long-term estimate, the mayor and council opted to include only the smaller, $3.1 billion present-day cost and $111 million in annual recurring costs—similar to the figures Barry fought so hard to preserve on 2018’s ballot. So, what changed?

“What happened six years ago was all five at-large council members presented to the council that they thought that it should be included,” O’Connell told us during today’s roundtable. “This time, we heard from leadership on the council across the board—at-large members and key committee chairs—that they did not think it was, and we took that under advisement.”

In the interest of clarity and transparency, O’Connell voted for the long-term estimate to be included in 2018, but chose “simplicity” for his own referendum. He cited the number of words and the length of this year’s ballot as reasons for his about-face. “We know that our finance department is capable of providing any information that voters might need along the way.”

Though we reached out to all 32 bill sponsors who supported O’Connell’s ballot language for this year’s transit referendum, they’ve yet to reply to our requests for comment—though Vice Mayor Henderson commended the administration’s diligence in “talking this program through with all council members” before the legislation was filed.

“This engagement and transparency reduced the skepticism among council members that was more prevalent in 2018,” she told us in an email. “I personally served on the technical advisory committee for the Choose How You Move program and have a high level of confidence in the value of what is being delivered for the cost.” She attributed her sudden change of heart to it being “a better plan that delivers a more comprehensive, connected, and far-reaching transportation system.”

Her advocacy is a far cry from six years ago, when her “concerns as to the clarity of the language” influenced her to rise in support of then-council member Bob Mendes’ amendment to add the $8.9 billion figure to the ballot. “The IMPROVE act passed by the state requires that the referendum language identify any sources of funding,” said Mendes in 2018, who now serves as O’Connell’s chief development officer.

At the time, Mendes fought on the floor for transparency and clarity. “We're buying a five or ten billion [dollar]—depending how you look at it—operating company,” he said. “Nobody, when buying an operating company, would say, ‘You know what, I just want to know what I want to pay up front.’ That's not the way it works. The way it works if you're buying an operating company, a giant, multi-billion dollar operating company, is you need to know how much you put down, how much in debt, what the terms of the debt service are going to be, and how many years you're going to pay it back.”

“What are we afraid of with the words?” Mendes asked his colleagues all those years ago. “If it's accurate and it complies with the IMPROVE act, then let's just go ahead and say it. I think that we give off the wrong impression to the electorate if we push really hard to just not even say the words.” 

While serving as District 19's council member in 2018, O’Connell agreed with Mendes. He was willing to “say the words” then—so what is he afraid of now?