Metro’s annual marathon public hearing on the budget started off with a bang Tuesday night and ended three hours and around 100 comments from residents later.
“Working two jobs and losing sleep; swimming in poverty, the water’s getting too deep,” rhymed Jessica Currie, the first speaker to address the Metro Council about the proposed spending plan.
A support staffer for Metro Nashville Public Schools, Currie’s poem called for a 5 percent cost-of-living adjustment for employees like her, a request that was echoed by dozens of Metro employees — including from Nashville General Hospital, Metro Water, Metro Parks and Nashville Public Library — and their advocates as the session continued. (Another poem would follow hours later as a resident urged the council to consider redirecting police funds to other priorities.)
The 5 percent ask is higher than the 3.5 percent adjustment proposed by Mayor Freddie O’Connell — most Metro employees are also in line for 3 percent merit raises — and some Metro councilmembers are currently working on finding funding to bump the mayor’s proposal to a 4 percent cost-of-living raise.
“I truly don’t think you appreciate how demoralizing this is for employees,” said Jessica Stewart, president of SEIU Local 205, which represents several Metro employee groups. “They come here every year with their begging bowls in hand entreating you to drop a few pennies in.”
The council will hold its fourth and final budget work session Wednesday, at which councilmembers will continue discussing potential changes to the mayor’s budget proposal, likely represented in a substitute budget brought by Budget Committee Chair Delishia Porterfield. The council is required to pass a budget by the end of June, or the mayor’s proposal goes into effect.
In addition to support for a bigger pay increase for Metro employees, speakers focused on several issues, with a large group advocating for the Southern Movement Committee’s Varsity Spending Plan, a $10 million proposal to address gun violence and youth safety.
“This plan is not just about allocating funds; it’s about investing in the very fabric of our community,” said Shania Peters with the Southern Movement Committee.
Leaders with the group said that, if the council cannot find the full $10 million, the body should prioritize $2 million to help create an Office of Youth Safety, with the rest of the funding to follow in future years. The support for the Varsity proposal was so overwhelming that some residents pivoted to speak on its behalf instead of or in addition to their original priorities, they said.
“There are more people below 18 in this chamber than I’ve ever seen before,” said Trent Benge, an 18-year-old who said he initially intended to speak about housing and transit. “Let’s include the Varsity Spending Plan.”
“It was very encouraging to see so many young people come out and participate in the democratic process,” Porterfield said of the high school students who spoke on behalf of the Varsity proposal.
Several residents called out proposed increased funding for police Tasers, police department vacancies, police spending generally and the city’s financial support for the multibillion-dollar construction of a Nissan Stadium replacement.
Commenters were split on funding for the Barnes Housing Trust Fund, pegged for at least $30 million in the budget proposal.
“The Barnes Fund is certainly not enough, but it’s our main tool right now,” said Mike Hodge of Nashville Organized for Action and Hope (NOAH).
But a group from advocacy group Poder Popular opposed any new money for the Barnes Fund, echoing language criticizing “profit-driven developers who mistreat workers and residents” and calling for more social housing and representation for working-class renters on the Barnes Fund’s leadership board.
Another group of residents representing Metro Schools janitorial workers, who are employed by a private company, called for increased support and higher wages. One custodian said she makes about the same hourly rate — $13 — now that she made in 2010, when Metro Schools began outsourcing janitorial services. Some city leaders are reconsidering the use of private contractors for the work.
Still others are advocating for $300,000 in funding for Metro Councilmember Sandra Sepulveda’s proposal for a new contract and compliance oversight board, aimed at addressing worker safety and wage theft on Metro work sites.
“Construction workers are getting hurt and dying and nobody is taking responsibility for that,” said Isabel Felix, a local labor organizer.
Read about councilmembers’ proposed changes to the budget here.
Though the public hearing wrapped up around 10:30 p.m., and most members of the public emptied out of the Metro Courthouse, some fireworks were still to come as the council got to work on the rest of its agenda for the night.
Metro Arts
The Metro Council voted to approve a $200,000 settlement with Daniel Singh, who was set to resign as executive director of Metro Arts upon ratification of the agreement.
Metro Councilmember Joy Styles called the settlement “a distraction from the true issue at hand,” which she said was “overreach of Metro Legal and Finance.” Styles has been critical of the Metro departments’ role in the attempted cleanup of Metro Arts’ financial situation over the past year. She said Finance Director Kevin Crumbo has a personal conflict due to past involvement with the Nashville Symphony, one of the large local arts organizations that receives funding from Metro Arts. Styles said Singh had been “railroaded,” adding that “we have gatekeepers that need to be replaced.”
Crumbo, given the microphone to explain financial issues at Metro Arts, described Styles’ comments as “foolishness,” drawing jeers from some on the body (and at least one call for his ouster).
Styles also pushed for passage of her effort to add a councilmember to the Metro Arts Commission (in addition to other changes to the body), though the council voted to defer the bill as it continues to discuss more widespread changes to the city’s boards and commissions.
Worker safety
Metro Councilmember Sandra Sepulveda successfully secured a one-meeting delay of consideration of her worker safety proposal, which was up for a second of three readings. She said the delay was necessary “in order to make sure we’re working in good faith with all parties that are interested.” She told the Banner last week that she had “no intention of slowing this down.”
Her bill would create a Metro contract and compliance board tasked with investigating wage theft and worker safety issues at Metro worksites (though without enforcement capacity). As written, one of the mayor’s appointees to the board would have to come from a list of nominees provided by the Central Labor Council. An amendment could add another board carveout for a member from the construction industry.
Sepulveda has already added a majority of councilmembers as cosponsors, and Porterfield is working to include $300,000 in startup funding for the board in a substitute budget.
Tasers
A late-filed resolution from the mayor’s office sought to increase the value of the Metro Nashville Police Department’s contract with its Taser provider up to nearly $16 million. An effort to increase the Taser contract to $24 million late last year was rejected by the council.
Dave Rosenberg, the mayor’s director of legislative affairs, wrote that the administration was not seeking a final vote on the amendment on Tuesday, and Budget Chair Delishia Porterfield did not ask for a vote on the legislation.
Second Avenue
Metro has been working in the years since the 2020 bombing to try to rebuild Second Avenue downtown. One related effort is not going forward, at least for now. Developer T2 Capital sought to rebuild the former Old Spaghetti Factory building to include a restaurant on the ground floor and up to 62 units of short-term rentals, grouped in a pseudo-hotel.
Jon Cooper, a representative for T2, told the council that the proposal was “a key step toward revitalizing Second Avenue.” But councilmembers weren’t having it. Legislation granting a short-term rental exemption to the project (necessary due to its proximity to a park) failed when it secured 18 votes, short of the 21 necessary for passage.
Metro Councilmember Jacob Kupin, who represents downtown, said he agreed with the sentiment that the city needs more long-term affordable housing and shouldn’t prioritize short-term rentals but urged passage anyway due to the need to revitalize Second Avenue.
Mayor O’Connell poked fun at the controversy on X (formerly Twitter), posting “I, for one, would simply reopen Old Spaghetti Factory.”
The rest
The announcement in 2022 that Fisk University would build an entrepreneurship center and small business incubator was met with celebration. The development of the center at Burrus Hall was set to be funded by $10 million in American Rescue Plan dollars distributed by Metro. Now, though, school leaders have determined the work can “best be accommodated at present in the University’s existing business school.” Without discussion, the council approved an amendment to the grant, expanding the potential uses of the funds. Metro Councilmember Ginny Welsch was the lone no vote.
The council elected Ben Tran, Erin Coleman, Dahron Johnson, Whitney Pastorek, Todd McKinney and Garlinda Burton to the Metro Human Relations Commission.
Metro Councilmember Emily Benedict moved to defer her proposed council rule amendment until July. It would change filing deadlines and procedures, and council staff said it would “seriously hinder the Council Office’s ability to effectively perform the work for which the Council Office was created.”
Styles is still working on legislation related to the acquisition of land for a new elementary school in Antioch. After council staff determined the legislation should be filed as an ordinance, not a resolution, Styles said Tuesday she would withdraw both the resolution and ordinance versions of the legislation and bring an ordinance back in July, a move that “gives us more time to be able to work with the landowners and MNPS,” she said.