FORMER NASHVILLE MAYOR BILL PURCELL ON INSIDE POLITICS; THE SECOND NASHVILLE MAYORAL DEBATE; MORE DIFFICULT TIMES FOR THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY; METRO COUNCIL APPROVES $3.2 BILLION OPERATING BUDGET WITH A LATE ADDED BOOST FOR SCHOOL SECURITY AND A BIGGER COST OF LIVING RAISE FOR METRO EMPLOYEES; 50 YEARS ON TV; THE PRESIDENT’S SON TAKES A PLEA WHILE THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONTNUES ITS WACKY WORK
FORMER NASHVILLE MAYOR BILL PURCELL ON INSIDE POLITICS
Nashville’s race for Mayor continues to develop, headed towards an August 3 election, likely followed by a September 15 runoff vote between the top two vote getters in August.
With early voting beginning in three weeks, everywhere I go people ask me who will be the next mayor or who will make the runoff?
Do they ask the same questions about the mayor’s race and the future of Nashville, to those who have served as Metro Mayor over the past 60 years?
One of them is Bill Purcell. He served as our city’s chief executive from the fall of 1999 until 2007.
Mayor Purcell is our guest on INSIDE POLITICS this week.
We welcome the former Mayor to the program.
INSIDE POLITICS can be seen on its regular weekly schedule on NEWSCHANNEL5 PLUS.
Those times include:
7:00 p.m. Friday.
5:00 a.m., 3:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.
1:30 a.m. & 5:00 a.m. on Sunday.
THE PLUS is on Comcast Cable channel 250, Charter Cable channel 182 and on NEWSCHANNEL5’s over-the-air digital channel 5.2. We are also on DISH TV with the rest of the NEWSCHANNEL5 NETWORK.
One option for those who cannot see the show locally, or who are out of town, you can watch it live with streaming video on NEWSCHANNEL5.com. Just use your TiVo or DVR, if those live times don't work for you.
This week’s show and previous INSIDE POLITICS interviews are also posted on the NEWSCHANNEL5 website for your viewing under the NEWSCHANNEL5 PLUS section. A link to the show is posted as well on the Facebook page of NEWSCHANNEL5 PLUS. Each new show and link are posted early in the week after the program airs. I am also posting a link to the show each week on my Facebook page.
THE SECOND NASHVILLE MAYORAL DEBATE
Eight of the top candidates to be Nashville’s next mayor met at Belmont University for the second in a series of debates televised by the NEWSCHANNEL5 NETSWORK, and also sponsored by THE TENNESSEAN and the League of Women Voters.
I attended the first debate in person last month. This time I watched from home. I found the second debate much more focused with the questions and responses keeping my attention throughout. That is in contrast to the first debate, when I thought the candidates were more into vague, general talking points and platitudes.
Thursday night I saw several candidates offer more concrete ideas and plans on how to address issues such as education, public safety, affordable housing, tourism and the other challenges we face as a city. I liked some of what they offered. Other ideas not as much. The overall second debate also left me with a much better feeling about the depth and quality of this candidate field to produce a good mayor for Nashville.
What made this debate so much better? Well, these candidates have had lots of other forums to attend in the last several weeks to hone their communications skills to be and stay on focus to articulate the specific ideas and plans that several of their campaigns are putting forward. Giving them more time for responses (90 seconds) also gave the candidates the verbal room to provide slightly longer and more detailed responses.
Nashville has a history of holding many mayoral forums. This election cycle it is reported that some campaigns felt there were too many sessions, causing conflicts with other necessary campaign events such as fund raising. There was even talk of requesting fewer forms and a more standardized format. Not surprisingly, that went over like a lead balloon. The good thing to come out of all this is, it made this debate better because the candidates are getting more practice in answering questions under tight time restrictions and they are now articulating plans and policy positions on the key issues that the many undecided voters still out to hear and evaluate to make their choice about for whom to vote.
Hopefully if enough people watched and paid attention to this debate (or watch it now on- line at Newschannel5.com, they can begin that selection evaluation process among these candidates, and hopefully, that over 40% undecided number among voters will begin to decline.
MORE DIFFICULT TIMES FOR THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY
Nashville’s major Gay Pride celebration is set to be held Saturday at the Bicentennial Mall.
Members of the LGBTQ community say they are looking forward to being together, although the need for heightened security is clear, after a Kansas man was indicted and arrested this week for making specific online violent threats against the Nashville event.
It has already been another difficult year for the LGBTQ community. The Tennessee General Assembly continues to pass new laws aimed at them. A ban on drag performances in public areas or where children under 18 are present has been stopped by a federal judge, at least in Memphis, while appeals and legal wrangling continue in the courts.
This year Tennessee became the first state in the nation to ban gender affirming care. Multiple other states have passed similar legislation. In some of those states, their gender affirming bans have been stopped or delayed in the courts. Tennessee’s law is set to take effect on July 1st. The U.S. Department of Justice filed suit to stop the law in late April.
I can’t find any information about the gender affirming ban being stayed or struck down in the courts here in Tennessee. Maybe that will be attempted when we get closer to the July 1st date when the law is scheduled to go into effect?
Vanderbilt Medical Center, which seemed to have been the major provider of gender-affirming care, at least in the Nashville area, has already ceased such procedures. They also informed their former patients this week, that under a request from the Tennessee Attorney General, VUMC is providing all patient information to the agency as a part of a potential fraud probe. This has patients, families and advocates pushing back. They feel at risk. Thy worry this confidential information will not remain private. They are also concerned that VUMC has been providing the patient data to the AG’s office since last December, while not informing those impacted until this week.
METRO COUNCIL APPROVES $3.2 BILLION OPERATING BUDGET WITH A LATE ADDED BOOST FOR SCHOOL SECURITY AND A BIGGER COST OF LIVING RAISE FOR METRO EMPLOYEES
In a marathon 5-hour plus meeting Tuesday night, the Metro Council unanimously approved (36-0) a new $3.2 billion operating budget for the city for the new fiscal year that begins July 1.
The new spending plan is up 6.2% from the current Metro budget. Much of the increase will go to schools and additional public safety employees. In fact, Metro Schools are receiving $100 million in new funding as well as an additional $6.2 million approved separately Tuesday night for additional safety improvements.
The final approved budget does encompass all of Mayor John Cooper’s spending priorities. That includes in addition to schools, fully-funding the Barnes Fund to create more affordable housing, new resources to combat homelessness, and new spending across Metro’s first responders and emergency management departments.
The Council never passes a budget without making changes of its own. That includes adding an additional 2% boost to the 4% cost of living raise (COLA) being given to all city workers. The Cooper administration says this represents the largest pay plan increase in Metro’s 60- year history. I am sure
that is correct in terms of total dollars, but I think there were pay increases in the late 1970s and early 1980s that were at least that big or larger in terms of percentage, during that period of high inflation which was much like today. In fact, some current Metro workers in the early years of their city employment such as police, are eligible for an additional 3% step or merit pay increase. Combined with the 6% COLA increase, that is a big boost of 9% in their paychecks, beginning July 1.
50 YEARS ON TV
Tuesday night the Metro Council passed a resolution commemorating that its meetings have been broadcast live, gavel to gavel, for 50 years.
That’s even longer than the U.S. Congress which began its live coverage on the C-SPAN channel in March 1979. The first Metro Council meeting on local TV was broadcast on July 3, 1973. It was produced, by then WDCN-TV Channel 2 (now WNPT-TV, Channel 8).
I was the announcer for that first meeting. At age 21, it was my first TV job, and it was the first Council meeting I ever attended. I got the job because I had just graduated from Vanderbilt and knew about the University’s urban renewal plan which was the subject of a public hearing that night.
It was Vanderbilt’s neighbors, unhappy about the plan that urged WDCN to broadcast the public hearing. The Council, under the leadership of then Vice Mayor David Scobey, said OK, but only if the station carried the Council session in its entirety, from gavel to gavel. Some might have thought that would discourage the station from going forward. But WDCN’s Station Manager Gaylord Ayers had a long time dream of carrying the Council meetings, even if it meant the station also had to cover the production costs.
From 1973-75 WDCN only carried the Council’s zoning nights held on the first Tuesday of every odd numbered month. With the new Council taking office in the fall of 1975, coverage was extended to broadcast all the Council’s meetings. That continues until today, with WDCN doing coverage the until Metro got its own government access cable channels (the Metro Nashville Network).
I did the announcer duties until May of 1985 when l went to Mayor Fulton’s office. Louanne Grandinetti took my place and was the announcer until 2009. Then the Council had to make a budget cut and eliminated the announcer’s position. While the live meeting coverage continued, there was no announcer to open and close the meeting coverage until I returned in August 2019. That’s when current Vice Mayor Jim Schulman said he wanted to reinstate the announcer post, and I got the crazy idea I wanted to come back to my first TV job.
Yes, the meetings can sometimes be long. I had forgotten this, until I did some research. The first meeting televised in 1973 was over 5 hours long. The sessions began at 7:30 pm in 1973, not 6:30 pm as they do now. So even from the start, my Council work went well past midnight.
So why is all this important 50 years later?
Some thought, including some in the Council in 1973, that the TV cameras would be a distraction and would encourage members to play to the TV audience. Some worried about the “bright lights” of TV, which never proved to be an issue. No extra lighting was needed for the cameras.
Instead, I think these broadcasts have proven to be a way to make government more available and transparent. They are democracy in action, the good, the bad and everything else that can happen during a live broadcast. They often capture history in the making.
I am proud to have played a role in the broadcasts over the years, but I think it’s the public who have benefited the most.
THE PRESIDENT’S SON TAKES A PLEA WHILE THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONTNUES ITS WACKY WORK
President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden has been under investigation on several fronts by the Justice Department for several months. This past week, he accepted a plea deal from prosecutors, while other matters apparently could remain under active investigation.
Immediately, some seemed ready to pounce on the plea deal because Hunter Biden is likely to serve no time behind bars. More selective prosecution or a sweetheart deal they’d claim, except that the deal was offered by the prosecting U.S. Attorney in the investigation, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump. Regardless somecongressional Republicans are still crying foul.
Back in Washington, the Republican controlled House of Representatives indulged in a game of payback this week, passing a resolution of censure against one of the top House Democrats who led efforts, when Democrats were in control, to impeach then President Donald Trump and pursue other investigations.
The censure vote also came as GOP House Speaker Kevin McCarthy continues to struggle to keep control of the House and his Republican Caucus. This week that included an effort to force a floor vote on articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden. Realizing such a move would fail and make other investigative efforts against the President and his administration look even more partisan, Speaker McCarthy did find a way to sidetrack the impeachment vote to committee. But you have to wonder what the members of the GOP House “Chaos” Caucus, will try to do next?
There was also some chaos on Tennessee’s Capitol Hill on Thursday afternoon. It happened when the state legislative offices in the Cordell Hull Building was put into lockdown for a few hours, after several envelopes with threatening messages and suspicious white powder inside were received by Republican lawmakers. There was no threat to the public and much of the building has been reopened while the investigation continues. There are reports there have been similar situations to occur in at least one other state (Kansas).
