The Mayor's Budget — And How the Chair's Substitute Tweaks It

The Mayor's budget reflects a difficult municipal economy. Revenues into the city’s general fund are flat. Federal COVID relief funding has ended, and federal support is in question. Against that backdrop, the Mayor asked Metro departments to tighten their belts and looked at how to ease affordability for people.

The headline item in the Mayor's budget is a proposal to reduce the local option sales tax on groceries by a half-cent, from 2.25% to 1.75% (excluding the local option transit tax). That costs the city $9.2 million in revenue. More on whether I agree in a moment.

Beyond the grocery tax, the Mayor's budget invests $69 million into the Unified Housing Strategy, provides the recommended cost of living adjustment and the Office of Emergency Management a 16% funding increase to fund more warning sirens and emergency preparedness positions.

The Budget Chair builds on this by redirecting reserves to fund an additional $8.6 million in Council-prioritized projects: more funding for eviction right-to-counsel; keeping the Rodeway Inn operating for people experiencing homelessness; $1 million more for the Barnes Housing Fund; support for the Nashville Children's Alliance, CASA, the Mary Parrish Center, the Sexual Assault Center; a General Sessions social worker; an Antioch health study; childcare assistance; and partial funding for a much-needed library shuttle (with the downtown garage still closed).

There is a lot in both the Mayor's budget and the Chair's substitute that I support.

But both documents are built on a foundation that keeps the grocery tax cut in place. That $9.2 million is the crux of my amendment.

Should We Cut 0.5% of the Grocery Sales Tax?

The grocery tax reduction in the Mayor's budget costs the City $9.2 million in revenue. I understand the impulse as affordability is a genuine crisis in Nashville, and anything that puts money back in people's pockets feels like the right thing to do. But I've been thinking hard about whether this grocery tax cut is actually the most effective use of those dollars. I don’t think it is.

I have three primary concerns with the proposed grocery tax cut:

1. It doesn’t address what actually makes Nashville unaffordable.

   $9.2 million in foregone revenue, spread across an entire city, saves the average family of four about $72 a year, or about $6 a month. That's not nothing. But it's also not the thing that is making Nashville unaffordable. The things making Nashville unaffordable are housing, childcare, and transportation. Unlike $6 in everyone’s pocket regardless of their need, millions of dollars directed toward real, structural investment in housing supply and childcare availability can move the needle in ways that $6 a month simply cannot.

   As a starting point, keeping the revenue means MNPS can definitely continue expanding pre-k seats at Hillwood. For families who are able to get those spots, that saves them roughly $1000 a month in childcare expenses, and gives them peace of mind to go to work and contribute to their family’s budget. We need more of this type of relief across town, not less.

   More broadly, keeping this revenue means we can put millions toward lowering the cost of housing. Those dollars don’t just benefit the families who need housing built through the Barnes Fund. As explained in Nashville’s own Unified Housing Strategy, our housing shortage creates a cascading effect across the entire market: when the availability of homes fails to keep pace with population growth, higher-income households end up buying moderately priced homes. They renovate and upgrade them, making those homes even less affordable. That pushes middle-income buyers toward lower-priced homes, which in turn squeezes lower-income households out of options entirely.

   In other words, affordable housing investment isn't just for low-income Nashvillians: It relieves pressure across the entire market. When we add more units at the bottom, we directly take pressure off the middle. When we don't, everyone competes for the same shrinking supply, and everyone pays more.

   The Unified Housing Strategy and our childcare studies are unambiguous about what level of investment is needed to make a difference. The Unified Housing Strategy estimates that meeting Nashville's projected affordable housing needs over the next ten years would require approximately $80 million annually in local funding. My amendment doesn't get us there alone, but a grocery tax cut doesn't get us there at all. The families most burdened by the cost of living in Nashville aren't primarily being squeezed just at the checkout line. They're being squeezed by rent that has outpaced their incomes for years, by a housing market where home values have surged more than 40% since 2019 while wages grew only 19%, and by childcare costs that now exceed the cost of college tuition. Six dollars a month doesn't change that math. What changes that math is building more units, making more investments in our families, and increasing our tools to make housing and childcare financially viable.

2. It runs counter to what voters told us in 2024. I am a big believer in democracy, even though that isn’t always easy these days. The primary foundation of democracy is that we honor free and fair elections. In November 2024, Nashvillians voted overwhelmingly, by nearly a two-to-one margin, to raise their own sales tax by a half-cent to fund the Choose How You Move transit plan. More than 280,000 Davidson County residents weighed in and said yes to that level of taxation.

   Think about what that tells us. Nashvillians, given a clear choice, were willing to pay $6 or $7 a month out of pocket for an investment they believed would make this City more livable and more affordable in the long run. They understood that the biggest affordability challenges we face aren't solved by small monthly savings. They're solved by structural investments.

3. We can make an actual, more meaningful and thoughtful difference in the cost of living if we wait until a reappraisal year. There's a final reason I am pushing back on the timing of this cut, and it's a practical one. Historically, Nashville addresses tax relief in reappraisal years. When we reappraise, property values are reset countywide, and state law requires us to adjust the tax rate downward so that we don't collect more money than before. We then historically adjust the rate back up to cover inflationary pressures and growing needs. That's the moment to have a holistic conversation about the full tax picture, because we can see clearly what relief people are actually getting and where the remaining pressure points are. We would know at that point where housing values and property tax rates stand and how adjustments to one or the other affect families. We could then look at how to save all families the full cost of their grocery tax bill, i.e., an average of $27 a month, in the broader context of all that they pay.

My Amendment, and Why It Matters

I’ve filed an amendment to the Chair’s budget to restore this funding and direct it to the things that are actually making Nashville unaffordable. Specifically, my amendment does the following:

• It adds $6,555,000 to the Barnes Affordable Housing Trust Fund, bringing the total from $23 million to $29,555,000. That is a meaningful, structural investment in the thing that is actually driving Nashville's affordability crisis. It also gets us meaningfully closer to the Unified Housing Strategy’s goal of $80 million annually towards housing. While this sounds like (and is!) a lot of money towards housing, it is still well below what peer cities are committing with annual funding and nine-figure bond funds.

• It adds $550,000 to MNPS, which will ensure that pre-k programs can continue to expand.

• It adds $150,000 to the Department of Family Safety to support the YWCA, an organization doing essential work for survivors of domestic violence and others in crisis.

• It increases the MAC Workforce Fund by $25,000, bringing it to $715,300, with additional support going to Music City Construction Careers, which is a program helping Nashvillians access good-paying jobs in the construction industry (which is, not coincidentally, a critical part of our housing supply ecosystem).

• It adds $125,000 to the Office of Homeless Services, bringing that total to $17,358,600.

• It adds $68,000 to the Metro Public Library to fully fund a parking shuttle for downtown library staff, whose garage remains unusable.

• It funds the reserves required under our fund balance policies, which is a non-negotiable part of any revenue adjustment.

What’s Next?

The vote is tonight at Council. You can reach out to me by replying to this email or at quin.evanssegall@nashville.gov. You can also let your district council member and the other at-large members know how you feel about my amendment by following this link.

This isn't an easy call, and I want to be honest about the tension I feel. I believe that no one should pay taxes on the groceries they need to feed their family. But a blanket grocery tax cut also reduces taxes on a Wagyu steak, while doing relatively little for the family choosing between rent and groceries. When weighing $6 a month against investments that could actually lower someone's rent and childcare expenses, I decided we should target these large, structural items affecting our cost of living for those who need it most. That investment, in turn, positively affects our City’s long term resiliency, providing economic benefits to everyone.

News Around Town & Helpful Links

Public calendar notices can be found here.

The easiest way to find your brush pickup schedule is to download the app from the App Store or Google Play. (I love this app and hope you do, too!)

For fastest repairs and attention, please submit all maintenance requests into Hub Nashville.

NES has stated it will have its Winter Storm Fern After Action Report complete and release dby June 24. I’ll be on the lookout for that, and I know some of you will be, too.

What I’m Reading

I just finished reading Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novel Series and The Road to Tender Hearts. I just checked out The House in the Cerulean Sea on the Library’s Libby app, and can’t wait to start reading it!

A Final Note about Newsletters

This newsletter isn’t free to send.

To help support these newsletters, please donate to my campaign fund (which pays for my newsletter service, as well as campaign items).

And as always, please reach out to me should you need anything, want to see anything in the newsletter, or otherwise have any comments or questions! 

Support Quin for Council

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Catching up on the Budget: Why I Landed Where I Did

You may recall that where I left off at the beginning of the budget season was that we were facing a tax hike. Any tax increase is hard, but one on the heels of massive, across-the-board increases in inflation and the cost of living is particularly hard. I do not believe government costing more to run is a reason in and of itself to put an additional burden on anyone. We must also ask if that burden is right and narrowly tailored.

During the budget season, I went through every line item and department expenditure and revenue source with a fine toothed comb. Were there places where we could have trimmed around the margins? Absolutely. We will never eliminate all waste - whether in government, business, or our personal lives - but the key is whether that waste is enough to make a difference. In this instance, in order to make a meaningful difference in most people’s tax payments, we would have needed to cut no less than $93 million from the Mayor’s proposed budget.

Now, first, this $93 million was new spending. I think that is important for us to be honest about. But, second, this new spending fell mostly into one of three buckets:

1. Spending required in order to make sure our own reserves remained sufficient.

2. Spending required to fill holes in lost federal funds.

3. Spending required to keep salaries and expenditures steady in our inflationary environment.

With respect to reserves, I could not justify any cuts in the short term because short term cuts actually cost us more in the long term. How? Our bond rating, and thus our borrowing rate, is reflective of our reserves. If we were to cut them, it would increase our borrowing rate. A short-term savings in exchange for long-term interests costs, while also failing to set up sufficient reserves during potentially upcoming turbulent economic times just didn’t make sense to me.

With respect to filling federal holes, we were mostly talking about Metro Schools and Health funding. In particular, to save the amount of money necessary, we would have lost Promising Scholars. This program is a lifeline for so many families, and because it provides childcare when schools are closed, it saves them much more than the taxes will cost them. We would have been cutting important nursing positions and other health professional positions, all of which save us long-term health care costs. We would have likely been cutting into everyday services - things like snow plowing and pothole filling, which save us money in our everyday lives by saving our tires and making sure we get to work in snowy weather.

With respect to the third and final bucket, employee costs were already very narrowly tailored in a way that helped bring our salaries up to the market for similar government employees in competing cities while also holding staffing counts flat. Even without any salary adjustments, we would not have saved enough money to make a dent in taxes, and by adjusting salaries, we are setting our City up for better employee candidates and retention, all of which lead to better services.

The cost of living in Nashville is not just our taxes but the cost of everything we need and do every day. The cuts we would have made to lower our taxes would have ultimately increased our cost of living.

Now, I do want to add that I think there are longer term things we need to think about. First, I really don’t like how we are forced into a situation where employee counts are inflated by departments so that those departments have extra money for things like utilities and necessary repairs. We have to fix our budget line items so we have more transparency in this area. I also don’t love that some departments have council and mayoral oversight while some are completely independent. It means that we are funding departments that are not operating democratically or with oversight. I’ll have much more to say on this later. But, for now, know that I continue to work on these areas so we can have truer, clearer, and more democratic budgeting as we move forward.

Today’s Meeting and the Downtown Business Improvement District

By way of background, we have three “Business Improvement Districts” in Nashville: (1) Downtown, which levies a property assessment and a sales tax, (2) the Gulch, which levies a property assessment, and (3) South Nashville, which levies a property assessment. Generally speaking, each of these BIDs levies additional assessments, which appear on bills to be taxes (but aren’t technically taxes under state law) to fund infrastructure and maintenance costs within the BIDs. I generally like BIDs as I think they are a good way for unique areas to voluntarily levy funds for service needs that are above and beyond a City’s typical needs. In other words, it means folks downtown pay for downtown’s unique needs, not folks in, say, Bellevue or White’s Creek or Hermitage.

Before council tonight is a bill to combine the Gulch BID into the Downtown BID, making one centralized CBID. We’ve been working through this one over the past month, and we’ve touched on downtown security protocols and transportation quite a bit. In particular, I’ve worked closely to make sure the Downtown BID understands my concerns around its control over the Gulch multimodal infrastructure. I’ve been very pleasantly surprised that the Downtown BID has really dug into multimodal transportation downtown and is working with Walk Bike Nashville, NDOT, and the district council member much more closely now than before. The Downtown BID’s legwork and public support will be very helpful in getting some much needed quick build projects going this year.

Several other members have been working with the Downtown BID on security issues and governing issues. I really appreciate the Downtown BID’s willingness to support and engage in these conversations. I am supportive of the many amendments to the CBID legislation that my colleagues are bringing to address these issues.

You may be wondering why anyone who doesn’t own or rent property downtown should care whether downtown property owners want a business improvement district. The reason is because it will raise sales tax on all food and goods sold within the Gulch. In other words, this is not a district issue that a district can just say applies to those who live within it, but it is an issue for anyone who eats or shops within the Gulch.

On the whole, this is a very limited sales tax (0.5%) and (per state law) it goes directly to supporting maintenance and tourism downtown. The Gulch is a pretty pricey place to eat and shop, and this tax will likely be nominal for most folks spending money there. But the services that it pulls out of our general fund (and thus out of our countywide property tax rate) are significant. Because of these reasons, I support the combined CBID, even though this is a tax that will apply to anyone who spends money on goods or services in the Gulch, regardless of where they live or whether they consented specifically to this tax.

News Around Town & Helpful Links

Public calendar notices can be found here.

You can find the brush pickup schedule here.

Updates to the Housing & Infrastructure Study are available here.

For fastest repairs and attention, please submit all maintenance requests into Hub Nashville.

NES is working to replace old streetlights with new ones. Until that process is complete, please report streetlight outages here.

Side Notes

I am in the middle of The Siren’s Call. Next on my list is Small Things Like These. What are you reading and enjoying this summer, and are you using the Library’s Libby app?

A Final Note about Newsletters

As always, this newsletter isn’t free to send. To help support these newsletters, please donate to my campaign fund (which pays for my newsletter service, as well as campaign items).

And as always, please reach out to me should you need anything, want to see anything in the newsletter, or otherwise have any comments or questions! 

Support Quin for Council

Show your support with a contribution.

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First Things First: Reappraisals & the Certified Tax Rate

Currently, we reappraise every four years in Nashville.* The Assessor’s staff goes out and sets averages for how much property values have changed for different types of property. The value of all property is then adjusted based on these averages. Because of the mass nature of appraisals, your individual assessment might not have matched the market value for your individual home. For this (and other) reason(s), every owner is given a chance to appeal their property’s value.

Everyone who owns property should have received a reappraisal notice in the mail a little over a month ago. Along with that notice, everyone should have been provided with instructions for how to appeal their valuation if they felt it was in error. The appeals process is handled by our Assessor’s Office, and her office’s information, along with more specific information about reappraisals, can be found here.

After all property is mass reappraised, the tax rate is automatically adjusted under state law so that we do not take in more money after appraisal than before. Practically, this means that any property for which the value increased less than the countywide average would see a lower tax bill. Conversely, any property for which the value increased more than the countywide average would see a higher tax bill.

Our countywide average in Davidson County was 45% this cycle, and our certified rates have been tentatively set for 1.995 and 2.222. As you can see here, my back-of-the-napkin math** shows how taxes would change monthly and annually at most home values under the current certified rate.

Now, as an aside, you may be thinking, isn’t the current rate 2.922 in the GSD and 3.254 in the USD? Why would the new certified rates for the USD and GSD be closer together than the old numbers? Well, when we were originally formed, many of the services provided in the USD, such as fire service and sewer, did not exist in the GSD. Our old rate differential was based on this outdated model of services provided, and our new structure has been updated to reflect our recent study on actual service allocations. You can read that GSD/USD study here. Practically, this also means that any tax increase will hit the GSD harder than the USD, and you can see the result of this when looking at all my charts.

*The point of this newsletter edition is not to talk about whether appraisals every 4 years is a good idea or bad idea, but I would note that I believe a more frequent appraisal process would be beneficial to all Nashvillians - more on this to come in future newsletters.

**All numbers in links in this newsletter were created in Excel. There may be some imperfect rounding within the spreadsheet because of how it is set up. I believe I have caught any formula errors and typos, but please let me know if you find an error so that I can correct it.

Certified Tax Rate v. Proposed Tax Increase

Historically, following almost all mass reappraisals, we adjust the tax rate above the certified rate. The reason for this adjustment is twofold: (1) We have used reappraisal years to adjust for inflation; and (2) Because of the appeals process and the naturally imperfect nature of mass reappraisals, we actually typically collect less money after reappraisals than before, which affects our ability to maintain consistent services. If you’re curious, we historically adjust the certified rate up about 20%, though many years it is less and some years it is more.

The Mayor’s budget is proposing a tax rate of 2.782 in the GSD and 2.814 in the USD, which is a blended adjustment of about 26%, though it is closer to 21% in the USD and 31% in the GSD because of the aforementioned GSD/USD shift.

To figure out what the proposed rate means for your home,* the equation is (New Tax Value x 0.25) x (Certified Rate / 100). You can also skip the math and approximate your proposed payments using this cheat sheet, which looks at various scenarios for homes at various price points previously under and up to $1,000,000.

As you can see in that cheat sheet, essentially everyone would be paying more in taxes under this proposed rate. Notably, with an average home value in the mid-$400,000s in Nashville,** a majority of residents would be paying what works out to being at or more than $50 a month.

Why do I think increases that exceed $50 a month are notable? For many reasons, but mostly because (a) it isn’t uncommon for homeowner insurance and/or HOA assessments to increase by $30-40 a month under current underwriting stressors, so increases in mortgage payments of less than $50 a month are not totally uncommon even outside of taxes; (b) that’s right around 1% of the post-tax monthly income for our average household income in Davidson County; and (c) $50 is a little more than the amount our government thinks it should cost to feed one person for a week. It is not a perfect cutoff for where everyone will feel something, but it is a point where most everyone will notice and many will feel it.

*For commercial property, my spreadsheet won’t work. You can run the calculation by using the following equation: (New Tax Value x 0.4) x (Certified Rate / 100).

**I’ve got actual data on my list of “open items” as a question I’ve already posed to the Assessor. For now, I’m using Zillow’s number.

Where Does This Leave Me Today?

Frankly, it leaves me with one fairly simple question and one very complex question:

• Given the massive increases we’ve seen in the cost of living in Nashville, specifically over the past several years, can residents afford this scale of increase?

• If Nashvillians cannot afford this scale of increase, where does that leave our budget?

I think the answer to the first question is probably no. I just don’t think most people who live in the GSD and whose house was valued at $250,000 four years ago can today afford to spend, on average, almost $58 more per month (or almost $700 annually). And that’s just the average - half of all residents saw a greater than average increase in their value. To add some insult to injury, because commercial property is not increasing in value as quickly as residential property, I suspect the increase in tax burden is more likely to be felt by residents, not businesses.*

But if most people cannot afford large increases in their property tax, what does a decrease in rate mean for our City’s budget? By way of background, this year’s budget is growing by about $500,000,000 to account for inflationary pressures, requested services, reserve needs, and limited federal funding. We cannot just ignore all these needs, but at a minimum, I think we have to narrowly tailor our proposed budget growth and examine future alternative funding sources.

I think we have to be incredibly selective of where we decide to grow our budget. Some of these calls will be easier than others. For example, a more modest growth in personnel may better align with what we see as our actual hiring capability. But not all decisions will be easy. If we want to get down the overall number of households spending $50 or more per month (especially for homes valued at less than half the median home value), then the reality is we are looking to cut between $94,000,000 and $188,000,000 from our budget. That kind of money isn’t easily plucked from a city government, which has to be a government of first response, last resort, and everything in between.

I think we have to be realistic about what alternative funding sources make sense so we are better prepared in the long run to tackle revenue issues in a more equitable way. For example, we have not touched the wheel tax in many, many years, despite the actual cost to get tags going down (because of changes in emissions rules) and voters’ overwhelming support of transit alternatives. Because all vehicles, not just homes, pay the wheel tax, adding back the $9 per vehicle we stopped paying a few years back plus putting the wheel tax on a more inflationary-based cycle would help bring in additional revenues without the burden falling just on individual residents. I also believe we have to be realistic about where private funding makes sense and be better at making those strategic connections. These are longer term solutions that we have to start working on today.

*I have requested more specific details on the breakdown between commercial and residential property and am still waiting on it. But both my fairly thorough spot check and the actual market suggest residential is up and should be up more than commercial.

My Next Steps

My next step is pretty straightforward: I am digging into the budget.*

I’m asking uncomfortable and hard questions of our Metro departments, while hoping those departments know my questions are not meant to imply they aren’t doing great, necessary work. I’m running alternate scenarios of various tax rates so I can see how they affect different home values. I’m backing various tax rates into our projected revenue to see how they affect potential cuts in our budget’s growth.

I am also listening to you. I would encourage anyone with thoughts about the budget to share those with me and anyone else on council who you think should hear from you. Please know that I read all emails, but due to the volume of emails on the budget, I may not respond immediately (especially if it is an open item that takes time to play out, understand, and research or will be directly addressed in a newsletter). To reach me, you can reply to this email or email me at quin.evanssegall@nashville.gov.

I will also be in touch through this newsletter through the budget process with updates.

*For those who wondered where I was during last week’s hearings, my kids had the flu the last two weeks (somehow managing each to get sick the very day the last one was better!), so I’ve been digging in like any working parent with a sick household - remotely.

News Around Town & Helpful Links

Public calendar notices can be found here.

You can find the brush pickup schedule here.

Updates to the Housing & Infrastructure Study are available here.

For fastest repairs and attention, please submit all maintenance requests into Hub Nashville.

NES is working to replace old streetlights with new ones. Until that process is complete, please report streetlight outages here.

Side Notes

Between council business, Maycember (as those of us with kids call the end of the school year), and the kids’ flu, I am a little behind in my reading. I recently finished North Woods and The Wedding People. Next on my list are Yearbook and Notes to John. What are you reading and enjoying this summer, and are you using the Library’s Libby app?

We’re transitioning to summer reading in our house, and with our “baby” now reading, I’m also getting to listen to lots of books with words like “Sam” and “Mat” and “Pam.” I’m not going to lie: There is something so remarkable about seeing little ones learn to read. It is hitting this mama really hard that this is my last child who I will get to watch learn to read. Plus, after over 13 years in daycare, we’re going to our very last pre-kindergarten “graduation” this week. If you see me teary-eyed over the next week, you now know why!

Our Youngest Child in Her Grad Attire

A Final Note about Newsletters

This newsletter isn’t free to send, which is why it has been absent for a while. However, given the importance of budget conversations, I did not feel this was an expense that could be spared.

I’d really like to send more newsletters, but that takes more money. To help support these newsletters, please donate to my campaign fund (which pays for my newsletter service, as well as campaign items).

And as always, please reach out to me should you need anything, want to see anything in the newsletter, or otherwise have any comments or questions! 

Support Quin for Council

Show your support with a contribution.

secure.actblue.com/donate/qes2027

Thanks for your continued engagement. As always, please reach out to me should you need anything, want to see anything in the newsletter, or otherwise have any comments or questions! 

What to Watch

Here are the matters before Council that are at the top of my “watch list.” If there is anything on your watch list that you want to share with me, please reach out.

• Housing Updates. My grandfather was a glazier and my grandmother was a teacher. In the 1950s, they purchased a home just off West End Avenue for $10,000, which is about $115,000 in today’s dollars. It was a cute Tudor-style home that was about 2,500 square feet. About one-third of their block were duplex homes, and the rest were single family homes. It was impossible to tell which was which, but neighbors from that street can still tell you about who lived where, where they worked, and anecdotal stories about them. Fast forward to today’s Nashville, and almost all the duplexes on that street are gone and my grandparents’ former house is worth $1.4 million. To afford this home today, one would need a cash down payment of $280,000, have a monthly mortgage payment of $7,000, and make an annual salary of not less than $300,000.

  Our massive increase in housing costs relative to wages is not a sustainable situation. It is time to have a candid discussion about what it means to be middle income and live in Nashville today. It is with this in mind that I have proposed legislation aimed at streamlining the housing construction process and introducing modest density increases in neighborhoods similar to where my grandparents lived. If we can do big things like the East Bank and push for transit, then we can also make sure to have housing options for middle income Nashvillians.

  My expectation is that these bills will be deferred for many months to allow for a comprehensive, countywide conversation about our housing needs and desires. It's crucial that any proposed amendments take into account these collective needs, as well as what we want from our communities. I am hopeful that in the coming months, we can engage in a meaningful dialogue that will lead to actionable solutions for our housing challenges. I hope that you will reach out to me to share your thoughts and concerns, or attend one of the many public and neighborhood meetings planned. If your neighborhood would like to plan a meeting, please reach out to me, so we can get that scheduled.

• FUSUS Contract. Last night, MNPD and the Mayor’s office decided to pull a contract that allows for coordination with residents and businesses to access their private security cameras. I expect this contract to be back before Council late summer, and I look forward to continuing the conversation at that time.

• Subdivision regulation changes. As mentioned in my previous newsletters, the Planning Department has been working on updates to cluster subdivision regulations. I have some concerns about the proposed ordinance’s requirements regarding “useable open space.” I submitted an amendment to incentivize making useable open space publicly accessible. Even with this amendment, I do not believe this ordinance is perfect, but I am inclined to live with it as good enough for now barring further convincing evidence to the contrary. The cluster subdivision regulations are not back before Council tonight as the snow delayed them.

East Bank Updates

The Mayor’s office continues to work towards an agreement with the developer on the East Bank. It is also looking into the possibility of an East Bank Authority. I would like to know more about the structure of that Authority. I also look forward to hearing an update on negotiations in March.

News Around Town & Helpful Links

When I was on the Industrial Development Board, we were a (very) small piece of the puzzle that led to the location and development of the National Museum of African America Music. The Museum is such a cool part of our City, and I would encourage you to consider getting a membership or planning a visit here.

Public calendar notices can be found here.

You can find the brush pickup schedule here.

For fastest repair and attention, please submit all maintenance requests into Hub Nashville.

NES is working to replace old streetlights with new ones. Until that process is complete, please report streetlight outages here.

Something to Leave You With

Between council business, snow days, and normal illnesses from kids, I am a little behind in my reading. I am looking forward to checking out a new book soon from the Library’s Libby app!

Early voting in national primaries and local elections starts on February 14. You can show your love for democracy and go vote! Locations and schedule can be found here.

What to Watch

Here are the matters before Council that are at the top of my “watch list.” If there is anything on your watch list that you want to share with me, please reach out.

• Subdivision regulation changes. As mentioned in my previous newsletters, the Planning Department has been working on updates to cluster subdivision regulations. I have some concerns about the proposed ordinance’s requirements regarding “useable open space.” I submitted an amendment to incentivize making useable open space publicly accessible. Even with this amendment, I do not believe this ordinance is perfect, but I am inclined to live with it as good enough for now barring further convincing evidence to the contrary.

• Housing Updates. I continue to work with Metro Departments, community groups, and state-level stakeholders to bring a pro-housing, pro-neighborhood set of ordinances to Council. In addition to meeting with those groups and stakeholders, I have been working on scheduling community meetings and creating a website detailing the ordinances. Watch my social for more information on the website’s launch, and follow the website to make sure you know when and where community meetings will be scheduled.

• FUSUS Contract. Council is currently examining a MNPD contract, possibly with an amendment, that allows for coordination with residents to access their private security cameras. This type of data sharing is not necessarily new, and residents have always been free to determine for themselves whether they want to share security footage with MNPD. I do, however, want to make sure we have sufficient consumer protection policies regarding participant consent and data use policies regarding what and how data is accessed and stored.

East Bank Updates

Last week’s East Bank Committee meeting has been rescheduled to tonight, January 22, 2024. Based on the agenda, I am expecting to hear more updates on negotiations and timing.

News Around Town & Helpful Links

Due to continuing icy conditions on neighborhood roads, trash and recycling are delayed one day this week.

• If your normal pick up day is a Monday, it will be Tuesday, 1/23.

• If your normal pick up day is a Tuesday, it will be Wednesday, 1/24.

• If your normal pick up day is a Wednesday, it will be Thursday, 1/25.

• If your normal pick up day is a Thursday, it will be Friday, 1/26.

• If your normal pick up day is a Friday, it will be Saturday, 1/27.

Public calendar notices can be found here.

Bruch pick up is also running off schedule. You can find the brush pickup schedule here.

For fastest repair and attention, please submit all maintenance requests into Hub Nashville.

NES is working to replace old streetlights with new ones. Until that process is complete, please report streetlight outages here.

Something to Leave You With

I am just finishing Demon Copperhead, and I am currently eagerly awaiting notice of several books’ availability on my Library’s Libby app!

Sunset today is after 5:00 p.m., and the ice is on its way out. It’s hard to believe, but we’re only 12 weeks away from our average last frost date. If you plan to start any annuals indoors, now is the time to start planning your garden and ordering seeds. I love browsing the Baker Creek seed catalog and dreaming of cosmos and tomatoes. Roundstone Native Seed has some of the best native pollinator seeds, sourced as near to locally as you can get. Bates Nursery offers an excellent newsletter to keep you abreast of local gardening news.

What to Watch

Here are the matters before Council that are at the top of my “watch list.” If there is anything on your watch list that you want to share with me, please reach out.

• How we review contracts. Last Council meeting we reviewed two bills related to technology expenses. During the review process of these bills, the Council was asked to approve contracts well in excess of current spending under the justification of “flexibility in future spending”. When Council approval is sought for an amount not actually tied to spending, it makes it difficult to analyze true need and longer term expectations around spending. In other words, it becomes almost impossible for the Council to adequately preform our oversight obligations. As we move into a new year, one of my goals is to dig into how we approach contract approvals, with the goal of moving towards a more transparent, understandable, and predictable contract approval process.

• Changes to subdivision regulations. As mentioned in my previous newsletters, the Planning Department has been working on updates to cluster subdivision regulations. I have some concerns about the proposed ordinance’s requirements regarding “useable open space” and will continue to watch this bill as it goes through Council and public hearings.

• Housing Updates. As many of you may know, modernizing our zoning code and removing outdated barriers to building housing were some of my primary platforms during the 2023 campaign. During my first few months in office, I have been working quietly behind the scenes to bring a pro-housing, pro-neighborhood set of ordinances to Council. Many of the changes needed to update our code are simply clarifying updates, for example, adding missing definitions for commonly used terms (e.g., “half-story”), updating the defined terms for DADUs so they are used consistently, removing requirements for separate bathrooms, rephrasing our 1984 duplex provisions for more efficient administration, and using disability-inclusive language. Other changes needed are more substantive, however. Fortunately, there is a wealth of information about what changes are working in other places and might be needed in Nashville. Given land values in Nashville and market delays in adapting to zoning changes, none of these changes would create any near-term changes. But when used in concert and with intention, these procedural and substantive updates would ultimately lead to more housing while acting consistently with Nashville Next, using a neighborhood-focused scale, and putting into place anti-displacement mechanisms. Be on the lookout for more details about my proposed changes, research, and reasoning as we move into 2024.

East Bank Updates

Generally, I would expect the Mayor’s office to have a fairly comprehensive status update regarding the East Bank and master development plans in March of 2024, give or take a month. An East Bank Committee meeting will be held on January 17, 2024, and we should have more updates on negotiations and timing at that point.

In the meantime, if you’re a contractor looking to work on the Stadium, the Titans have set up an informational website. I encourage everyone to check it out.

News Around Town & Helpful Links

The State’s legislative session will be gearing up soon. Those curious about what to expect should follow up with their State representatives and senators. Senator Charlane Oliver will be holding a Virtual Town Hall on January 9, 2024 at 5:30 p.m.

Public calendar notices can be found here.

Please consider mowing over your leaves and letting them do their work feeding your lawn. Also, where possible, it is best to leave twigs and brush to overwinter. The leaves, twigs, and brush are valuable habitats and nutrients for our environment, and they provide beautiful visual interest, too! But, should you need it, you can find the brush pickup schedule here.

For fastest repair and attention, please submit all maintenance requests into Hub Nashville.

NES is working to replace old street lights with new ones. Until that process is complete, please report streetlight outages here.

Something to Leave You With

The first Council meeting of the year will be January 16, 2024.

I just finished reading Roman Stories. I just started Demon Copperhead, and I am currently eagerly awaiting notice of several books’ availability on my Library’s Libby app!

Last night, my family was invited to light Nashville’s official menorah. Half way to the courthouse, we got the call to turn around and shelter at home - the line of storms had sped up and a tornado would likely be passing near the courthouse right when we were scheduled to be there.

We made it home and tuned into the same news as everyone else, and like everyone else, when Nashville Severe Weather mentioned tornado debris was picking up, we knew hard and sad times were happening and would lay ahead.

Despite the heavy storms around it, Nashville’s menorah still stood. In the middle of everything else, the Mayor’s staff lit the Menorah shortly after the danger had passed over them.

It was a really dark night for our City, and we’re not done with bad, hard news and times. But I’m so incredibly grateful to the work of all of our first responders, Metro departments, public officials, and neighbors who have been working without break since last night’s tragic tornado outbreak, including all those who stepped up to help shine a little light on this City in the middle of it all.

I know I am not alone in sending my thoughts and prayers to all those affected by this storm, including and especially to the Dalton and Perez-Mendez families. I, like many Nashvillians, remain heartbroken over the loss of life and destruction to lives and families.

Important Tornado Links

If you need assistance, please submit your request here: Tornado Help.

If you or someone you know needs assistance and translation services, call 211 or call TIRRC at (615)-414-1030.

If you want to volunteer, please wait. It is not safe to be out in the disaster area yet, and first responders are still working on critical, time sensitive work. Starting tomorrow, you can check these official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages updated opportunities to volunteer and to make in kind donations.

Monetary donations can be made now. Here is the link to the Davidson County relief fund (including Madison): Nashville Fund, and here is the link to the Cheatham, Dickson, Montgomery, Robertson, and Sumner Counties joint relief fund (including Clarksville and Hendersonville): Tennessee Fund.

Important Tornado Information

Detailed updates can be found through the Office of Emergency Management’s Office of Public Information’s Blog. Briefer details are included below. Please follow my Twitter and Instagram Story for ongoing information.

Nashville Electric Service has sustained significant system damage to our transmission system. Not only are lines down throughout the damage area, but multiple substations have been affected. About 40% of customers without power have had their power restored, but many customers will be without power for days. NES is posting updates as available on Twitter.

Roadways continue to be clogged. Intersections without power and working traffic lights should be treated as four-way stops.

Unlicensed contractors and scammers often show up after natural disasters to promise quick repairs, clean-up, and debris removal. Please be alert to any potential scams and exercise caution before hiring anyone, especially if they are the first to show up.

In the days ahead, Metro Codes, in conjunction with the Assessor’s Office, will be doing an on-the-ground, lot-by-lot assessment of damage to create an accurate building count and damage estimation. Once this information is available, it will be shared on social pages.

The Office of Homeless Services is on the ground working with affected unhoused populations. The Extreme Cold Weather Overflow Shelter has been opened to provide for unhoused neighbors needing shelter from the cold weather.

Shelters for those affected have been opened throughout Middle Tennessee. Locally, Isaac Litton Alumni Center is serving as a shelter.

A Light in the Storm

Here is a picture of last night’s menorah. May we all have a little more light as we make it through this tragedy.

Last Night’s Lit Menorah in Public Square Park, photo courtesy of the Mayor’s office.

What to Watch

Here are the items before Council that are at the top of my “watch list.” If there is anything on your watch list that you want to share with me, please reach out.

• Taser purchase contract. MNPD is requesting that we increase a sole source taser purchase contract by $18,305,200 (i.e., increasing a contract valued at $6,500,000 to one for $24,805,200) and allow for an additional 5 year renewal term under that contract. This is a substantial increase in expense and term. I have requested that MNPD provide more information to support need for this substantial increase in a sole source expenditure, including whether this revised expenditure was previously approved in the budget process, current age of taser stock, replacement schedule for taser stock, and support for the sole source nature of the contract.

• How we negotiate our technology fees. Last council meeting we deferred two bills related to technology expenses. The first was a contract for website maintenance. The second is a bundled contract for software. I, as well as other council members, continue to question the size and length of these no bid contracts. Both contracts will be back before council on December 19, 2023. I am submitting a list of questions to our Metro departments regarding these contracts and hope to have more answers and potential paths forward over the next two weeks.

• Changes to subdivision regulations. As mentioned in my last newsletter, the Planning Department has been working on updates to cluster subdivision regulations. In the proposed ordinance, the Planning Department has set forth numerous requirements for “useable open space.” I have yet to receive a good explanation for why we are setting out specific uses for private amenities when those requirements necessarily will increase the cost of home building. I will continue to watch this bill as it goes through Council and public hearings and will push for a bill that better reflects Nashvillians’ wants and needs, as reflected in both Plan to Play and Nashville Next. I would encourage anyone who has concerns about this bill to plan to speak at the public hearing, which is likely to be set for the January 16, 2024 council meeting.

East Bank Updates

East Bank negotiations are still in their early stages, but lots of folks have questions! I was in District 14 over the weekend and enjoyed meeting residents to discuss the current the East Bank development status. I’ll be holding more open office coffee hours around the County over the next two months so people can come and learn more about the state of all things East Bank. Stay tuned to my social media feeds for more on that schedule.

In the meantime, if you’re a contractor looking to work on the Stadium, the Titans have set up an informational website. I encourage everyone to check it out.

News Around Town & Helpful Links

Some of you may have noticed part of Lebanon Pike was paved by TDOT recently. A huge thanks to TDOT and hearty congratulations to residents of Hermitage and District 14 for having the first ever dedicated bus-bike lane in Nashville!

Photo Courtesy of Councilman Jordan Huffman

Public calendar notices can be found here.

Imagine Nashville is still collecting survey responses from Nashvillians about the City we want to see. I hope you’ll complete one here.

Please consider mowing over your leaves and letting them do their work feeding your lawn. Also, where possible, it is best to leave twigs and brush to overwinter. The leaves, twigs, and brush are valuable habitats and nutrients for our environment, and they provide beautiful visual interest, too! But, should you need it, you can find the brush pickup schedule here.

For fastest repair and attention, please put all maintenance requests into Hub Nashville.

NES is working to replace old street lights with new ones. Until that process is complete, please report streetlight outages here.

Something to Leave You With

Hanukkah starts on December 7 this year. Nashville will be holding a public menorah lighting on December 11 to celebrate. Once details are finalized, I will share information on my social media accounts.

I just finished reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. I am currently reading An Everlasting Meal. Roman Stories is next in my queue, and I am eagerly awaiting notice its availability on my Library’s Libby app!

I grew up ice skating at Centennial Sportsplex and have fond memories of the feeling of being on skates. When the time came in 2021 for my older kids to learn to skate, they did a holiday break edition of Learn to Skate at Centennial Sportsplex. They had so much fun that all three of us took Learn to Skate together for the rest of that winter. Skating is great exercise, and if you’re looking for something for you or your kids to do over the holidays, check out Learn to Skate!

What to Watch

Council has, on the whole, been fairly quiet so far this term. Nonetheless, I am watching a few items as they move through Council.

• How we negotiate our technology fees. We have had two separate technology-based contracts come through Council since the term started. The first was a contract for website maintenance. The second is a bundled contract for software. While both contracts are terminable at will, they each lock Council out of effective oversight while being seemingly out of step with the market. They also potentially perpetuate our inability to be nimble and responsive to tech changes in real time. As we continue this term, we will need to work directly with Metro offices to make sure our technology procurement processes can be reexamined, brought into 2023, and work with our needs.

• Changes to subdivision regulations. The Planning Department has been working on updates to cluster subdivision regulations. I am generally in favor of compact developments, but I have some concerns about the open space requirements being proposed. One concern is that the text of the legislation contains considerable vagueness in its definition of “useable open space.” Another concern is that, though the amendment purports to rely on Plan to Play, there is no requirement that the useable open spaces be available for public use as suggested within Plan to Play. I am also concerned that Planning staff admits that this cluster development plan is not in line with Nashville Next but instead just a partial step. I will continue to watch this bill as it goes through Council and public hearings and will push for a bill that better reflects Nashvillians’ wants and needs, as reflected in both Plan to Play and Nashville Next.

East Bank Updates

East Bank negotiations are still in their early stages, but lots of folks have questions! I will be holding open offices coffee hours around the County after Thanksgiving so people can come and learn more about the state of all things East Bank. Stay tuned for more on that schedule.

In the meantime, if you’re a contractor looking to work on the Stadium, the Titans have set up an informational website. I encourage everyone to check it out.

News Around Town & Helpful Links

I am delighted that Council is able to support Safe Bar and am looking forward to the continued rollout of this program.

Public calendar notices can be found here.

Imagine Nashville is collecting survey responses from Nashvillians about the City we want to see. I hope you’ll complete one here.

Please consider mowing over your leaves and letting them do their work feeding your lawn. Also, where possible, it is best to leave twigs and brush to overwinter. The leaves, twigs, and brush are valuable habitats and nutrients for our environment, and they provide beautiful visual interest, too! But, should you need it, you can find the brush pickup schedule here.

For fastest repair and attention, please put all maintenance requests into Hub Nashville.

NES is working to replace old street lights with new ones. Until that process is complete, please report streetlight outages here.

Something to Leave You With

70 years ago as of November 29, ABC started broadcasting in Nashville.

I’m currently reading Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. I just finished The Vaster Wilds, and Roman Stories is next in my queue. I hope you’re reading something enjoyable right now. If you’re having trouble finding a good book, I encourage you to download the Library’s Libby app!

The coldest ever recorded temperature in Nashville on Thanksgiving was -1^o F  in 1950. I am thankful we won’t be nearly that cold this year!