The Metro Council is holding its second meeting of November on Tuesday night. The agenda includes confirmations, zoning bills and proposed reforms for the city’s boards and commissions.
Appointments and confirmations
Mayor Freddie O’Connell is reviving the Community Correction Advisory Board, which oversees local court diversion programs and last met in 2019. The council will consider five of his appointments to the board for confirmation. They are Joshua Brand, Donna Grayer, Marcus Shute Jr., Jarrell Summers and Joe Umberger.
O’Connell is also filling two vacancies on the Community Review Board as it nears the conclusion of its negotiations with the Metro Nashville Police Department over a memorandum of understanding governing the CRB’s work. The council will consider confirming the appointments of Heather Meshell and Walter Searcy to the CRB.
On public hearing
RS2024-792: MNPD is seeking to begin working with Fusus again. The company provides software that allows private security cameras to tie into a central hub, where police could review footage supplied by participating private property owners. The police department was already using the software without informing the Metro Council, because the contract value was beneath the monetary threshold necessary for council review. Still, separate Metro law requires surveillance technology to undergo further scrutiny.
A group of community advocacy groups — including the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition, Open Table Nashville and the American Muslim Advisory Council — sent councilmembers an email on Monday urging them to oppose the legislation. The council’s Immigrant Caucus said in a release it would jointly vote no.
Resolutions
RS2024-791: MNPD is seeking to accept a grant from the newly formed Nashville Police + Public Safety Alliance, a group of business leaders and others established to support the police department. The grant would pay for a one-year subscription to the Zencity Blockwise platform, which collects public feedback about public safety and the police. The resolution has been twice deferred as some on Metro Council, led by Budget Chair Delishia Porterfield, have questioned whether the software would allow for inappropriate data collection.
RS2024-871: The Metro Council is considering approving an application for state funds to help pay for full-time school resource officers at Metro schools. Last year, the council approved accepting a grant for $3.38 million for the program. This year, Metro is seeking $3.9 million.
RS2024-873: Several Metro councilmembers are urging MNPD to ramp up its traffic enforcement after traffic stops in Nashville dropped 95 percent between 2012 and 2022. One of the sponsors, Councilmember Jeff Eslick, told the Banner last week that he is pulling the resolution so he can tweak its wording. Read more about the push for more traffic enforcement here.
Bills on third reading
BL2024-565: This rezoning would allow for the planned construction of an HCA-owned standalone emergency room on Dickerson Pike.
BL2024-574: Councilmember John Rutherford is pushing for a rezoning to allow for a 288-unit apartment project in his Antioch-area district. Neighboring Councilmembers Antoinette Lee and Joy Styles opposed the rezoning at the most recent Metro Council meeting. Rutherford has a proposed amendment to the bill that he said would address some community concerns.
BL2024-582: Councilmember Sandra Sepulveda’s bill is the culmination of a working group’s efforts to tighten Metro’s regulations for its dozens of boards and commissions. The legislation would create a mechanism for the council to review board members’ attendance, and strip voting power from Metro councilmembers serving on specific boards to comply with state law. The legislation also eliminates defunct boards.