News
By John Spragens
The Metro Council came dangerously close to imploding Tuesday night. It was a night of procedural maneuvering, bumbling and grumbling—and lots of incompetence—in which it passed a budget for the new fiscal year that starts July 1, a 67-cent property tax increase and a $20 wheel tax hike to fund the next four years of city government.
The body of legislators came closer than you might think to shutting down the government by adopting a budget without actually authorizing funds for it. The theme of the night was mass confusion; spectators laughed openly at the televised display of ineptitude, which would have been funny if it weren't deadly serious.
But out of chaos, order. Or at least a budget that will give raises to employees, fund schools respectably and generally keep Metro running for a few years. Thank providence and the Metro charter that there are so many procedural hoops to jump through to craft and pass a budget that keeps Metro operating, because most council folks just weren't adept enough to mess with the numbers. So, instead, they voted for the compromise proposal proffered by Budget and Finance Committee chair Diane Neighbors.
The council—"40 really, really, really diverse folks," as council member Greg Adkins charitably termed the group—did entertain a "cost of living" budget proposal, put forth by council member Chris Whitson and several conservative colleagues, that would have changed Metro's budget process to a one-year system. Ultimately, that plan failed. It might have had something to do with council member Eric Crafton's appeal in support of it, in which he said, among other things, that it would constitute rebelling against Mayor Bill Purcell. (The mayor had had put forth a budget proposal that would have raised property taxes by 84 cents.) "Let's try this once. It's not going to hurt anything."
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There were flare-ups between an irritated Vice Mayor Howard Gentry and the cats he's charged with herding. He ended up lecturing them like disobedient children when several failed to use the council's rules to their advantage and then blamed him. "It is up to the council to know the rules and follow the rules," he chastised. "I am only up here to operate under the rules."
Speaking of the rules, council member Ludye Wallace reaffirmed his place as master parliamentarian Tuesday night. In an effort to postpone discussion of a sales tax referendum, he voted for it and then moved to reconsider, which will automatically put the issue on the next meeting's agenda. Earlier, in one of the many bizarre meta-moments of the evening, Wallace stood up and called for a point of order to discuss the nature of a point of order. Deep. "You don't wanna proceed out of order," the dapper council member said in summary.
The debates were fierce and funny—at one point Gentry elicited a laugh from the crowd by suggesting there were many dumb council members—and, in the end, fruitful. (Other members got laughs too, but not intentionally—like when member Jamie Isabel referred to "TPAC" school test scores. Um, it's TCAP.) The winning side recruited folks like Goodlettsville council member Rip Ryman, a traditionally conservative guy who flirted with the "cost of living" proposal before declaring his loyalty to the compromise Neighbors budget. You've got to "bite the bullet, swallow hard or whatever you want to call it," he urged.
As ever, several council members seemed concerned that the body doesn't get enough respect from the mayor or in the community. (See above.) "It's getting confusing," Neighbors acknowledged at one point in the process when people were asking questions that had already been answered. It now seems clear that Neighbors was chosen to lead the budget push because of her patience and grace under pressure. Council member Lynn Williams, surprisingly enough, offered what may have been the sharpest insight into the council Tuesday night. Blame term limits for the group's naiveté, and remember: they're just "39 people doing the best that they can."
Or, in Gentry's words, uttered at one point Tuesday night, "We're not movin' fast. I mean, we're just movin'."
But this council's not safe at any speed.