Nashville has days left to begin voting on new council districts as citizens voiced their opposition to any action being taken by the city council at a hearing this week–as lawsuits questioning the legality of the legislation are also being heard in courts.
The Republican-led Tennessee General Assembly passed legislation last month that will force the Metropolitan Government of Nashville-Davidson County’s (Metro) council to submit plans to cut itself in half to the state by May 1.
The New Law
The legislation, filed in January, caps the number of members that are elected to a governing body of a metro or municipal government at 20.The legislation upends the council’s current election season, in which candidates have already begun campaigning and raising funds for a general election scheduled Aug. 3.
In a planning commission meeting Thursday, officials noted this process should under normal circumstances take “six months.”
Citizens Voice Opposition
A line of concerned community leaders spoke for hours at the Metro Council meeting on Tuesday—with all those present voicing strong opposition to the council taking any action to approve proposed maps and complying with the new law. Just under 50 people total spoke at the meeting, a tally by The Epoch Times showed.Following the arguments by residents–the council decided to table the decision to vote on either of the two proposed maps from the planning commission until a future meeting.
The Lawsuits
A panel of three state judges in Tennessee heard arguments Tuesday in a case seeking an injunction on the law, according to Courthouse News Service.“This is a radical infringement on local sovereignty,” an attorney representing the council told the panel Tuesday, according to the outlet. “This has been a rushed, chaotic redistricting process with a constant flurry of issues to address. Metro Nashville is having to make extraordinarily important public policy decisions right now based on an unconstitutional law and they have very little time to do that.”
Metro History
Nashville’s consolidation into the Metro Government of Nashville and Davidson County was one of the first true consolidations of city and county governments in the United States, according to Davidson County historian Carole Bucy (pdf).After several failed attempts to get voters on board with the consolidation, voters were in favor of the measure in 1962 and it went into effect in 1963.
“Nashville became the national pioneer in metropolitan organization,” Bucy wrote. “Although other cities had partial consolidation, Nashville was the first city in the country to achieve true consolidation.”
Metro’s governing body was the third largest in the country at the time, only behind New York City and Chicago governing bodies. At the same time, it was the 25th largest city in the United States, according to 2013 census data.
GOP Legislature’s Reasoning Behind Law
Nashville’s council is independent in practice, with all seats being non-partisan. However, Nashville in federal and state elections has been reliably Democratic, and Mayor John Cooper said although the office is nonpartisan, he is a Democrat.State House Majority Leader Republican William Lamberth, a Republican, said the proposed legislation is good government.
“When government grows beyond a certain size, it hinders economic growth, taxes are inevitably raised and the standard of living for the average citizen is diminished,” Lamberth said.
State Sen. Bo Watson, the Republican sponsor in the Tennessee Senate, echoed that sentiment.
“Local government bodies need to be a size that allows them to function efficiently and effectively without compromising their duty to represent the people,” he said.