Nashville’s Unusually Large Metro Council — Will Voters Shrink It?

There’s one way that Nashville finds itself in the same league with New York City and Chicago. Although the other two are much larger places, Nashville has a similarly large city council.

But here, critics say that a 40-member council is too big and they’re pushing for change with a Metro Charter amendment on the ballot. Voters are about to decide.

Nashville’s large council has been a curiosity since 1963, when the late John Seigenthaler
— longtime newspaper editor and political advisor — watched Metro government take shape.
Thinking back on it a few years ago, he said some people were baffled.

“If there is one question I’m asked about, when I travel and talk about where I come from, is: ‘Why do you have such a large city council?’ ” he said during a panel discussion about the history of Metro government.

The answer, in part, is that when Nashville became one of the first places to combine city and county governments it required a lot of compromise. Small surrounding towns worried about losing local leaders and pushed for a larger council.

But the question, now, is: Does the 40-person setup still work?

District 23 Councilwoman Emily Evans, who wrote the ballot measure to shrink the council, says no.

“It’s near impossible to educate the majority of your colleagues on anything  — anything of complexity or anything pretty deep, like transit, like affordable housing,
“ 
she said.  
“
There’s a reason that we haven’t made any progress on those issues.”

More:
Councilwoman Evans op-ed

With Amendment 2, Evans is asking voters to cut the council down to 27 members.

This opens a big question about democracy and how elected officials do their work. Those who like the large council say that the more members, the better they connect with the people. Attorney Charles Warfield, who oversaw the Metro consolidation in the 1960s,
said that was the original intent.

“Everybody said, ‘I want to know the councilman. I want to tell him to fix that pothole right in front of my house.’ “

Warfield said there was also a debate about trying to create a small, 
“
more efficient
“ 
council.

“Well, councils aren’t supposed to be efficient,
“ 
he said in a panel talk with Seigenthaler. “They are a deliberative body. So they’re not supposed to be.”

Also at the time of consolidation,
black politicians were pushing for a seat at the table. Current Councilman Frank Harrison says that’s something they want to keep. As the council’s minority caucus leader, he says diversity is growing.

“So Nashville’s council, now, is beginning to look more and more representative of the people that live in it.”

The 11-member minority caucus remains sharply opposed to shrinking the council. Fabian 
Bedne, the city’s first Hispanic council member, said diverse life experiences help leaders anticipate problems and respond to residents. And African-American Councilman Walter Hunt, harkening to the formation of the Metro government, said minorities still lack that 
“seat at the table.”

“We have not gotten past that,” he said.

But Evans says a loss of minority representation hasn’t been borne out in other cities that have shrunk their councils, including Louisville and Indianapolis.

Evans is also making the case that a large council cedes power to the mayor — something her colleague, Councilman Ronnie Steine, called crazy. If anything, he said in a debate last year, it’s the opposite.

“Any mayor in their right mind wants the fewest amount of people to influence,” Steine said.

https://youtu.be/vr1xB6lOXWI?t=3h26m04s

Steine said council members get 
“
hammered because we agree with the mayor sometimes,
” but said his peers are not rubber stamps, but reflections of what the community wants.

“We are as a body amongst the most responsive elected officials in this country, and that’s one of the things that’s special about Nashville,” Steine told his peers.

Evans contends the council is at its weakest and couldn’t be any less powerful.

“In terms of our activities, we have defaulted to the lowest common denominator, which is managing land use; zoning applications,” she said.

Poll numbers, Evans said, have gravitated toward favoring her amendment. A year ago, about 17 percent favored it, but that number has grown to 42 percent — with about 25 percent undecided.

Term limits included

What Evans speaks less about is one additional wrinkle to her amendment. Not only would it reduce the size of council, it would also
increase how long the members can serve — up to 12 years (or three terms).

Extending council member term limits has been rejected three times in recent decades. Voters just don’t want their councilors to stick around too long. Evans knows this.

“Because we know we can’t get that passed … we’re offering the voters essentially a bargain. Which is: If you’ll agree to more terms, we’ll give you a slightly smaller Metro Council,” she said.

Voters will soon tell Evans whether the tradeoff sounds like a good deal.

Early voting is underway until Aug. 1 and Election Day is Aug. 6. 

This year’s
ballot also includes Amendment One, which asks solely about term limits.