Nine members of the Metro Council watched the Mayor’s annual State of Metro address this morning on cable T-V. They took-in the speech from City Hall and provided their own sausage-biscuit breakfast.
Council members were invited – like the general public – to the Mayor’s speech, which was sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and cost the audience 25-dollars for breakfast. Only a handful of people attended the event without paying for the meal.
Last week, Councilman Charlie Tygard wrote a letter to the Mayor’s office asking for a change of venue, and 14 council members signed their names to it. Tygard says the Mayor should come to them, just as the President goes to Congress for the State of the Union. Tygard and others add that the Chamber’s hosting of the event is a subtle form of lobbying.
“The reason that nine of us are here this morning had nothing to do with the cost of a meal or the venue. The reason we were here this morning is that the Chamber of Commerce is a beneficiary of significant dollars of Metro tax-payer money. And it wasn’t fitting for us to be down there and then come a week from now talk about funding their priorities.”
Mayor Bill Purcell announced during his speech that the State of Metro will now be held in a more open event at the Public Square in front of the Courthouse which is currently undergoing the final stages of renovation.
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM