Despite outcry, bill to shrink Metro Council is coasting to passage

A measure to chop the size of Metro Council is sailing through the Tennessee Legislature. Republicans in the House have passed the bill, and the Senate Finance, Ways and Means Committee advanced it Tuesday.

Sponsors of the measure say they want to streamline city council business, but many see the action as political retaliation after councilmembers rejected the idea of hosting the Republican National Convention. 

The dispute was on full display in the committee hearing Tuesday, as Democratic Sen. London Lamar, D-Memphis, voiced her concerns to the committee’s chairman, Republican Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson, in a tense exchange.

“Is this bill being pushed to seek retribution on Nashville for denying the RNC?” Lamar asked. “And secondly, why not let the local folks vote to reduce their own council size rather than us make the decision for them?”

Watson responded tersely: “Well, the answer to the first question is no. And the answer to the second question is that we have the constitutional authority to do it.”

Despite Watson’s denial that the bill had anything to do with the council’s rejection of the RNC, the one Nashville senator to serve on the committee — Sen. Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville — continued to mention the concern.

“I actually do think that we are a city that should be welcoming political conventions across, in the future,” he said. “But I hardly think that the Republican National Committee is going to want the ‘Welcome to Nashville’ message to read like a hostage video.”

Yarbro went on to explain his — and his constituents’ — concerns with the bill. Under this legislation, he explained, there will be 27 counties, all of which have smaller populations than Davidson County, that will have larger legislative bodies than Davidson.

Voters created Nashville’s 40-person council when they merged the city of Nashville with Davidson County to form a single, consolidated Metro government in 1962. Under the new legislation, all metropolitan or municipal governing bodies would be capped at 20 members.

The bill is set go before the Senate again on Thursday.