Nashville Voters Will Decide On Two Metro Charter Amendments

In addition to choosing the mayor and numerous council members this summer, Nashville voters will also decide on two Metro Charter amendments.

The ballot measures were approved by the Metro Council on Tuesday night.

One would require the mayor to provide more city budget details each year, including about city debt. The proposal also requires the mayor to provide quantitative performance measurements of city departments.

The other charter amendment seeks to bring Nashville into compliance with state law regarding vacancies on the Metro School Board. Whenever there is a vacancy — such as when a member resigns — the position is to be filled by the council.

Other amendments were debated but discarded, including the hotly discussed idea of using a voting method known as “instant runoff” or “ranked choice” voting in Nashville elections. The method allows voters to rank more than one candidate so that a city no longer needs runoffs.

But for the second time in a row, the Metro Council was just shy of the votes needed to put the method onto the ballot.

This time, supporters said the idea might have gone to voters if not for technical glitches last month at council chambers, which forced a decision to be postponed. When it finally came up for a decisive vote last night, six council members were absent and the measure failed by four votes.

The Davidson County ballot will be finalized in the coming weeks and early voting begins in mid-July.