Nashville has a long wish list of civic projects, like new fire stations, libraries, community centers, sidewalks and stoplights. But for decades, figuring out when your neighborhood’s project would get funded has been shrouded in mystery.
The jockeying for city funding has also been a source of political in-fighting within the Metro Council, as well as a cause of tension between the council and the mayor.
But in the past year — without much attention — that’s been changing.
The council has devised a way to collectively rank which city projects are most important. (See the list below.) And last month, the council created new rules for the annual budget process that intend to shift some power away from the mayor.
The changes are unprecedented since the formation of the Metro government, says Mike Jameson, attorney for the Metro Council and himself a former councilman.
“The [Metro Charter] puts almost all the power in the mayor. In the past 50 years, what you’ve seen is a gradual democratization of that power, and councils demanding more and more access, more authority, more ability to participate,” Jameson said. “This council, more than most, has really insisted upon being at the table and not being reactive.”
It also means one portion of the city budget — the capital improvements budget, which governs infrastructure and building projects — is being assembled with more transparency than ever before.
The Old Way: ‘Shrouded’ Decisions Even Confused The Council
You can’t be faulted for wondering how Metro decides which capital projects to fund, and in what order. Even members of the Metro Council are baffled.
“Gosh, I’ve been around this for a while, and I still haven’t figured it out,” two-term Councilman Steve Glover said during a meeting in December.
A half-dozen council members
aired their grievances that day about the city’s budget process as they worked on their new method.
Here’s how Metro handles capital projects: the Metro Council creates a massive wish list of work to consider during the next few years. That’s called the Capital Improvements Budget (CIB).
But then the mayor has the power to pick the projects that actually get funding in a given year. That’s the Capital Spending Plan, which for years has been infamously vague, often allotting millions of dollars to buckets labeled as simply as “roads.” (
See last year’s plan.)
“It’s going into a big black hole,” is how Councilwoman Mina Johnson characterized the plan at the meeting. “That’s why we don’t know what was funded.”
With the mayor’s administration able to decide on funding, council members were also left trying to curry favor for the projects within their districts, Jameson said.
“Council members are obviously in a competition,” he said. “It was also very easy for administrations to play off council members against each another.”
And it meant the final decisions would be made behind closed doors.
Another trend irked some council members: the mayor’s Capital Spending Plan would often arrive during the busiest part of the year,
leaving little time to review it. These frustrations have led the council to make changes.
“At some point, we decide to spend money … let’s bring that out of the shadows,” Jameson said. “We do know that it’s uncomfortable, but it’s not our role to make this easy. It’s to make this transparent and accessible.”
The New Way: A Points System
Last year, the council’s wish list — the CIB — took on a new format. For the first time, the members used a point system to rank every project, collectively declaring which ones they most wanted the mayor to fund.
“It allows council members, as a body, to convey priorities as a whole,” said Councilwoman Tanaka Vercher, who leads the council’s budget committee.
Here’s how it works now: Each council member is given 100 points. The member can put all of those on a single project — probably a park, library or streets project in their district. Or spread them out. Or even offer a few points to something in another district.
“It is tedious. But it allows for a more thoughtful process,” Vercher said.
In the end, it’s simple math. Projects with the most points go to the top and the entire ranking can be reviewed.
“The public is wanting that accountability from us,” Vercher said.
Tornado Sirens Top Ranking
This year, the clear No. 1 is a smarter tornado warning system, one that can sound sirens with more geographic accuracy across sprawling Davidson County.
A few council members put points toward the idea — an example of cooperation, instead of competition. And in this case, the mayor has
already signaled plans to fund the sirens.
This year’s full ranking is
available here as a PDF. Here are the projects that received at least 100 points:
- Tornado siren upgrades countywide
- Construction of a new Richland Park Library Branch
- Expansion and upgrade to Parkwood Community Center
- Intersection improvement at Edmondson Pike, Mt. Pisgah Road and Banbury Station
- Phase II of Fair Park
- New fire station in Council District 31
The council ranked 82 projects. Among the lowest were ideas assigned just 1 point, such as a bikesharing dock on the Mill Creek Greenway.
A year ago, parks and sidewalks scored well. (
See last year’s ranking.)
These rankings in the CIB remain nonbinding.
Many factors can influence which ones are ultimately chosen for funding. Costs matter, and there are unsexy-but-necessary Metro needs, such as stormwater infrastructure, that may be funded despite low council rankings.
So it’s still up to the mayoral administration to choose its specific spending plan each year.
Yet even there, the council is exerting newfound influence.
Public Will See What Gets Funded
Last month, the council passed a rule that says members won’t vote on the mayor’s budget unless it honors a few of their wishes, including making the mayor’s capital spending plan more specific about which projects are getting money. The council is also requiring the mayor to note where the chosen projects rank on the council’s CIB wish list.
That doesn’t mean that all the top projects will be carried out, but it will show the public whether the mayor is heeding the council’s declared priorities
“This is a major change,” says Jameson, the council attorney.
The council, in revising what’s known as Rule 28, went further still. To prevent feeling rushed to approve the capital spending plan, the new rule automatically postpones consideration of the plan for one meeting, “to allow for thorough consideration.”
The council must finalize its Capital Improvements Budget by June 15.
In the meantime, Mayor David Briley will deliver his proposed operating budget this week, for the council to work through and adopt by June 30.
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