Meals for Deals Rises from the Dead Again on the Council Agenda

Tonight's agenda includes a bill that is stacking up to be an ongoing struggle to keep the influence peddlers and Council Member patrons at bay. A group of Council Members is trying to introduce the measure that would permit Council Members to accept free meals and gifts from outside groups and individuals.

While the bill is on the Council Agenda, it is not listed on the Agenda Analysis, which comes from the Council Office Advisors.

In response to this bill, Salemtown President-Elect Freddie O'Connell wrote the following letter to each of the Council Members-at-Large (including Meals for Deals bill co-sponsor Jerry Maynard) and to District 19's Erica Gilmore:

I find it ironic that, in the same timeframe as softening of Tennessee's open meetings laws has been discussed (and, with luck, discarded), our Metro Council, in the form of BL2007-78, is considering relaxing its own ethics rules.

Living in a neighborhood (Salemtown) that has been the target of much developer speculation resulting in variable outcomes, I am not in favor of developers being able to curry favor with councilfolk on the LLC tab. As my personal elected officials, I hope you will keep my interests on par with those of all of Nashville's citizens, which should be higher than out-of-county developers anyway. Please vote against BL2007-78.

I'd offer to take you all to lunch at The Palm in exchange for your vote, but, well, that's my point.

Thanks to all for your service and consideration.

Freddie's right. This measure should have been dead and buried a long time ago.


UPDATE: I hear from reliable sources that there will be a debate tonight on this bill. If that is true, it means that the bill will first have to be pulled off of the consent agenda, which is what all first reading bills generally get put on to be passed easily as a group with no debate until the second reading. This bill should be debated tonight. And a roll call vote should be taken so that we have a clear idea of which Council Members support the idea of getting free meals and gifts from constituent sources.