Sticking it to the man
🪖 Kimbrough balks on military exercise · Budget season · Lee doesn't grant clemency · Repeat Offender All-Star · Week in streaming · Much more!
Though the council will hear two resolutions granting permission for military training during tonight’s council meeting, the point may be moot as the dates have already passed on some of the scheduled exercises. Councilmember Joy Kimbrough didn’t care whether deferring the vote on the legislation would jack up the United States’ training schedule when she postponed the vote two weeks ago.
“I'm asking that this resolution be deferred,” she said. “I understand that the effect of that, based on information we received during the meeting, is that this is scheduled for May 18th, May 19th….so in effect, that would kill it, which I don't mind.”
Kimbrough cited the lack of notification during past trainings in her neighborhood as her reason for deferral, saying she was concerned for her elderly community. That said, Councilmember Emily Benedict suggested killing the legislation to send a message to the Trump administration. “I think there's no better time right now than to stand up to the United States federal government and say, ‘Until you cooperate with us, I'm not going to cooperate with you,’” Benedict said during discussions on the resolutions during a Metro Planning & Zoning Committee meeting.
“I'm an absolute ‘no’ on this resolution. I do not trust the defense secretary, I do not trust the executive branch of the federal government right now, and I do not want them entering a Metro building to do any type of military training that they want.”
As a military veteran, Councilmember Olivia Hill defended military members and backed the two resolutions. Hill also warned colleagues that targeting the military, or any groups, for retaliation could come back to “haunt” Metro. The council will discuss the virtually dead agreements during tonight's meeting. MEGAN PODSIEDLIK
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🖋️ Edited by Megan Podsiedlik.
💸 Budget Season Hath Taken Over The Council is in full-on budget mode, and it looks like Mayor O’Connell’s proposal may experience a few changes before members are through with it. A number of CMs have already started to pick apart the mayor’s property tax increase. According to Axios, Councilmember Courtney Johnston is working with several members on an alternative budget that includes a lower tax rate. "We're trying to balance out what we actually need to deliver efficient, effective services to the public while not overburdening the taxpayer," Johnston told the media outlet.
Councilmember Quin Evans Segall also aired out some concerns in her newsletter on Sunday, and aims to answer two questions over the next 6 weeks:
- Given the massive increases we’ve seen in the cost of living in Nashville, specifically over the past several years, can residents afford this scale of increase?
- If Nashvillians cannot afford this scale of increase, where does that leave our budget?
During Friday’s media roundtable, Mayor O’Connell said he’ll take any changes in stride. Given recent talks he’s had with Budget and Finance Committee Chair Delishia Porterfield, he hopes the process will look similar to last year. “She'll, I'm sure, get wish list requests from council members, and there may be some needs that adapt as council members hear from all the departments,” he said. “But we'll take all that in stride.”
Councilmembers have until June 30th to pass an alternative budget to replace Mayor O’Connell’s proposal. You can keep an eye on the progress of the budget and the tax rate on Metro’s legislative website.
⚖️ Lee Declines To Grant Clemency Oscar Franklin Smith, an inmate on death row for murdering his estranged wife and her two sons, will be executed by the state on Thursday. Though Governor Bill Lee granted Smith clemency just an hour before his last scheduled execution in 2022, his office sent out a release this morning making it clear that won’t be happening again.
“After deliberate consideration of Oscar Franklin Smith’s request for clemency, and after a thorough review of the case, I am upholding the sentence of the State of Tennessee and do not plan to intervene,” said the governor.
It’s been 36 years since Smith was found guilty, and this is the fourth time he has stepped up to death row. The reason for the delay in 2022 was that Lee issued a temporary reprieve due to an “oversight in the lethal injection protocol,” which resulted in a three-year audit of the state’s execution process.
DEVELOPMENT
- Nashville's Ranger Station expands to New York (NBJ)
- Ingram Marine creating port on Cumberland River (NBJ)
- Five Points-area project listed for sale for $22M (Post)
- Gulch tower lands two tenants (Post)
✹ REPEAT OFFENDER ALL-STAR OF THE DAY
Michael Davenport has been at it a long time. You shouldn't be surprised that a 60-year-old arrested for a string of knife hold-ups has a lengthy criminal history. Only a seasoned expert would hazard a "kitchen knife" in a situation that could end in death. The three stick-ups happened in three consecutive days. I can imagine him waking up, feeling hungry, going into the kitchen, grabbing the knife, and shuffling out the door to get some money to buy some grub. Everyone's got to ply a trade to feed themselves. No shame. (More Info)
✹ THIS WEEK IN STREAMING (May 20th)
The Brutalist (HBO Max) Brady Corbet’s 3.5-hour epic about Hungarian architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody) undertaking the Sisyphean task of building a rural Pennsylvania community center was hands down the best film of 2024. As we said upon its release, its go-to reading as a meditation on the immigrant experience at the dawn of late capitalism says more about critical laziness than the movie itself. At its core, it’s a film about the all-consuming pursuit of turning tragedy into beauty and the toll life takes on those not up to that task.
Lost In Space (Hulu) Forget Netflix’s 2018 ultra-glossy reboot of the classic 60s sci-fi series and go back to the original. The Atomic Age tale of a nuclear family stranded in the cosmos is an enduring testament to family values and a window into the clear joy Hollywood techs used to have with practical effects world building.
Blind Fury (Tubi) Rutger Hauer plays a westernized blind samurai coming to terms with the physical and mental scars of Vietnam when he’s tasked with protecting the preteen son of his libertine war buddy when Vegas gangsters stage a kidnapping. It’s a hokey, hilarious, and totally badass late-80s American debut from Phillip Noyce, who’d put his stamp on the Tom Clancy universe with Harrison Ford in Patriot Games a few years later.
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide.
TONIGHT
🎸 Josh Hedley Happy Hour @ Dee's Lounge, 4p, Free, Info
🪕 George Clark Shifflett III & His Big Country Orchestra @ Station Inn, 8p, $20, Info
🎸 AC/DC @ Nissan Stadium, 7p, $110, Info
🎸 Wiz Khalifa @ Brooklyn Bowl, 8p, $63.05+, Info
🎸 Honky Tonk Tuesday @ Eastside Bowl, 8p, $10, Info
+ two-step lessons @ 7p, The Cowpokes @ 8p
📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
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Today's newsletter is brought to you by Megan Podsiedlik (Nashville), Camelia Brennan (Local Noise), and Davis Hunt (everything else).