The Metropolitan Council of Nashville and Davidson County held a special meeting on May 7, 2026, at 6:30 PM in the Historic Metro Courthouse (34 members present, 7 absent). The agenda included elections, appointments, confirmations, public hearings on 24 zoning ordinances, resolutions, and administrative actions. Mayor O'Connell's message proposed a 22% cut in the local option sales tax on groceries, a $69 million investment in the Unified Housing Strategy, and full funding of the employee pay plan. The city's credit ratings were reaffirmed, and a $556.66 million bond refinancing at 3.188% interest saved $18.83 million. Council members also addressed state legislative actions on redistricting.
Everyone, today is Thursday, May the seventh, and I would like to open up our announcement period. I would like to open by acknowledging that this meeting is being held on the unceded stolen land of the Cherokee Shiny and UC people, and to remind you all that no one is illegal on stolen land that was built by stolen labor. Councilmember Ellis, you are recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair. So I rise to um let the public know that on May the twenty third, I'm going to be hosting a aging well session uh in connection with United Way, and it's where you can come learn about um wills, power of attorneys, um, and things to protect your uh asset. And it's a free event. It is from ten until twelve. Um, some of you may not know, uh, last year about eleven months ago, uh, the council had passed a resolution to grant money to United Way through the um, I forget exactly what it's called. But anyhow, your tax dollars have gone to service, uh, legacy planning options for you. And I'm hosting an event, Smith Springs, uh, community center from ten AM until noon on May the twenty-third. So come out. Thank you, Councilmember Ellis. Council Member Styles, are you looking to be recognized? Councilmember Styles, you recognize. We are having an all Antioch cleanup. It is districts 8, 28, 29, 31, 32, and 33. We will be at the Southeast Community Center, also in the parking lot of Compton's, as well as the parking lot of Hamilton United Methodist Church. And we will be doing shredded, recycling, bulk items, and there will be a clothing collection at the Hamilton United Methodist Church location. So we'll also be having neighborhoods doing cleanups. So this is everyone in Antioch coming together to clean up and make our neighborhood beautiful. So if you are living in any of those districts, look for the flyers. We'll all be sharing them as council members and also beautification commissioners. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Styles. Councilmember Surra, you're recognized. Thank you, Pro Tim. I really don't have an announcement, but I just feel the need to get up and say something about what went down at the state capital this week. A lot of people think what just happened was about Memphis, but it's not about Memphis only because that map actually affects Nashville as well. But what was apparent from what went down is that everything that was done was intentionally done to raise the voices of black people. As a student of the civil rights movement, as somebody who talks about Lewis and Nash and the students in this city that stood, that fought, that were beaten, that were jailed to to be able to get the rights to votes and for everything that it did for all of that to be rolled back with the voices of blacks are be taken. And what was so unful and was so sad about this whole thing was how intentional, how uncaring, how malicious it felt. I'll I'll how you can tell that people the GOP was doing this on purpose. And they did not care that black people were being hurt after everything that blacks is going through in this country, 250 years later of independence, 400 years of uh of what's been here building this city. That chamber was built by slaves by black people, and what they did then to today was an insult to the people that build those chambers, to the voices that have gone that have left. So I just uh I had to say something. I couldn't say it all in there, but I felt like at least I have a voice in here. And uh there is a quote by Angela Davis that says in the racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist. You must be anti-racist. So what are we all doing about it? It's gonna affect all of us at the end of the day. But today is such a sad day, and um, history is gonna tell on all the people that did it. Just like we're celebrating the people that fought for freedom after we all are gone, the people that did today, history. We remember them as people that ruled things back and that they were coward, that we that that they had no soul, and the with me. Thank you. Thank you, Councilmember Sora. I was gonna wait to the um end of the announcement period to comment on it personally, but I'll um just piggyback off of uh what you said. Um I'm sitting here with no voice because I've spent the last three days at the Capitol. Um and Councilmember Sora was was there as well as some of my other colleagues uh being originally from Memphis and native uh Memphian, lifelong Tennessee, and it was extremely frustrating, extremely hurtful, extremely disappointing. Um, but what we saw was beautiful resilience and hope and um even when people try to bury us, we still rise and to see so many elected officials, organizers and community groups and clergy stand together um to stand for uh fair maps in Memphis and to sit stand for fair representation uh was truly inspiring. So um while we are uh we took a hit today, we are um our heads are bloody but unbowed, and we will continue the fight.