It's always been in the family

This morning's City Paper is filling in the back story regarding the anticipated departure of a Nashville Planning Department employee. They take care to note the associations that really are, and have been for quite some time, a part of every day political life in Nashville. The convoluted associations aren't surprising to anyone who has been around a while. What is downright surprising and embarassing is that anyone who has been elected to the Council is unaware of how deep and wide some of these relationships are and actually says so.

As one Council member said while leaving yesterday’s surprising meeting, “I had no idea how incestuous this whole process was.”

Where has s/he been all this time? The paper gives us this juicy and illuminating quote but doesn't tell us which Council member was so terribly clueless. They are doing them a BIG favor in not revealing their identity. I hope they appreciate it.

Unless we want the Council to take up the saying of former Senator Wilder and get a pass just because "Metro is Metro" we need our media outlets to continue to make those connections and fill out the story if we're ever going to reign in these conflicts of interest. We need voters to pay attention at election time to these conflicts of interests. Conflicts of interest that are not confined to Metro but are very well demonstrated by the Tennessee House Democrats--the majors, if you will, to the Metro farm team.