August 4 election and proposed charter amendments
The upcoming August 4, 2022, election is the Davidson County general election, the state and federal primary election, and a referendum on 4 proposed Metro Charter amendments.
UPDATE (July 13, 2022): I’ve added some additional details based on questions I’ve heard since this was posted.
Here is a list of candidates and a sample ballot for this election.
Early voting runs from July 15 to July 30. Here is the complete Early Voting schedule.
On Election Day, August 4, 2022, you must vote in your designated polling place between 7 AM and 7 PM. PLEASE REMEMBER THAT MANY POLLING LOCATIONS CHANGED THIS YEAR. YOU CAN CHECK FOR YOUR POLLING PLACE HERE.
There are 4 proposed Metro Charter amendments on the ballot. They are on pages 11 through 17 of the sample ballot.
I am urging everyone to vote “FOR RATIFICATION” on the amendments.
Here is a brief description of each:
No. 1: This amendment changes the process for amending the Metro Charter. It is an attempt to bring certainty to the process and to reduce litigation. Over the last several years, Metro has had to pay outside lawyers more than $1 million to fight lawsuits about amending the Charter. It’s time to fix this process. The changes include:
Currently it is difficult to determine how many signatures are needed to amend the Charter. The amendment would clarify that a petition must obtain signatures from 10% of the registered voters in the county within 90 days.
Currently there is substantial litigation over whether the language on petition forms is legally proper or not. The amendment would require approval of petition language (and any litigation about it) to happen before voters are asked to sign the petition.
Currently I think that some people try to game the timing of a petition for their advantage. The amendment would spell out the process timeline in more detail to hopefully avoid that gamesmanship.
UPDATE (July 13, 2022): A few have suggested that the new standard for signatures if Amendment No. 1 passes would be higher than other counties in Tennessee. This is absolutely NOT accurate. The state law that applies in 93 of our 95 counties requires the signatures of 15% of all registered voters to be gathered in 75 days. If Amendment No. 1 passes, Nashville will have a lower threshold (only 10%) and allow more time (90 days) to gather signatures than these other counties.
Metro needs this amendment to pass. The rules about how to amend the Charter have been driving non-stop lawsuits for several years now. That’s a strong sign that the current language isn’t working. We need to try to fix this problem.
No. 2: This would change the physical fitness qualifications for police officers. Currently, police officers must meet the same physical requirements for admission to the U.S. Army or Navy. The amendment would allow the requirements to be set by the civil service commission. The amendment also would modify U.S. citizenship requirements for the police department to be consistent with state law. Both of these changes are intended to increase and diversify the group of people who are qualified to serve in the Metro Nashville Police Department.
UPDATE (July 13, 2022): Here are more details about the proposed change to the citizenship requirement to be a police officer. The current Charter requires that officers must be U.S. citizens. If Amendment No. 2 passes, Metro would take advantage of a state law that allows lawful permanent residents (meaning, you have a green card) who have been honorably discharged from the U.S. military to be eligible to be police officers.
No. 3: This is a needed technical amendment to update and modernize Charter references to the board of health and the Metro Public Health Department. The amendment would add an additional member to the Board of Health and update the qualifications for the members . The amendment would clarify the distinction between the Board of Health and the Department of Health to ensure oversight by the Board of Health. The amendment would remove the requirement that the Director of Health be a medical doctor and provide that if the director is not a medical doctor, then there must also be a Chief Medical Officer who is a medical doctor or doctor of osteopathy.
No. 4: This is a needed technical amendment to formally create the Nashville Department of Transportation (NDOT). Currently, the Metro Charter refers to a “Public Works” department. Due to restructuring to modernize the department, there is now NDOT. The Charter needs to be updated to formally create the department.
Please join me in voting “FOR RATIFICATION” for each of these amendments.