Metro Members Talk Convention Center, Budget With Council Lady Emily Evans

Council member Emily Evans was the guest speaker at the February meeting of Local 205's Metro chapter.  Evans met with union members from Social Services, the Water Department, Metro Schools, and even a retiree to talk about the Music City Center and this year's budget cuts.

Evans weighed in on the recent campaign to stop the Music City Center, which now puts the city's General Fund (and employees' raises and benefits) at risk.  "Once the new center is built, Nashville will have more convention space than New York City," Evans said.  When asked by a union member what happens next, Evans - one of the MCC's leading opponents - said she expects to see another fight over building a hotel for the new convention center.  "Anything could happen, but it's going to be a tough sell to get a private company to build a hotel in this economy.  That would mean the city would have to build a new hotel that would cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars".  Trina Jordan, who works in the Homeless Division of Metro Social Services, was troubled by all the money being spent on big projects like the Music City Center while the city's homelessness problem continues to get worse. "The people I see now are people like you and me," Trina said. "They had a job, they had a home, they had a college degree, and now they're out on the street. And our response is to throw money at the Chamber crowd for their new big box downtown? It's outrageous!"  Evans urged SEIU to be part of the effort to hold city officials accountable.  "We really have to start talking about what our priorities as a city are," Evans said.  "We can't do something as big as the convention center and still expect to be able to fund all the other things we want to do.  Our employees, our infrastructure, and our schools should be our top priorities."

Evans also weighed in on the next big issue facing city employees, the Metro budget.  "All the departments have been asked to propose cuts of 7.5% and the department heads are all trying to wrap their minds around that," she says.  Since Karl Dean took office, some Metro departments have been slashed by over 25% and the result has been hundreds of layoffs, not to mention cuts to services and programs.  "I think Parks and Public Works are going to get the worst of it this year again," Evans predicted.  "None of us really expect to see a tax increase this year and with tax collections way down, it's hard to see how employees are going to get raises or how to avoid more layoffs."  When asked about whether the union can make a difference, it was pointed out that in the last few years, SEIU has managed to prevent their members from losing jobs in nearly every case.  "The Union's first priority is our members," said Mark Naccarato, the Local's political coordinator.  "Departments are going to be laying off and now is the time for employees who haven't joined the union to sign up and have someone on their side fighting for them."

The next Metro Government chapter meeting will be on Saturday, March 13 at 10 am at the Union Hall.  The topic and speaker will be announced soon.