
An Overdue Newsletter with a New Format Coming and a Metro Budget 101 Series Everyone Should Attend
Dear Friends,
It’s been a few months since I last sent out a newsletter. I will freely admit it’s been a challenge to sit and focus on writing one during these strange times… tornado recovery, global pandemic, Presidential election and significant budget issues. I am hopeful about the news regarding the success with progress towards a vaccine and recovery from the tornado is ongoing, but good progress has been made.
I’m going to soon change the format of my newsletters to be shorter and hopefully more regular. As always, your feedback is welcome and encouraged. For now, I wanted to get this critical information out to you ASAP. I strongly encourage everyone to get more engaged in our budget issues and processes so we can have more productive conversations about them. One of my greatest frustrations with this year is the inability to have town halls. I started looking at doing a live streamed town hall, but this series below is even better. I may be a day or two late getting this newsletter to your inbox before the first meeting of the series, but it will be rebroadcast and available to watch online as well.
Councilmembers Kyonzté Toombs (Chair) & Delishia Porterfield (Vice-Chair) of the Budget and Finance Committee, will be hosting a Virtual Metro Budget 101 Series over the next few months. The sessions, beginning at 6PM, will provide transparency and education for the general public concerning Metro Nashville Davidson County’s revenues, and the budget process.
Questions from the public may be submitted to kyonzte.toombs@nashville.gov by 5PM on the day before the session. All questions must be on-topic.
How does the city get money?
- November 19, 2020 – Property Taxes: Assessor of Property Vivian Wilhoite, Trustee Erica Gilmore
- December 3, 2020 – Sales Tax: Councilmember At-Large Bob Mendes
- December 17, 2020 – City/State Revenue: Finance Director Kevin Crumbo and State Rep. Harold Love
How does the city spend money?
- January 7, 2021 – Metro Nashville Public Schools: School Board Member Freda Player-Peters, Chief Operating and Financial Officer Chris Henson
- January 14, 2021 – Metro Public Works and Metro Parks Departments: Public Works Interim Director Shanna Whitelaw
- January 21, 2021 – Nashville General Hospital
- January 28, 2021 – Public Safety (Metro Nashville Police Department, Sheriff’s Office, District Attorney’s Office)
Community Panel Discussions
- February 4, 2021 – Community Panel Discussion
- February 11, 2021 – Expert Panel Discussion
- February 18, 2021 – How the Budget Process Works
- February 25, 2021 – Participatory Budget: Councilmember At-Large Zulfat Suara
This series of sessions will provide helpful Information, and I hope you will participate as we wort through this upcoming 2021 budget year. The schedule will be updated as speakers are confirmed.
The public may watch the following meetings live online at:
https://www.nashville.gov/…/Metro…/Live-Streaming.aspx
Metro Nashville and Davidson County residents can view Metro Nashville Network on Comcast channel 3, AT&T U-verse channel 99, Google Fiber channel 3, and streaming on the MNN Roku channel.
As always, don’t hesitate to call me if I can be of service. My cell is 615-886-9906. I wish you and your families a very Happy Thanksgiving.
Best,
