Good morning, Nashville. The drama over the convention center and the $450,000 in PR spending escalated at last night’s Metro Council meeting. Councilman Mike Jameson got up at the beginning of the meeting during the time traditionally set aside for minor announcements and delivered a scathing speech which, among other things, accused PR firm McNeely Piggot & Fox of inappropriately lobbying the councilmembers. He also managed to call out the finance department for knowing that the outrageous spending was going on and the Tennessean of deceiving readers by allowing the firm to ghost-write a convention center article. At the end of it, he declared that fighting back against the city’s most influential PR firm would probably mean the end of his career.
- More controversy. The non-discrimination ordinance also came up again at last night’s meeting, stirred up another flurry of debate, and was pushed back while the sponsors are able to answer other councilmembers’ questions.
- New in town. Some folks are upset over a new strip club that will be opening up where Ken’s Gold Club used to be. The club, Arrow Nashville, will be Tennessee’s first male strip club.
- Bits & pieces. The Bruce Springsteen concert has been pushed back to November … The Metro Council came a little closer to opting us out of the guns in parks legislation … Tennessee wants to cut its prison population by 3,000 … Speaking of jails, a Nashville inmate is accusing the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office of stealing his prosthetic leg.
Photo by Ryan2013.