Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell attended a Monday evening meeting with the city’s leading business leaders and lobbyists in a bid to secure their support for his mass transit referendum scheduled for November.
The meeting between O’Connell and Nashville community leaders took place at the offices of Ingraham Industries Inc., according to the Nashville Business Journal, which reported the mayor met with many of the groups and individuals who backed the failed transit plan pitched by disgraced Mayor Megan Barry in 2018.
According to the report, O’Connell assembled an “exclusive and prominent” group of 20 that included “John Ingram, chairman of Ingram Industries and member of the billionaire Ingram family; Sam Hazen, CEO of HCA Healthcare Inc.; Rob McCabe, chairman of Pinnacle Bank; Dr. Wright Pinson, deputy CEO of Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Jarron Springer, CEO of Greater Nashville Realtors; Charles Robert Bone, office managing partner of law firm Spencer Fane; and Bob Higgins, CEO of Barge Design Solutions.”
While the meeting’s results are unclear, the Business Journal reported that Nashville Chamber of Commerce CEO Ralph Schultz confirmed the point of the meeting was “to hear from the mayor what his plans are.” Top Vanderbilt University lobbyist Nathan Green told the outlet the mayor’s presentation was “impressive.”
O’Connell confirmed his intention to bring a mass transit referendum before voters in February but was scant on details. Since the mayor announced the referendum, he has signaled that he intends to raise the city’s sales tax by a half-cent to create more bus stops, crossing signals, and sidewalks throughout Nashville.
The mayor recently cited the results of a poll that claimed the majority of Nashvillians wanted more spending on mass transit. However, the pollsters admitted to intentionally oversampling black and Hispanic citizens in a bid to gain “greater insight.”
Nashville Tea Party founder Ben Cunningham recently called O’Connell’s transit plan a “greendoggle” he expects will result in increased property taxes.
Cunningham noted O’Connell is working with one of the same “greenie” organizations tapped by Barry in 2018 during a recent appearance on The Michael Patrick Leahy show. He told Leahy, the editor-in-chief of The Tennessee Star, “It basically just says all the people that were involved in 2018 are in charge of this.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Freddie O’Connell” by Freddie O’Connell, Mayor of Metropolitan Nashville & Davidson County. Background Photo “Nashville Downtown” by Cheryl A. Austin. CC BY-SA 4.0.
