Board makes quick work of consent, regular agendas
By SUSAN LEATHERS
Brentwood Home Page
An otherwise short and routine Brentwood City Commission meeting Monday night was marked with both action and reaction to a lawsuit filed Friday against the commission and City Manager Mike Walker by the Williamson County Election Commission.

As part of City Attorney Roger Horner’s report, he asked Walker to read the statement the city released to the media Monday morning in response to the lawsuit so that it would be part of the meeting’s permanent record. (Click here to read statement, previously posted.)

During their individual reports, the seven board members commented on the suit, all voicing their support of the city’s decision to deny the county election committees edict that it would use the Brentwood Library for early voting in the upcoming Presidential Preference Primary, and by default, for subsequent election periods.

As an added agenda item under new business,  the board unanimously approved the retention of Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, a Nashville law firm, to represent them in response to the lawsuit. The case will be heard in Williamson County Chancery Court on Jan. 19

Richard Fankhauser, past president and current board member of Friends of the Brentwood Library organization, addressed the board and expressed his personal and the Friends’ support of the city’s decision. Two of the Friends’ upcoming quarterly book sales would be displaced by the July and October early voting

 “I understand that a lawsuit has been filed by the Election Committee on this issue, so again I ask that you work with them to find another location and if that cannot be accomplished that you do your best in resisting their mandate,” Fankhauser said.   

Among the commissioners’ comments:

Anne Dunn:  “As one who is elected, I certainly value early voting. … but I don’t like it when the federal government forces something on the state. I don’t like it when the state forces something on the county, and I don’t like it when an appointed board forces something on us. Any level of government that is one notch higher can be heavy-handed with the one below them and I don’t know that that’s right. … Let’s all find some common ground.”

Jill Burgin:  “I don’t want to overlook the importance of the groups that meet at the library. The programming there has simply grown to the point that it is not an appropriate place for a crowd the size that will turn out for an election. …. I also hope that the county’s current budget status would influence the election commission a little bit, because I think this is wasteful and completely unnecessary.”

Rhea Little, on the hiring of a "good law firm to defend us": “We didn’t cause this lawsuit, we only want to defend our rights. When terms like commandeering are used for public structures from one entity trying to impose their will on another it smacks of tyranny and it needs to be resisted in small forms and in large forms. Commandeering of a building is fine in time of emergency but this is not a time of emergency. I hate that we as citizens of Brentwood are having to bear this expense but I think the principal involved is much more valuable than what the expense will be.”

In other business, the commission:

• Unanimously passed the consent agenda which included authorizing an agreement with Pictometry International Corporation to update the city’s Geographic Information System by completing a comprehensive aerial survey and ratifying the emergency purchase of traffic signal video detection system for the Franklin Road and Murray Lane intersection.

• Passed on first reading a rezoning ordinance to change the residential zoning designations of approximately two acres of land in Windstone subdivision.

• Passed three related resolutions authorizing agreements with three firms to complete ongoing sewer lateral lining work associated with the city’s Sewer Rehabilitation Program. Walker explained there was too much work for any one firm to complete.

The work already completed on the sewer rehab is saving the city approximately $600,000 a year just in treatment costs, Walker said. “I will also say it is leading to a cleaner environment.”