O’Connell Approaches First Big Tests in Mayor’s Office | Metropolitik

Metropolitik is a recurring column featuring the Scene’s analysis of Metro dealings.

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Unlike you, reading news in the Scene, most Nashvillians have relatively few touch points with local government. They might know Freddie O’Connell for the billionaires-and-bachelorettes campaign ad that launched him into last summer’s runoff — then into the mayor’s office. They will also know him, and judge him, by this year’s transit referendum and a possible property tax increase next year.

O’Connell introduced his 2025 budget at a special Metro Council meeting on May 1. Councilmember At-Large Delishia Porterfield, chair of the council’s Budget and Finance Committee, now sponsors the budget as legislation. The body has four regularly called meetings to debate, supplement, amend or contest the mayor’s budget, and until June 30 to pass something that will authorize another fiscal year. Otherwise, O’Connell’s budget goes into effect by default. The preeminence of the executive’s proposed budget is the key feature of Nashville’s “strong mayor” system of government. It’s O’Connell’s goal to pass this paperwork, already being framed by his office as business-as-usual, with as little controversy as possible.

“The first time I was here was in 2019,” said Metro finance director Kevin Crumbo on May 1 after brief introductory remarks from O’Connell. “At that time, our financial position was in a much different place than we find it today. It was quite troubled. The city was running low on cash because we’d been through a few cycles where we’d invested heavily in the city. We had not really adjusted our tax base or revenues to match up to that.”

Crumbo gestured around the chamber with a creeping smile as he prepared to deliver (again) the blockbuster line favored by nerdy city managers for the past five years. He looked the part behind wire-framed glasses and a mop of unkempt hair.

“Many of you here at the time, or watching on a camera, can remember that the state was here threatening to take over the city if we couldn’t get our act together — we got our act together,” Crumbo continued. “In the four years that followed that, the city is in the best financial condition that it has been in in a very long time.”

Speaking for the bond market, the claim is true. Crumbo — exiled from Cooper’s finance department in the midst of interpersonal friction with the former mayor before returning in the fall under O’Connell — is the familiar Metro face who can project stability while the mayor tends to transit. Next year, Crumbo’s sober fiscal analysis may take the fall for a predicted property tax increase.

Flat city revenue, deflated in part by an $8.25 million decrease in local sales tax revenue from 2023 to 2024, remains the budget’s most notable headline since Stephen Elliott reported out projections for the Nashville Banner in April. The city plans to supplement with $25.2 million from the fund balance, Metro’s bank account.

“The fund balance usage of those funds above the reserve policy amount is for one-time use,” budget officer Aaron Pratt reminded the room last week after a question from Councilmember At-Large Burkley Allen.

New Metro policy requires that the city keep two months’ operating expenses (about $490 million) on hand as a reserve balance.

Without many exciting positive numbers to highlight, O’Connell’s office touts this year’s 3.5 percent salary bump for Metro employees. Across the school system and city departments, Metro is a principal city employer, with varying compensation schedules and different criteria governing wage and salary pay. Budgeted increases result from an initial recommendation by Metro Human Resources (3.5 percent this year) and a response from the Metro Civil Service Commission, which recommended 4 percent after an independent analysis weighing metrics like inflation and the employment cost index. O’Connell stuck to his department’s recommendation at 3.5 percent. Not doing so would likely be seen as an insult to city employees and a hit to the city’s efforts to recruit and retain its ranks. Monthly budget reports show chronic understaffing, with departments like the Nashville Department of Transportation and Multimodal Infrastructure and city libraries below 90 percent employment. Nashvillians have likely encountered the citywide recruiting effort, which includes job fairs and bathroom ads. Police and fire departments are both between 90 and 95 percent staffed, according to Metro’s February report.

O’Connell steps behind the podium for his first State of Metro address at 10 am on May 14. His chosen location — the expo center at The Fairgrounds Nashville — nods to the old and new. Racetrack operator Bristol Motor Speedway recently reignited renovation debates over city funding to make the site NASCAR-ready, an effort that appeared to die with the Bristol-friendly Cooper administration before re-entering the political rumor mill a few months ago. Bus access to nearby Nashville SC games has become a fundamental part of Geodis Park culture, while pleasant improvements to Benton Avenue and Walsh Road give the site a whiff of successful city projects.

Expect O’Connell to spend any free media attention from now until November on the merits of his transit plan. Discussion in council this summer will help clarify the far-reaching effort, headlined by an expansion of bus lanes and bus service. Winning the driver vote will require explaining its wonkier elements, like a much-needed countywide update to NDOT traffic signals, putting O’Connell back into campaign mode for the next six months.