A Nashville-Davidson County Proposal
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University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange MTAS History Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) 4-1958 Government for Metropolis: A Nashville-Davidson County Proposal Daniel R. Grant Nashville-Davidson County Community Services Commission Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_mtashist Part of the Public Administration Commons The MTAS publications provided on this website are archival documents intended for informational purposes only and should not be considered as authoritative. The content contained in these publications may be outdated, and the laws referenced therein may have changed or may not be applicable to your city or circumstances. For current information, please visit the MTAS website at: mtas.tennessee.edu. Recommended Citation Grant, Daniel R., "Government for Metropolis: A Nashville-Davidson County Proposal" (1958). MTAS History. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_mtashist/40 This Newsletter is brought to you for free and open access by the Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in MTAS History by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Metropolitan Government- . Tennessee ARCHIVE VOL. XXXVll APRIL, )958 No. 'f. / ( -/ / ' l//f,,' i '1:"/t .... ) ),(/; ·/,") { i \/.-_<_ /Jlfit'li / Government - Major Problem for A The reorganization of local government in metropolitan areas is the major problem in American local government. One mode Metropolis of such reorganization is city-county con solidation. Amendment Eight to __ the Ten nessee Constitution has iiVen renewed im A Nashville -Davidson County petus to· this ··movement. · In the 1957 ses sion of the legislature, an act was passed Proposal/ · to permit city-county consolidation in the four big counties of Tennessee. Nashville By Daniel R. Grant, Assistant Director and Davidson County created a cha1·ter ' Nashville�Davidson °C�unty Comm�nity Services commission and is the first of the four big Con1mission areas to bring in a completed charter. Dr. Daniel R. Grant of Vanderbilt Uni With the filing on Ma1·ch 28 of a proposed versity has been closely identified with metropolitan government cha1·ter1 Nashville and metropolitan studies. He served as Assist Davidson County have moved one step close1• ant Director of the Nashville-Davidson towa1·d creating a new species of local gove1·n County Co1nmunity Services Commission ment1 one that is distinctly metropolitan in its and as Associate Director of the Home Rule 'design. The metropolitan charter, to be voted Commission of Harris County (Houston, on June 17, would abolish the City of Nashville Texas). He has been a consultant of the and Davidson County and consolidate their func Tennessee city-county consolidation plans. tions in a · single "Metropolitan Government of The Bureau of Public Administration Nashville and Davidson County." of The Unive1·sity of Tennessee, which spon The single metropolitan government would sors this news letter, is heavily concerned · };lave a, "metropolitan mayor"- who would take \Vith the metropolitan problem. One of its the place of the present city and county execu staff is currently serving the Knox County �ives, and a "metropolitan council" which would Knoxville Metropolitan Charter Commission, �ssume the functions of the city and county which is working on a draft of a charter for €;overning bodies. The charter designates certain city-county consolidation. Other staff mem bers are presently preparing studies on fovernmental functions, such as health, hospitals, f.nd courts, as general services for which both Knox County metropolitan problems. We {trban and rural residents would pay taxeS. Other think Dr. Grant's report on the Nashville unctions, such as sewers, fire protection, and Davidson charter, as published here, will t . �treet lighting, are designated as urban se1·vices add significantly to public knowledge of for which only urban residents would pay taxes. this important issue. eparate majorities inside and outside the City S l,EE S. GREENE, Directoi· of Nashville are required for adoption of the The Bureau of Public Administration �barter. If the vote is favorable, officers of the �ew govern1nent would be elected on November JUN 2 5 195B MT AS LIBRART (C 4; 1958, and would take office on January 1, 1959. munity policies, progra1ns, successes, or failures, This proposal has arisen from a fact that has but a great number of Nashville's civic leaders become more and more obvious-1netropolitan do not vote in Nashville at all, nor can they hold Nashville has outgrown both its city and county elective office or serve on many of its boards and governments. This simple fact has been at the commissions. 1·oot of a complex variety of metropolitan prob By comparison with other metropolitan areas lems which have become the sllbject of several in the United States, the Nashville area still has studies and proposals in recent years. ;Metro a relatively small number of separate units of politan Nashville has outgrown the city govern government. In addition to Nashville and ment geographically, and has outgrown the ru1·al Davidson County, eight "half-governments" are type county government in its ability to serve now in existence-four small satellite cities and an expanding urban community. More than one four suburban utility districts. The four suburban half of metropolitan Nashville's population, esti cities, Belle Meade, Berry Hill, Oak Hill, and mated to be 368,000, live outside the legal boun Forrest Hills, \Vhile totaling less than 15,000 in daries of the city. Thirty years without app1·e their co1nbined population, are fairly large in cia7le annexation by Nashville have resulted in terms of geographic area and occupy a con thf growth of a large doughnut-shaped "city" of siderable portion 'of the area south of Nashville's ore than 130 square miles surrounding the legal boundaries. They exist principally for zoning ty of about 23 square miles. purposes, but perform a limited number of serv ices. The utility districts provide \Vater supply J Gro\vth Creates Many Problen1s and, in some cases, a few other services to parts The effects of this governmental situation of the suburban area. may be summarized as follows: (1) This subur ban "city" which is even larger than the central Pro11osal Culminates Years of Activity city is provided· \Vith none of the customary urban The proposed metropolitan govern1nent charter services or else is getting by with an unsatisfac is the culmination of several years of activity tory makeshift arrangement for partial service. involving legislative, administrative, and civic The absence of a sanitary sewer system in an action, and three nrofessional studies. The study area \Vhere the soil is poorly suited for septic on which the metropolitan charter is most closely tank . operation is probably the most serious patterned is the one made by the Nashville and suburban deficiency, but there is also inadequate Davidson County Planning Commissions which police and fire p1·otection, street lighting, public resulted in the published report in October, 1956, recreation, and street standards. (2) The·existing F'lan of iV! etropolitci1i Goveriu11ent, The first metro city, county and special district governments lack politan survey to be tnade in Nashville was that either the jurisdiction or adequate po\ver and of the Community Services Commission, whose governmental machinery to cope with essentially report, A Future for Nashville, was published in area-wide proble1ns on a unified basis. (3) Sepa June, 1952. Dr. Lee S. G1·eene of The University rate city and county governments not only result of Tennessee served as Executive Dh·ector of this in wasteful duplications, but also tend to stimulate study. The Tecotnmendations were for large-scale unfortunate pulling· and hauling, and division of annexation and the transfer of four functions A J community leadeTship at times when unity of health, hospitals, schools and welfare-to a coun action is urgently needed. ( 4) With the effec ty-wide basis.. Although no annexation took tivenes_s of democracy depending upon fixing· place, the functions of health and welfaTe were Tesponsibility clearly, perhaps the most se1·ious transferred to Davidson County and a greateT result of fTagmented metropolitan government is awareness of the metropolitan community and the dispersion and dissipation of citizens' control its problems was undoubtedly stimulated. This of theiT government. Nol only does it become group considered that city-county consolidation difficult to determine which governments or faCed too many constitutional obstacles. officials are dUe the credit or blame for com- Two legal developments which took place after the 1952 report of the Com1nunity Services THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE Commission had an important effect upon the preparation of a new proposal by the planning NEWS LETTER commissions in their 1956 report. One was the constitutional elimination of annexation by the Knoxville, No. April, 1968 Tenn. 2 local bill method, a method which had been pro posed for use by the 1952 report. In spite of Published bimonthly by 'I'he Univer i _ _ En tered as second-class n"itimr, 0VelnbC1' , 1921, at the the p ssag·e by the 1955 State Legislature of Post Office at o ille, Tennessee under Act of August 3. Kn xv 1 t Ac e�lo ihathng ai special