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BL2024-469

This discussion topic was requested by Council Member Sheri Weiner regarding Ordinance No. BL2024-469. 

From CM Weiner:

I appreciate CM Preptit for bringing to our attention the need for protections against hate groups.

I would hope that no one objects to the basic premise of the proposed ordinance that any Metro employee’s participation in hate groups and/or paramilitary gangs has zero place in our society anytime, anyplace and for any reason and that such engagement is considered discriminatory and unfair to the constituents of Davidson County.

We do our best to present legislation that is comprehensive and  doesn’t require future band-aids to fix things we didn’t address.  Think how many times we had to go back and fix STR legislation and now are dealing with some tweaks to Public Comment rules thanks to CM Suara.  

That said, I have a slew of questions about CM Preptit’s bill:

  1. What happens if, in the age of Artificial Intelligence, someone decides to create an alternate website, social media profile, and/or posts or reports videos that depict anyone of us in this room or, for that matter any of our metro employees, board and commission members in a way that is not true…setting anyone of them up for false accusation?  We have not yet addressed the impact and/or management of AI in either proposed ordinance.
  2. What happens if this occurs before a procedure is in place for managing those bad actors who have really violated the scope of either of these proposed ordinances?  
  3. What’s the remedy in the event that a violation occurred?
  4. Why do we need to move this forward now and, instead, take the time to work collaboratively on a deeper dive so we don’t do this wrong or incomplete?

To that end, I think a two-meeting deferral of BL2024-469 is appropriate so that we and Metro legal can focus on the questions being asked and make sure we have a product that addresses the issue without going too far afield and running counter to state or federal laws.  I would hate to build something that ensnares the innocent while not comprehensively managing the bad actors in a meaningful way.  

Thanks, y’all.