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Nashville Entertainment Commission legislation

This discussion topic was requested by Council Member Styles regarding Nashville Entertainment Commission legislation.

From CM Styles:


Colleagues,

Today, the Mayor's Office is once again attempting to take control of the Entertainment Office, an office that was of no importance to Freddie as a Council Member. But in an ego grab as Mayor, he believes he suddenly knows best. He does not.

My concern is not about petty squabbles, but rather what is best for Nashville's creative community. The commission we created last term is ready to go with the hiring of the final candidate from February. They had been waiting for the Mayor to make the announcement as agreed upon in last year's legislation, but the Mayor again is trying to change the rules. 

Let's do a quick run down of the last three years:

  1. After much contention last term, the commission was finally created and commissioners were appointed in August of 2023. The legislation stated clearly that while housed in the Mayor's Office, the commission would hire the director. The previous Mayor AND Metro Legal were good with this. 


  2. 2025 - In January, after HR had closed the application window on the Executive Director position (with a record 122 applicants), the Mayor decided the commission should not have hiring power and filed legislation (without the commission's knowledge) that he would become the decision maker for hiring. Suddenly, Metro Legal claimed that it wasn't possible to house it in the Mayor's Office without being under his control. Convenient. No one ever communicated with those applicants what happened. There was no follow-up.


    New legislation was agreed to between myself and the administration that the commission would work with HR and select the candidates and send over their choices to the Mayor. He would then interview them and make the formal announcement. 


  3. 2026 - A new hiring process was finally completed and two candidates made the final cut to be the executive director. These two candidates were sent over to the Mayor in February. He interviewed both of them. They were not notified until after the Mayor's budget was published that he had removed all of the funding from the office. One of the candidates has already dropped out due to this political nonsense. The other candidate very much wants this position and is ready to go. 
There are no more conversations to be had. There are only lies to be told. The most prevalent lie right now is that this office was always going to be an office of one and did not have internal supports. 

Last year we added an additional $150,000 to the $100,000 that was already in the account. That is a total of $250,000 that was going to hire an executive director and a coordinator. It was never going to be an office of one. 

We have received numerous emails from our creative communities in support of funding this office and the hiring of the executive director. When we created this commission it was designed so that no mayoral administration would be able to affect it. And the very games that we have witnessed for the last 3 years are proof of why they do not want Mayors involved. 

I am asking your for your support of my legislation which goes back to the original intention of the commission, working with HR to select candidates and go through the hiring process and make the announcement of the executive director. We have someone right now that is ready and available and has been vetted by both the Mayor's office and the commission. 

I am extremely grateful the Budget Chair Toombs shared that she is supportive of funding the office at $300,000, and the colleagues that are supporting the funding as well. It is long overdue for this office to be up and running. This funding also allows for additional items that are needed for the office to get up and running to be procured. 

Our creative communities deserve better than these shenanigans. We have made a bad habit in this city of exploiting creatives to our benefit with nothing given in return. Please let us do the right thing and pass legislation that will support them, not undermine them.