Dean to give State of Metro speech Tuesday

By MICHAEL CASS • Staff Writer(Tennesssean) • May 12, 2008 Mayor Karl Dean will deliver the annual State of Metro address - his first since he was elected last year - Tuesday morning. Dean will speak in the Grand Reading Room of the Nashville Public Library, 615 Church St., at 10:30 a.m. The event is free and open to the public, but limited seating will be available, the mayor's office said in a news release. Overflow seating will be provided. The library setting will be new this year. State of Metro was held in the Nashville Convention Center for years, then moved to the Public Square in front of the Metro Courthouse last spring amid criticism that the convention center seemed uninviting to average citizens. Many government and business leaders routinely attend the event. Dean is the sixth mayor of Metro government, which formed from the consolidation of the Nashville and Davidson County governments in 1963.

Metro program aims to change nonprofit grant process

By MICHAEL CASS • Staff Writer (tennesseam) • May 8, 2008 Nashville nonprofit organizations have about three weeks to apply for $2 million in Metro government grants under a new program Mayor Karl Dean announced today. The "community enhancement grants" will be available to groups working in three areas: domestic violence ($750,000), education/aftercare ($750,000) and community service ($500,000), which the program defines as services "that enhance the lives of Nashvillians and the community in which we live." Dean aides have previously mentioned the American Red Cross and Second Harvest Food Bank as examples of community service agencies. Dean said the city needs a new, less political system for awarding grants to nonprofits. “We have a number of nonprofit agencies that offer vital services to our community, many of which government itself cannot provide and would not otherwise be available. This grant program will ensure that those are the services our resources support and that funding decisions are based on needs and results,” the mayor said in a news release. A panel of reviewers selected by the mayor, the vice mayor and the chair of the Metro Council's Budget and Finance Committee will evaluate applications and make recommendations to the mayor, who will submit a budget amendment for the council's final approval as part of the city's operating budget, Dean spokeswoman Janel Lacy said.Lacy acknowledged that applicants who are turned down by the reviewers could lobby council members for funding in the final budget. She said the program could change in future years "depending on how this year goes." Applications are available today on page 11 of this web site: http://www.nashville.gov/finance/CEF/docs/CEFHandbook.pdf.. They're due at 4:30 p.m. on May 28 and will be reviewed June 10-12. "Pre-application training meetings" are scheduled for May 15 and 16. Times and places for the training sessions weren't announced.

Governor announces plan to cut 2,000 jobs from state payroll

By THEO EMERY and COLBY SLEDGE • Staff Writer (Tennessean) • May 7, 2008 The state will trim its payroll by over two thousand state employees because of budget cuts, and hopes to avoid layoffs by offering buyout packages, Gov. Phil Bredesen said Wednesday. “We’re going to do this in a way that’s respectful of them and to try to minimize the impact on any employee,” he said. The governor said the state will try to shed a total of 2,011 jobs, which total five percent of the executive branch of government, as part of his administration’s plans for budget cutting. In all, the state needs to shed $468 million from next year’s spending plan, of which $64 million will come from job cuts, he said. The reductions come in response to sinking state revenues. The State Funding Board had estimated that the administration could have to lop over $550 million from next year’s budget; the governor chose to cut less in order to minimize the impact on jobs, he said. On Monday, the governor will present the General Assembly with budget amendments that will close out this year with a balanced budget, as well as revisions to the state budget for next year.Some of Bredesen’s policy priorities have become casualties of the budget cuts. There will be no new spending for pre-Kindergarten in the revised budget, Bredesen said. An expansion of pre-K classrooms had been a major priority for his administration.The dire budget situation also spurred Bredesen to spike a bill that would have instated a new police policy of automatically revoking licenses for motorists pulled over for drunk driving. State Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz told House members that the administration will be looking for buyouts from among the 6,000 employees with 30 or more years of service in the state, but said the state would try to make the package appeal broadly to employees. “We are having to take steps we otherwise would not want to take,” Goetz said.

NES president tops Metro pay chart again

By MICHAEL CASS • Staff Writer (Tennessean) • May 7, 2008 While the Metro government prepares to lay off 200 people, another 200 sit at the top of the city's salary heap, each of them pulling in a six-figure salary. The list of Metro's best-paid employees is again led by Decosta Jenkins, president and CEO of Nashville Electric Service, the city's power utility. Jenkins is making more than $257,000 this year, according to data compiled by Metro Human Resources. But Raul Regalado, president of the Nashville Airport Authority, could make more than Jenkins if he meets performance goals. Regalado makes $232,000 but could earn a 20 percent bonus for an additional $46,400, said airport spokeswoman Emily Richard, who noted that Regalado's pay comes from airport revenues, not property tax dollars. Jenkins and other NES employees aren't eligible for bonuses. However, 49 of them are among the city's 200 best paid, including three of the top four and six of the top 10. No other Metro department or agency has more than 13 employees on the list. NES is run by an appointed board that doesn't answer to the mayor or Metro Council and doesn't receive tax dollars to pay its employees. Leo Waters, chairman of the NES board and a former councilman, said the salaries are often necessary to attract good people. "Compared to Metro government, the salaries are high," Waters said. "But most of those folks have very technical, specialized skills, and some of them have been there a long time." Waters also called Jenkins, NES's day-to-day leader since 2004, "one of the better administrators you'll find anywhere." Each of the 200 employees in the elite group makes at least $101,749. Two years ago, 160 employees made at least $100,000, and the lowest salary on the top-200 list was $95,971. There are more than 10,000 employees in Metro's central government. When NES, the airport, schools and several other agencies are included, the work force jumps to about 22,000. The salary list also shows that the mayor's salary doesn't go as far as it used to. Former Mayor Bill Purcell ranked 26th on the pay scale in 2006; his successor, Mayor Karl Dean, ranks 43rd. The mayor's salary is fixed by Metro statute at $136,500. Dean's deputy mayor, finance director and law director all make more, and Dean made more when he was Purcell's law director, earning $143,190 in 2006.