Nathan Moore's Thoughts
So Far The Only Person Not To Use English in a Council Meeting…
Is Eric Crafton himself. We learned that today (or, actually, we learned it before, but got reminded repeatedly today, as if it was a good thing). In the discussion section of the forum, current Davidson County GOP chairman Tom Lawless noted the law breaking associated with that stunt. NewsChannel 5 has video of the debate at the bottom of this story. The Nashville Post also has commentary
The debate pitted Nashville attorney and conservative blogger Nathan Moore against leaders of Nashville English First, the group pushing the English Only charter amendment proposal. Moore has been a vocal critic of English Only. Councilman Eric Crafton and former Davidson County Republican Party Chairman Jon Crisp, along with Nashville attorney Jim Roberts, combined to represent the support for English Only.
Until this morning, I was told I would only be debating Jon Crisp, I must admit I am a little embarrassed for how this turned out for them.
“The facts and the numbers, which are not often talked about by those supporting this amendment, speak to opposition,” Moore said, pointing out that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act requires local governments to offer services in other languages if it is receiving federal funds. “We already know we can’t cut 97 percent of the services due to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
If this election costs us half a million dollars, it will take over 165 years to pay for this special election with what we “saved”. Anyone care to give me the net present value on that?
January 6th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
Wow. Moore v. the Three … Musketeers? Mouseketeers? Amigos? Stooges?
Whatever. Regardless, I’m gonna love seeing the video (the link failed) of Crafton speaking Japanese. That promises to be a freak show moment.
January 7th, 2009 at 10:52 am
4 on 1? Sounds like they were overmatched.
January 7th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
If Herr Dean had not fought the inclusion of the proposition on the ‘08 ballot it would have cost nothing.
January 7th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
The law does get in the way sometimes, as do agreeing appellate courts. You’re right – we should just ignore it all. Society would be so much better off that way.
The truth, of course, is that no one really made Crafton and his crowd compile the signatures and force the special election. No rational case can be made that this is remotely an urgent issue.
January 7th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
Nathan,
How did you arrive at your estimate of the amount of money that Metro would save if the charter amendment is adopted? I’m not contesting it; my guess would have been similar, but I wasn’t able to find the appropriate data for making an informed guess rather than a guess guess.
Thanks!
January 7th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Carol,
No problem. I meant to already post that by now.
The mayor’s office informed me that we spend $110,000.00 per year on translation services. Any department that is subject to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 must offer its services in multiple languages. I do have the exact numbers (I’ll post them later when I have them in front of me), but approximately 97% of all departments that use translation services are subject to Title VI. This means that, at most, if this amendment passes, Metro will save about $3300.00 per year. Included departments are health, MNPD, the sheriff’s office and the juvenile court clerk’s office.
Or, we can enforce the amendment outright and just give up $250 million per year in federal funding – and have the biggest property tax hike in Metro history.