A Nashville attorney filed a motion Thursday to challenge members of the Davidson County Election Commission, who still refuse to put the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act referendum on the ballot for December 5, as originally intended.
That man, Jim Roberts, on Friday explained what he filed with the Davidson County Chancery Court.
“It’s real simple. Governments generally have two ways that they act. They either have ministerial duties, which means they do exactly what the law says or they have discretionary duties, which means they have a lot of discretion for when they make a decision,” Roberts said.
“The Election Commission’s duties — once the citizens have gathered the petitions and once the signatures have been verified — include an obligation to put it on the ballot [and it] is ministerial. They don’t have a choice. That is just what they do. They are in this position now where they don’t want to do their job. It is not really any more complicated than that. They just don’t want to do it.”
Roberts said his lawsuit asks for several different types of relief, one of which asks that the court direct members of the Election Commission to put the ballot on the December 5 election.
As reported, The Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act referendum, if approved, would roll back Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s 34 to 37 percent tax increase.
As reported last month, the Nashville Election Commission voted three to two to neither approve nor reject the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act. They instead passed the matter on to a chancery court to guide them on how to proceed, and also moved the “conditional” date of the election from December 5 to December 15.
But Roberts said there are other matters to address.
“There are also secondary issues of voter suppression, violations of the First Amendment, and violations of civil rights, and of voter suppression. What they are doing is not just improper but it violates the civil rights of every single person who signed that petition and every single person who wanted a chance to vote on it,” Roberts told The Tennessee Star.
“It’s entirely possible that a lot of people want to vote against it or a lot of people want to vote for it but didn’t bother to sign the petition because it was too late when they found out about it. Those people’s rights are being violated as well.”
Members of Cooper’s office did not respond to requests for comment, as did Davidson County Elections Administrator Jeff Roberts or Metro Legal Director Bob Cooper. Four of the five Davidson County Election commissioners also did not return requests for comment about Jim Roberts’ suit.
But Election Commission Chairwoman Emily Reynolds, in an email to The Star, said the following:
“Like 4GoodGovernment, we are looking forward to a timely and definitive judicial resolution on these important issues.”
Elections Administrator Jeff Roberts, in a Friday press release, said election commissioners “put in motion the process to seek court guidance on the petition authored by 4GoodGovernment.”
“The Commission is asking the court to define the scope of the Commission’s authority and to decide whether the petition satisfies the legal requirements for a ballot measure.
“The Commission held a public meeting on September 25 to give any citizen an opportunity to speak about the referendum,” Jeff Roberts said.
“The comments of the supporters and opponents of the measure made it clear that the legality of the petition would be tested in court. After the public comments, members of the Commission decided that the interests of the taxpayers and the city would be best served by seeking judicial guidance, before voting on whether to place the referendum on the ballot.”
But Jim Roberts said he will respond to that with a motion to dismiss.
“Most likely, this will all be set up for a hearing by Monday and Tuesday of next week,” Jim Roberts said.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Background Photo “Nashville City Hall” by euthman. CC BY-SA 2.0.
Thank you Mr. Jim Roberts for standing up for the citizens of Davidson County. By Cooper directing all this opposition he wants to silence mine and every one’s First Amendment rights to vote on his outrageous tax increase. He’s creating new positions in his office so he doesn’t mind spending the tax revenue for his own agenda.
Thank you Jim Roberts! As only one of the citizens that will vote to do away with this most outrageous tax increase, I appreciate you stepping up and taking the necessary measures to make this happen! What a sham and disgrace our Metro government has become!
Thank you TN Star for keeping this important issue in front of the residents in Davidson county. Attorney Jim Roberts Thank you for pursuing this violation of mine/our civil rights. The election administrator and Election commissioners should be held accountable individually for causing (malfeasance) the Taxpayers of Davidson county to pay for a democratic attorney, Koch! They should individually have to pay his expenses along with his staff. If we need to start a Go Fund me page for your expenses, please let us know Jim Roberts. Where is the TN state governor? TN state senator Steve Dickerson? TN Secretary of State? Is metro allowed to create their own laws without the state’s oversight and accountability? Please let the people vote and exercise our constitutional freedom.
It is clear that Cooper and the other leftists involved in this will do anything to keep this away from voters because they know they will lose. Maybe they are hoping to get it in front of an activist judge who will side in their favor. Isn’t that what Democrats do when things like the law get in the way?
Fight them Jim, you knew it would be a battle, Cooper is desperate to suppress the vote because he knows he will lose at a minimum of 2 to 1. Thank you for your diligence and hard work.