Metro Nashville on Friday confirmed receipt of the request filed by The Tennessee Star pursuant to the Tennessee Public Records Act (TPRA), seeking records explaining the purpose of the nearly $1.5 million in proposed grants in the 2027 budget released by Mayor Freddie O’Connell for the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) and Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors (TNJFON), which both support illegal aliens living in the Volunteer State.
The budget proposed last month includes a $735,000 grant for TIRRC and $718,000 for TNJFON. While a spokesman for O’Connell told The Star the grant for TIRRC would not support lawyers for illegal aliens, the Metro Clerk Austin Kyle told The Star on Monday that the new grant only represented a change in funding source but otherwise extensions of its previous grant, which was signed in 2022 and is set to expire on June 30.
In apparent contradiction to the claims from the mayor’s office about the proposed spending for 2027, that contract involved the co-creation of a pilot program with TNJFON that specifically provided legal services for immigrants fighting deportation, helped immigrants find representation, gave them advice on navigating the court system, and educated them about their rights.
The Star is seeking any submissions by TIRRC and TNJFON ahead of the grants contained in O’Connell’s proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2027 (FY 2027). If those do not exist, as indicated by the Metro Clerk to The Star, the TPRA request seeks the most recent application, proposal, statement of proposed use, scope of services, spending plan, audit, financial statement, or other document submitted by the nonprofits which Metro is using to justify the proposed grants.
The request additionally seeks any draft, pending, proposed, or executed funding agreements, contracts, continuations, or similar agreements that would inform the public whether there are new controls on how taxpayer money may be spent.
The Star also seeks records to determine what services were performed under the prior grants, which for TIRRC appear to date back to at least 2019, as well as internal communications from the mayor’s office, to determine whether the FY 2027 funding represents a new grant, continuation, extension, renewal, or simply a change in the funding source.
Since 2026, the city’s contracts with TIRRC and TNJFON have been funded by the Biden-era American Rescue Plan Act, and Kyle told The Star that the new grants only represent a change in the funding source, with the money now to come from local taxpayers.
The request additionally comes amid apparent disagreement over Tennessee Code Annotated (TCA) 7-3-314, which governs how Metropolitan governments in the Volunteer State may appropriate funds for nonprofits.
While TCA 7-3-314(b) states nonprofits seeking financial assistance from a metropolitan government, “shall file with the clerk of the legislative body a statement of the proposed use of the funds and the program that serves the residents of the county and a copy of an annual audit,” which “will be open for public inspection during regular business hours of the clerk’s office,” the Metro Clerk appeared to indicate that it is Metro Nashville’s position the subsequent section invalidates this requirement for the type of appropriations proposed for TIRRC and TNJFON.
TCA 7-3-314(c) states:
Notwithstanding any state law or regulation to the contrary, where counties with a metropolitan form of government publish a budget document that includes the name of each nonprofit charitable or civic organization to which money is appropriated and the specific amount appropriated, and enter into a written agreement with any such organization, no additional resolutions approving such an appropriation shall be required. The clerk of the legislative body shall cause to be published, in a newspaper of general circulation, a list of all nonprofit charitable and civic organizations that are listed as receiving appropriations in the finally adopted budget ordinance.”
While this section declares that a list of nonprofits awarded appropriations should be published by Metro, it does not appear to invalidate or reverse the public inspection language in TCA 7-3-314(b).
A response from Nashville’s public records response system indicated that Metro received the public records request on Friday. Tennessee public records law states that Metro must provide a written response within seven business days explaining how long the request will take to complete, denying the request, or making the information available.
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Freddie O’Connell” by Freddie O’Connell.
