‘Right to Work’ Amendment to Tennessee Constitution Allows Union Opt-Out

The citizens of Tennessee will have the opportunity to vote to add a “right to work” provision into the state constitution on election day this November 8.

Constitutional Amendment 1 would amend Article XI of the Tennessee Constitution to add:

It is unlawful for any person, corporation, association, or this state or its political subdivisions to deny or attempt to deny employment to any person by reason of the person’s membership in, affiliation with, resignation from, or refusal to join or affiliate with any labor union or employee organization.

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Attorney on Proposed Charter Amendment 1: Forever Eliminates Citizens’ Ability to Amend the Metro Charter for Any Reason

The attorney behind 4GoodGovernment and its Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act, Jim Roberts, told The Tennessee Star that the proposed Amendment 1 to the Charter of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County forever eliminates citizens’ ability to amend the charter for any reason.

Roberts is well-versed on the topic of Metro charter amendments, having successfully navigated the petition process for the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act (NTPA) twice, but a lawsuit by Metro government kept it from being put on the ballot.

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Nashville FOP Demands PAC Stop Using Officer Likenesses to Advocate for Civilian Oversight Board

The Fraternal Order of Police sent a cease-and-desist letter to Accountability Matters PAC, saying the group used police officers’ images without permission to support Amendment 1 (setting up a civilian oversight board). The commercial uses photographs of several Metro Nashville Police Department officers without their permission, James Smallwood, president of Andrew Jackson Lodge No. 5 of the FOP, said in a press release. The commercial also depicts the MNPD officers as proponents of Amendment 1. The officers shown without their consent in the video are opposed to Amendment 1 and were mad to learn their picture was being used without their consent. [pdf-embedder url=”https://tennesseestar.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/FOP-letter-cease-and-desist_.pdf”] “Today, on behalf of the officers, we sent the … cease and desist letter to Comcast demanding that they immediately stop airing the Accountability Matters commercial that uses the likeness of our officers without their consent. We expect Comcast will pull the commercial immediately and force Accountability Matters to remove the unauthorized photographs from its commercial,” Smallwood said in the press release. “It is troubling that Accountability Matters placed the officers of the MNPD in a position where they are potentially violating not only federal law but MNPD policy that prohibits appearing in uniform for political…

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Police Civilian Oversight Board Redundant, Expensive, Denies Due Process of Officers: FOP President

A civilian oversight board for the Nashville Metro Police Department “sounds like a warm and fuzzy,” but one expert says that is not the case. James Smallwood is president of the Nashville Fraternal Order of Police. “People immediately think, ‘Well, that’s a great idea,’” Smallwood told The Tennessee Star this week. A circuit court judge in September ruled against the Fraternal Order of Police in a lawsuit the group filed trying to throw out a referendum to establish a community board overseeing Metro Police, News Channel 5 said. Once you get into the minutiae, it becomes apparent the Amendment 1 initiative that is on the Nov. 6 ballot will have a “massive cost” of $10 million over five years, Smallwood said. That is more expensive than any comparable civilian oversight board in the nation. That is not a viable option when the city is in dire financial straits. The board also would be redundant, he said. There are at least eight layers of oversight of Metro Police already, including civilian and government agencies. The new board would not give police equal representation – there are no regulations on who can sit on the board, other than they cannot be officers or married…

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James Smallwood Commentary: Vote No on Amendment 1

by James Smallwood   This year Nashvillians will head to the polls to consider Amendment #1. At face value, without any research, a civilian oversight board sounds like a good concept. However, a closer scrutiny of the details, i.e. the massive budget, lack of equal representation, absence of regulations on those who would be appointed to the board (directly by politicians) reveals genuine concerns that this board would be rife with corruption, overspending, and an anti-police agenda. For starters, Nashville’s budget is a mess. Despite a strong economy and record low unemployment, Nashville has defaulted on promised pay raises to Metro employees and cut millions of dollars out of the budget from nearly every department. Police, fire, libraries and schools are all experiencing serious budget cuts. This, coupled with an increasingly crushing debt service, makes it obvious that the last thing we need is a redundant government board which, as proposed, would cost Nashville taxpayers $10 million over the next five years; we simply cannot afford it. For example, police still do not have body cameras. These devices would provide the desired transparency on police interactions with the public. Nashville needs millions of dollars to pay for this program. However,…

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