NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Senate on Monday easily approved a bill sponsored by Sen. Todd Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, allowing legislators to decline being named to serve on local business improvement district boards as ex-officio members.
An ex-officio member is one who serves by virtue of holding another office, in this case in the General Assembly.
Senate Bill 1559 was approved on a 31-0 vote. The bill also allows legislators to name someone to serve on such boards in their stead.
Under a state law from the 1990s, Gardenhire, R-Chattanooga, and Rep. Robin Smith, R-Hixson, last year were appointed by the House and Senate speakers and required to serve as ex-officio members of the new Chattanooga Business Improvement District’s governing board. The board is overseeing the city’s controversial new community development district.
Gardenhire told the Times Free Press last fall that he and Smith were named to the board “not because we wanted to be, but because of this act from the ’90s. In that same act, we were supposed to be a part of any ‘recommendation’ that was made about the board [on] anything to do with the BID.”
He said he and Smith, who is sponsoring the House companion bill, were left in the dark during last summer’s business improvement district formation process. And the senator also said he objected to some provisions in the BID.
The board governs the BID, which was spearheaded by local economic development nonprofit River City Co. It passed the Chattanooga City Council in late July after failing earlier in the summer. The management board will collect around $1 million annually from the 196 property owners within the district to provide safety and visual improvements to central Chattanooga.
Gardenhire and Smith’s bill also makes changes to how business improvement districts are approved. Under present law, the Central Business Improvement Act and Inner-City Redevelopment Act authorize the establishment of a central business improvement district or inner-city redevelopment district, respectively, in either of two ways.
One is by filing a petition with the governing body by a majority of the owners of real property in the district having an assessed value of not less than 2/3 of the assessed value of all real property proposed to be included in the district. The other is by adoption of a resolution by the local elected governing body.
The bill requires that proponents file a statement of intent with the governing body of the municipality before beginning to collect required signatures. Proponents will have one year from the date of filing the statement of intent to gather required signatures. The bill prohibits the governing body from adopting any resolution for a district during that one-year period.
If a petition with the requisite signatures is not filed within the one-year period, the bill prohibits the filing of another petition or adoption of a resolution for a district for a one-year period.
The bill authorizes the senator and representative to decline appointment or appoint a designee to serve in the ex-officio role. If the appointment is declined, the vacant seat is not counted toward voting or a meeting quorum and remains vacant until a new senator or representative is elected who accepts the appointment.
An amendment to the bill says the designee must be a resident of the district represented by the senator or representative appointing them.
In other Senate action Monday night night:
* Another Gardenhire bill approved by senators Monday directs the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations to study the cost, feasibility and infrastructure requirements for expanding Amtrak railroad passenger service from Atlanta through Chattanooga to Nashville.
Senate Bill 2065 passed 30-0. Amtrak officials told lawmakers earlier this year they are exploring extending the service into the eastern and middle sections of Tennessee. The study is expected to identify areas of demand for passenger rail service, operational characteristics, forecast performance options and operational costs.
Rep. Jason Powell, D-Nashville, is carrying the House companion bill, which was deferred in the lower chamber’s Calendar and Rules Committee until the panel’s final meeting this spring.
* Senators also approved on a 24-0 vote an amended version of a bill that now would allow the leader of a house of worship to permit nonviolent sex offenders to attend religious services or receive educational and social support services upon written permission.
“This is not a mandate,” bill sponsor Sen. Jon Lundberg, R-Bristol, stressed to colleagues. “This is an option for the church.”
Senate Bill 1895 requires written notice of the person’s offender status be provided to the leader of the house of worship and for the person to have received written permission from the leader. The House version is sponsored by Rep. Patsy Hazlewood, R-Signal Mountain. Hazlewood in mid-February took the bill off notice.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow on Twitter @AndySher1.