Could James Weaver, an attorney with Nashville law firm Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, be the prime player behind convincing Mayor Karl Dean to kill the Tennessee State Fairgrounds and subsequently the Tennessee State Fair?
It sure looks like it. Shortly after Dean is elected and Weaver takes over the board, the decision is made to shutdown the fair. Imagine the conversation: "Mayor,
this thing loses money and needs to go away." Dean shrugs his shoulders and boom the decision is made to close down the fairgrounds.
Then Weaver gratuitously recuses himself from voting on closing the fair and looking at studies on what could be done with the fairgrounds. On Tuesday, he could be seen furiously texting while Metro Council members clearly were switching sides in the effort to kill Councilman Duane Dominy's bill to preserve the fairgrounds. Who was he texting? Council members trying to keep the votes in line to kill Dominy's bill?
Dean thought he had the votes to kill Dominy's bill. As soon as all of that public opposition appeared and council members saw it, dropped Dean and Weaver like a bad habit.
Weaver seems to be in the middle of many of the big development battles around Nashville. Why is he still on the fair board with the discovery that he lobbied for CBL, owner of Hickory Hollow Mall? He needs to resign from the board so he can go lobby for its demise full time.
No comments:
Post a Comment