Friends of promises, of progress, of parks; 10 days ago my city councilman – Colby Sledge – whom I voted for and whose sign we displayed in our front yard - was subjected to a nearly 2 hour ethics hearing for his role in the awarding of our historic city parkland at Ft. Negley to private developers in a “99 year” lease. Two hours wasn’t enough to hear all of the testimony against him. The committee will reconvene January 23. You see, after they told us it was about affordable housing, the runner-up – who had more than TWICE as much affordable housing, sued. Then they told us it was about open green space. Guess what? The runner-up had 12.8 acres of open space, and their plan only had 8 acres. Then they told us we just weren’t smart enough to understand the economics of the “deal” that priced our protected historic city parkland, at 3 cents on the dollar. Then they winked and told us they didn’t really sell it, no, honey, its just a “99-year lease.” So the lead Real Estate Finance faculty member at Owen wrote an analysis and it was shared in the Nashville Business Journal. Basically it said, the city got screwed in the deal (not to mention we sold our historic public parkland!). And if we used new math, or old math, none of this adds up to anything resembling the truth. And that is about when all 4,500+ thinking citizens on this petition started to speak up - because we realize its not rational. Because we have entered a swamp. Swamps are strange places – places we avoid because they are messy and filled with traps. As the granddaughter of Nashville cattle & pig farmers I well-understand the phrase, “Don’t wrestle with a pig, you’ll both get dirty, but the pig will like it.” But the truth is, we thinking citizens can’t sit idly by and watch this happen even if it means some of us will get dirty wrestling these pigs, and some of us may well get hurt. Each day I hear a new story of bravery – of a Ft. Negley descendant whose Op-Ed submitted, sat gathering dust – but who didn’t give up and wrote it again and pressed until it was finally published. Or of the Kenyan-born man who filed this ethics complaint against the power structure of Nashville because he believes that we are better than backroom deals. Or of the son of the union veterans from East Tn who told me he would never give up – because he knows this fuller story must be told. Or of the metro employees who quietly cheer us on because they know what is happening is not right. At first I wanted to believe that our City Councilman Sledge just didn’t know better – because he’s young with no background or training in complex business transactions. Unfortunately ignorance cannot be his defense. In fact, I’m quite proud of how he has demonstrated that he does understand the appropriate process to follow to have land declared surplus and then hold several community meetings and several votes at council BEFORE awarding public land to a private developer. We all can see he actually understands the process and the law - as we watch the 158 affordable housing units rise up around the corner from Ft. Negley Park. Which brings us back to his continuation ethics hearing, one month from today. To get up to speed, please read the latest from the Tennessee Tribune to try to understand this mess of a swamp we find ourselves in. Please share this petition & watch the video at www.savenashvilleparks.org. If you celebrate Christmas, I wish you a peaceful one. If you have room in your prayers add one for Ft. Negley Park. My prayer is that we preserve this hallowed space, that we honor our promises to our neighbors. If not now, when? If not us, who? Sincerely, Alice Ganier Rolli District 17