Sen. Jack Johnson accuses Davidson County of trying to erect a wall blocking Williamson County

The upper chamber of the state legislature voted 27-5 to dump Metro Davidson County’s charter amendment requiring local contractors to hire metro residents.

The amendment approved by 58 percent of voters in the 2015 August election required the city contractors working on projects valued of at least $100,000 to hire at least 40 percent of its workforce from within Davidson County.

Sen. Jack Johnson, a Franklin Republican who promised last fall to fight the amendment, said the legislation essentially builds a wall between Davidson County and contractors in Franklin who would be negatively affected by the amendment. Meanwhile, the provision approved by voters would not be applicable to out-of-state contractors.



Attorney General Herbert Slatery opined last year the amendment runs afoul of state law, saying a local government cannot impose additional restrictions on state-licensed contractors or discriminate against them based on the contractor’s non-residency in the municipality.

With that opinion in mind, Mayor Megan Barry has been working to figure out how the city could “solve the problem Nashville asked us to solve."



Barry and Johnson met in early February to discuss the legislation, arranged at the behest of Nashville Sen. Steve Dickerson. While both walked away with the meeting unchanged in their positions, Johnson said on the House floor Monday he appreciated her slow-walking implementation of the amendment but still felt the legislation would hurt area counties.

The amendment was opposed by the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce, Mayor Karl Dean and other groups, but was supported by civic organizations like Nashville Organized for Action and Hope, also known as NOAH.

Nashville Dickerson was the sole Republican opposing the legislation, saying while he voted against the charter amendment in the election, the state Senate should not vote to overrule local voters.

The House is to vote on the legislation Thursday.