Megan Barry: Metro reviewing AG's local-hire opinion

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry on Friday said that Metro attorneys are reviewing a legal opinion from the Tennessee attorney general that says Metro's new local-hire rule violates state law and is therefore invalid.

But in the meantime, Barry says she intends to move forward with plans to bring together stakeholders to discuss the proper implementation of the new local-hire policy for Metro-funded construction projects.

“We have asked the Metro Department of Law to review the opinion, but nevertheless, as I told the Metro Council earlier this week, my administration plans to bring together council members, business executives, labor leaders and others to work out the proper implementation of the local-hire charter amendment," Barry said in a statement. "We are going to solve the problem Nashville voters asked us to solve.”

In his opinion Thursday, Attorney General Herbert Slatery argues that Metro's local-hire amendment violates Tennessee's Contractors Licensing Act of 1994. He says that statute prohibits counties and municipalities from imposing additional requirements on top of those imposed in the act and from discriminating against contractors licensed by the state "on the basis of the licensee's nonresidency within the county or the municipality."

Earlier this week, Barry delayed the local-hire policy's implementation amid lingering concerns about Nashville's workforce development and thus the possibility of hindering Metro's ability to move forward with construction projects.

Amendment 3, approved by Nashvillians on Aug. 6 by 58 percent to 42 percent and pushed by a Nashville laborers union, mandates that at least 40 percent of the workforce on Metro-funded construction projects be residents of Davidson County. The policy, which still requires that the Metro Council work out some details, applies to every city construction project in Nashville that costs at least $100,000.

Amendment 3 also says that "significant effort" be must be made to ensure 10 percent of the workforce on city-funded construction projects is low-income residents.

Slatery's opinion came after Republican state Rep. Glen Casada, R-Franklin, asked him to weigh in on whether the local-hire amendment conflicts with state statute.

Another Williamson County lawmaker, Sen. Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, filed a bill two weeks ago to seek to nullify Nashville's local-hire rule. His legislation would prevent local governments from requiring a company bidding on a public construction project to employ individuals who reside within their jurisdiction. Johnson has warned that Nashville's local-hire rule would have a "chilling effect on the economic growth and development of this area and Tennessee as a whole.”

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236 and on Twitter @joeygarrison.