Run a query of who owns or owned which land before after these decisions . I can guarantee somebody in the council and somebody apointed are gaming the system as false public servants by collaborating with inside zoning information. Look no further than recent examples of the traffic Judges inherited land that got rezoned to commercial behind everybody's back in that neighborhood with just a post it note instead of a public meeting. Same thing happened with that office complex behind the Ocharlies on Memorial that the mayor built with his construction company after the city employee who owned it hired him to build it. That city employee aquired that property as a residence then magically got it rezoned for a dance studio business ( which flopped shortly after but still kept it's commercial zoning classification). So the winks and nods go like this....I can help you get your house rezoned to commercial with as mayor of the town who shares a mutual agenda with the planning commission director because we are both American home builders association members if you agree to sell it to a certain set of property investors who are also Homebuilders Association mmembers and who use my construction company exclusively to build offices. Bottom line there is a shadow government that's in the back drop of our puppet city council. Its a trade union with a very real agenda for maintaining dominance in local government. It is the American Homebuilders associatiin. They meet every week. I think at the country club not sure though. 15 minutes of every meeting is devoted to maintaining a majority representation in local government specifically the council and the an ingredient commission. It's a cabal of greedy fat business people who metastasizetheir release ate agendas throughout our local government then retire to flourida after they have made their money.

What a powerful and well-researched letter!!

How do we get these people out of office? Elected officials should be working for the taxpayers and asking for the taxpayers approval on projects and budgets. What other employee can increase their own operating budget without the Boss's approval?

It takes an organized effort, including money, organization, and hard work. It also means finding a good candidate. We don't need six or eight at once. It can be done.

I agree. 5 council members would work-and the city would save money. Do you know if they currently work under term limits?

There are no term limits unfortunately. Also, there is no district representation as we have with our county commissioners. Often it occurs that several of the members of the city council live in one area of the city. This is not a good plan.

(I wish people would use their names! It's rather awkward and unsettling to not know with whom you are speaking.)

How did people use to get a point across to local government reps and administrators that just thumb their nose to the public that pays their salaries with property taxes? Correct me if I'm wrong but in small towns I think they would form a posse and go stand outside their residence at about 2am holding crosses in one hand and torches in the other. Maybe I saw that in a film not sure though, at any rate ..talk about getting a point across. Imagine looking outside your window at 200am to see 50 people standing quietly in the road holding crosses and torches.

They "get a point across" by working to support a candidate for city council or county commission or county mayor or city mayor or school board, etc. who will be a person more to their liking. Also, you should remember that Tennessee has the lowest voting percent of all states except one. And especially for local elections, often only 10 percent or less of those registered will vote. A concerted effort to get one person elected can work, but it takes planning, organizing, and some money to make it happen.

If there is a consensus of a common enemy ( this local consortium of real estate witches and home builders assoc members that has mestastize in local government) then I think I know of 2 groups that are outside and opposed to this crowd. They are the hotel/motel Patelso that got hit with a room tax 2 years ago, and the local African American community. These two groups by themselves do not have the votes and capital to take the town back from the real estate consortium but together they could significantly reduce their influence in local government. I just don't know if a town run by the Scales and the Patels is a better outcome. I betting that it's at least no worse.

Was turning in then I had this Devine inspiration..... A campaign is started to elect 7 Christian ministers. Think about it. A Christian minister has: 1. Hopefully only one agenda that answers to a higher power 2. has the time to be a part time city council person 3. Has the votes to get elected What if there was a campaigne to elect all Christian ministers. We could push out thesee commercial real estate witches for good. They might have pack up and go to another town like shebulvull.

Your "Devine" inspiration conveniently leaves other faith groups - and those of no faith - unrepresented in this "campaigne". As to a "christian minister" having "the time to be a part time city council person", I doubt it. Full time - and part-time- ministers are some of the busiest people in our community. As to pushing out "thesee commercial real estate witches for good", I think not. Their financial investment in the community is already "Deep and Wide" ( to use an old Christian song here) and I doubt any who do not wish to do so will, because of such a possible development " go another town like Shebulvull".

I guess I see your point. Electing Christian ministers is a bad idea because it racist, and the intrinsic hidden benefits that shariah law could bring is much greater than its meager cultural costs. Oh....And a Buddhist on the council would certainly not sell out to the home builders associations bribes and advances.( I mis-spelt Buddhist for you so don't forget to exploit that in your next bullshit response as the libtards do on Facebook when they can't hold a point ) "Deep and wide" doesnt come close to describing the Consortium of local real estate special Interest that is comprises all Realtors, all Contractors, all constructon retail such as "City Tile" ( ie. doug young) , and the Local banking and loan origination industry. So to your point that all my points were worse than my smartphone keyboard spelling skills , good luck with your organized effort that it apparently takes. Why don't you do that on your own and get back to me in this blog. In the meantime if that seems a wee bit futile, you should look into more viable alternatives that would chip away at the consortium from all different angles. 2 of those angles would be recruiting the disenfranchised motel owners out by I24 who were hit with a room tax because they were not part of the homebuilders assoc. and consortium. That hotel crowd now has a legal team and have formed their own local alliance and they are interested in a piece of city government just as insurance from other special interest. Look into that after finnish up with responding . Other groups might come from our 3 megachurches. Anyway, If you actually have a suggestion though and not just redundant Facebook libtardian style criticism, then feel to display it here or take sometime and come up with one that is more viable than just , ".... it takes an organized effort..." . Well no shit Sherlock., " it takes an organized effort" . Care to expound?

Don't get me wrong. I think this discussion should and must continue between the "moderate rhino fedups" as your self and the more "draconian mujahadein fedups" like myself in some venue somewhere. Just don't sit there and respond with copy and pasted misspellings that I made on a smartphone as a contribution to the discussion. That's just contrarian Facebook behavior and you can go argue all day that way over there. THERE IS A VERY SLOW, MUNDANE, SEEMINGLY BUSINESS AS USUAL, CONSPIRACY AT FOOT AGAINST ALL PEOPLE OF ALL TOWNS THOUGH OUT AMERICA. IT IS THEIR LOCAL CHAPTERS OF THE AMERICAN HOMEBUILDERS ASSOCIATION AND REALTORS. AND HERE IS THE KICKER...IT'S COMPLETELY LEGAL. There is nothing in the Constitution that says a trade organization can not assemble regularly and discuss appointing all of the members of a city council and other appointed positions to suit their own secular financially motivated interest and needs. The Rutherford county A.H.B Association maybe a shadow government that makes city wide changes that benefit just the commercial developers and other sundry real estate professionals needs, but they have attained that status legally. And believe me when I tell you, heaven and earth could fall away, but as long as the Association still has the city of murfreesboro land to develope on, and control of the city council and the planning commission to so with, so that they can build their low rent plywood multifamily housing on, then they are completely fine. These same co-conspirators at the Association when they have finnally have sacked in a enough cash, become wealthy retired snowbirds on a south carolina beach. That's how parasitically secular they are. And that's why they most be deposed. Now do you have any viable thing to say other than copy pastes of whatever I misspelt here today and the same flattened, defizzed suggestions of," it takes an organized effort.." Like A real plan with a real trajectory. And also not just a suggestion of electing one or two people such as yourself to the council. One or 2 people won't touch this problem. Our local government has stage 4 cancer.

You are the one wanting replacements and such. It's incumbent upon you - and others who wish this to happen - to push forward in an organized way in order to find success. I vote and support candidates, but mounting a campaign to replace city council members at this time is not primary in my goals/plans/ ambitions. And I am certainly not running for office!! ( I am not participating any more in this mish-mash of what should be lucid, coherent statements about the issue at hand. I should never have responded in the first place. Any person who posts under some 'assumed name" has no credibility, in my humble opinion.)

I don't think it unreasonable, since all 110,000 Murfreesboro citizens can't sit at the council table, to elect people to operate the city for us. But it should be with the understanding (and with legal constraints) that they are there to do what we want them to do in the way we want them to do it. Not to work for developers and/or contractors, and/or land developers. This also means making a case and asking the citizens for a budget increase.This might mean voting yearly on proposals. And I think the growth of Murfreesboro - housing and industrial -needs to be slowed way down. It does not appear that the council members are working for us citizens.

Kudos to taxpayer.. And Cates Kudos to you to for atleast trying to develope context for the magnitude of this situation. Although you did kind of tried, you really didn't introduce a resolution. "It takes an organized effort to do what...?". I think we all agree here that this is indeed serious. Our pseudo city council went out recruited someone more corrupt than themselves to be the new pseudo city manager. They need someone with experience in city government and no stranger to controversy. Only a Glendale/ hockey team lawyer, who received an injunction for conflict of interest for representing the city of Glendale Co. AND local private hockey team at the same time would do. AND whose very first opening statement after 9 days on the new Murfreesboro job says, " I want to make murfreesboro government a one stop shop for all Contractor's and developer's by eliminating barriers to their respective operations by expediting all permits and inspections". His very first God damn statement. I dParaphrased slightly but more less 99 percent accurate. THIS GOVERNEMENT NEEDS DRASTIC INTERVENTION, not cliches. I can't stand cliches, " just say no" to them.

This "organized effort will take deep pockets" and a legal team. The disenfranchised hotel owners out by I 24 who were enticed to come build here by the same ity council whio then retro-actively got hit with a 15 percent room tax have a legal team and an organized effort allready in place. They also have some pretty big convention rooms to hold there own meetings. They just need more votes. And they dont want to build everywhere Only a few places. Let's discuss an organized effort to rally a mob to join them so that they atleast also represent the rest of us.