Rex and the City: Don Karlo

Not even a year into Mayor Karl Dean’s first term, already the scales are starting to tip one way in the ongoing and impossible-to-escape Neighborhoods v. Developers standoff.

According to some neighborhood-friendly types in and around Metro government, the developers are winning.

Rex hears that Dean taking neighborhood advocate Ann Nielson off the Planning Commission sounded the first alarm bell (Nielson is now on the less-important Historic Zoning Commission).

Then there was the appointment of former Councilman Chris Whitson to the Board of Zoning Appeals. Observers say Whitson has a clear pro-development stance.

And in case you were willing to chalk those up to pure coincidence, then keep an eye on the critical Planning Department Manager David Kleinfelter, who Rex hears is under a great deal of scrutiny by the administration at the moment.

Kleinfelter is another pro-neighborhood voice, onlookers say, and the mayor’s office reportedly has fielded its share of annoyed phone calls from prominent developers on the holdover from former mayor Bill Purcell’s administration.

Ready for his close-up?

TMZ.com strikes again, and this time, the Titans Vince Young is in its way.

The paparazzi-style Web site posted photos Friday of the shirtless quarterback hanging out with a bunch of guys and an inset photo of Young allegedly partaking of an adult beverage.

The headline grabbing quarterback isn’t the first to be snared by the tabloid-esque Web site.

TMZ, just a couple of months ago, had Arizona Cardinals quarterback and fellow 2006 first-rounder Matt Leinart in photos supposedly taken from a party at his home.

Summer politics? Sniff, Sniff

The at-times hapless Metro Nashville Public Schools Board of Education is in the sights of the city’s ruling class this summer. The race to watch appears to be District 9 to replace outgoing board chair Marsha Warden, insiders tell us.

Though the field for this seat is sprawling, the match-up to watch appears to be between the medical researcher with a long Vanderbilt pedigree, Lee Limbird, and Montgomery Bell Academy Academic Dean Alan Coverstone.

Limbird received Warden’s endorsement last week, but that may actually be a check mark in the negative column for the good doctor.

Meanwhile, Coverstone is running his race like a Congressional campaign, trumpeting fund-raising numbers and campaign committee assignments in near weekly press releases.

Popular wisdom says these two candidates due to their connections and standing in the community will have the business community blessings and the resources to make it a two-person race. Their respective bases of support also suggest they might cancel some of each others’ momentum out a bit, with their crowds overlapping.

Grumblings about Thelma

Sen. Thelma Harper, the chairwoman of the Senate Government Operations Committee, and her House counterpart have become the focus of considerable grumbling toward the end of this legislative session.

The battle is between Republicans in the Senate and judicial interest groups over how the state picks its judges.

The plot line goes like this. The feisty Harper is one of two Democratic chairpersons appointed by Republican Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey in the GOP controlled state Senate.

The Nashville Democrat’s panel is charged with reviewing state departments and agencies along with the House’s Government Operations Committee, and, if it’s warranted, filing legislation to extend the life of those entities.

Problem is, Harper and Rep. Mike Kernell of Memphis, the House Government Operations Committee chairman, don’t get along. As a result, their joint committee has trouble meeting and entities scheduled for review pile up (by last count, 54 of them).

To rectify the situation, there is usually a sweeper bill to extend for one year those 54 agencies not properly reviewed.

One of those agencies happens to be the Judicial Selection Commission, which recommends potential judges to the governor to choose among for open state benches.

Ramsey, in his quest to reform how the state picks judges to ultimately get more conservatives on the bench, wants to change how the Judicial Selection Commission is appointed.

They’re facing difficulties, however, and as a result, Ramsey and the Republicans have used the sweeper bill as leverage. It almost assuredly won’t pass this year as the GOP tries to force judicial changes.

And, 54 agencies will go into a one-year wind down starting July 1 and are scheduled to expire July 1, 2009, unless legislation is passed next year. These agencies include seven departments, some of them pretty darn important such as Revenue and Safety.

Despite orchestrating the judicial reforms, Ramsey and his camp are unhappy about the situation involving Harper’s committee and the stockpiling of agencies not being reviewed. If Ramsey is re-elected Senate speaker in January 2009, it’s possible Harper could lose her chairmanship.

Rex Noseworthy appears Mondays in The City Paper. He can reached at rnoseworthy@nashvillecitypaper.com