Council to let voters decide who can coach high school sports

Metro voters won't get a say on whether there should be wine in grocery stores when they go to the polls in November.

Nor will they vote on whether the council should be able to approve salaries for top city officials [1], if voters can chime in on bond issues [2] or if the council should have eminent domain approval.

Metro voters may, however, be voting on whether Metro employees should be able to coach high school football.

Of the handful of proposed amendments to the Metro Charter vetted by the council at a special meeting Tuesday, only one garnered the necessary two-thirds majority to be put on November's ballot.

The amendment will remove a long-standing provision of the charter — which was apparently added due to the once-difficult task of issuing a single employee two paychecks — prohibiting Metro employees from acting as substitute teachers or coaches in Metro schools. Similarly, no longer will teachers be barred from teaching in the Metro-run community education program.

A segment of the council tried to further amend the charter amendment to allow councilmembers to serve as subs.

"I think [councilmembers] have a lot to offer in the classroom. I think it's important. I think we try to do the best for the community. I think everyone of us would be comfortable with any of the rest of us being in the classroom," Councilmember Eric Crafton said.

Ultimately Crafton withdrew this proposal, after council attorney Jon Cooper said the council could be wading into murky legal waters because of a provision elsewhere in the charter prohibiting them from working for any sector of Metro government.
The original charter amendment was approved 34-1.

Other charter proposals — including one requiring the Metropolitan Development and Housing Authority to seek council approval before seizing land under eminent domain — failed to get the required two-thirds majority. Others — including approval of wine sales in grocery stores pending a change in state law — were withdrawn.