He’s an elected official in the government of the City of Nashville.
Here’s his web site: http://www.jasonholleman.com
Jason Holleman may be a fine fellow. We are impressed with his resume. He’s been practicing law for about ten years now and has some experience with municipal law.
But he has a conflict of interest.
Mt. Juliet has competing interests with the City of Nashville on dozens of issues: Road projects, sewer projects, sewer rates, commuter rail, and homeland security funding just to name a few right off the top of our heads.
If there’s a fight over commuter rail funding, whose side will the City Attorney/Nashville City Councilman be on?
If there’s a fight over the rates Nashville charges Mt. Juliet for sewer treatment, whose side will the City Attorney/Nashville City Councilman be on?
If the City Commission and City Manager need legal advice in negotiating a legal contract with the City of Nashville, whose side will the City Attorney/Nashville City Councilman be on?
If Nashville and Mt. Juliet get into a fight over where the Central Pike interchange will be located, whose side will the City Attorney/Nashville City Councilman be on?
The conflict can’t be resolved by Mr. Holleman simply recusing himself from certain matters. As a full-time city employee, the City Attorney will be privy to all of Mt. Juliet’s strategies, and have an inside knowledge of it’s strengths and weaknesses. How could this possibly NOT benefit Nashville, and undercut Mt. Juliet?
Jason Holleman may be a fine fellow, but no man can serve two masters.
What in the world was City Manager Randy Robertson thinking? Or Mayor Elam and the city commission?
-Publius
3 Comments
February 3, 2008 at 12:14 am
I can’t believe what I am reading!
Folks, please, are we really to believe that neither the Mayor (who is an attorney), the current city attorney, the city commission, the current city manager, nor the new city attorney realized the seriousness of this conflict of interest?
I for one think that they all had to realize that it is a bad idea. I am not even sure that what they are doing is even legal, it certainly is a terrible idea, but is it legal? The city attorney has legal obligations that must be fulfilled under his/her oath of office…a metro council-member has legal obligations that they must meet as per their oath of office…there most certainly will be situations where it is impossible for this council-member/city attorney to fulfill his obligations to all parties. When that day arrives what shall we do? There will be an obvious case of dereliction of duty when that day arrives.
I find it difficult enough to accept that Commissioner Justice works for the county and is a commissioner, none less having a metro councilman as our city attorney.
If I were a citizen in his district I would have a problem with my councilman working as an attorney for an adjoining city. There is no way that he will ever be able to do either job properly and with propriety.
Folks, haven’t we been through enough conflict of interest with Mayor Elam?
February 16, 2008 at 2:08 am
[...] The Westside Councilman With A Far East Flavor Can you competently serve as both the City Attorney of Mt. Juliet and as a Councilman in Metro Nashville? Jason Holleman seems to be putting that question to the test: [...]
March 26, 2008 at 10:50 pm
[...] of interest Jump to Comments We know this sounds like a broken record (see earlier post on The new City Attorney has a conflict of interest), but what is the City Manager [...]