(Nashville) Effort to make English official language revived

Effort to make English official language revived
Petition drive is under way to get issue on ballot
BY JANELL ROSS • STAFF WRITER

The movement to make English Nashville's official language is alive again, 14 months after a mayoral veto ended the last effort.

This time, a group identified only as NashvilleEnglishFirst.com has begun to circulate a postcard-based petition drive to place an "English only" measure on the Nov. 4 ballot. The measure would alter the Metro charter, make English Metro's official language and limit all government business, publications and meetings to the English language unless such measures would violate federal or state law.

Its proponents must collect the signatures of 10,103 registered voters by Aug. 16 to make the November ballot.

Councilman Eric Crafton, who represents District 22, is a driving force behind the new petition drive, said Ray Barrett, Davidson County's elections administrator.

Crafton sponsored a bill, approved in February 2007, that called for the English language to be used exclusively on all Metro government voice mail systems, publications and "communications," unless required by federal law or a matter of public health or safety. The latest version doesn't include a health and safety exception.

Six days after the Metro council voted in favor of the bill, Metro's legal department said courts probably would find that the measure violated the Tennessee and U.S. constitutions. That day, Mayor Bill Purcell took the rare step of vetoing the bill and declared, "This is not who we are."

"I, along with a lot of citizens, felt their voice was thwarted" when Purcell vetoed the bill, Crafton said Thursday. "We've had a lot of people asking what we can do. This seems like the best solution."

Should the proposed Metro charter amendment make it onto the ballot and then become law, it could represent a violation of the First and 14th Amendments — the ones guaranteeing free speech and equal protection under the law — said Hedy Weinberg, American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee's executive director.

"Does this mean you can't dial 911 and tell the operator in some other language about a crime that you fear is taking place next door, or in your own home?" said Weinberg, "These policies don't celebrate the cultural pluralism that makes this city so special. They try to crush it."

Mayor Is Concerned

Mayor Karl Dean, Purcell's successor, said in a statement Thursday the city has an obligation to protect and serve residents without regard to the language they speak.

Dean plans to ask Metro's legal department to review the proposed charter amendment but said he saw no substantial differences between it and last year's bill. Dean expressed concern about what the proposed charter amendment would do to the city's image.

"We live in a global economy, and the image we want to project of Nashville to the rest of the world is that we're a welcoming and open city," he said.

Advocates of last year's measure described it as an attempt to en courage immigrants to learn and use English. If it weren't possible to conduct official business in another language, they argued, people would improve and use their English language skills.

But Renata Soto, co-founder of Conexion Americas, a Nashville nonprofit that works with Latino families, said demand for English language courses already far outstrips the supply.

Last year, the debate about making English the official language in Nashville drew worldwide attention. Several news stories marveled that a city where 11.4 percent of the population is foreign-born, according to 2006 U.S. Census figures, would consider such a measure and described it as an outgrowth of anti- immigrant fervor.

Contact Janell Ross at 726-5982 or jross1@tennessean.com.