The elephant in the room remains the battle between the state and Nashville. But with the O’Connell administration’s hiring of Rep. Darren Jernigan (D-Nashville) as the director of legislative affairs and lots of rhetoric surrounding new beginnings with the state, local officials hope the coming session will be less combative.

“We have a new mayor, we have a new vice mayor, 50 percent new council — it is a reset moment and a time to build back relationships,” says Nashville Vice Mayor Angie Henderson.

Some legal battles over state preemption have carried over from the previous administration — top of mind is a battle over legislation that allowed the state to take over the airport authority board. In the first months of O’Connell’s administration, a three-judge panel ruled that bill unconstitutional, leading to a dramatic reversion to the old Metro-appointed board. But not only has the state already expressed its intent to appeal the ruling, Sen. Paul Bailey (R-Sparta) has already said he plans to file legislation to take over other airport authority boards around the state, which would sidestep the Home Rule provisions that Metro Legal has used to argue against legislation targeting Nashville.

But while some issues may already be under litigation, Henderson hopes that other less dramatic but arguably more impactful issues may present opportunities for bipartisan action.

“I would like to see us, as a region, make some clear advancements on transportation,” says Henderson. “Just a few weeks ago, the mayor and I were together at the Transportation Policy Board meeting there, chatting with and talking to folks in leadership at TDOT, so I think we have a lot of opportunities in some of our shared spaces and corridors.”

Earlier this month, Chattanooga was awarded a grant from the Department of Transportation to fund a study of what it would take to install an Amtrak line linking Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga and Atlanta. This came following the conclusion of a TACIR study in June that, aside from pursuing the grant, also recommended various actions the General Assembly could take to prepare the state for regional transit, including establishing a public transit office. The idea was met with bipartisan enthusiasm.

O’Connell and Dalton both sit on the board of the Tennessee Municipal League, an organization that promotes legislation deemed good for local control, and fights back against legislation that could be preemptive. Dalton says the league has been in conversation with legislators on both sides of the aisle in preparation for the coming session.

“I would hope that as we build relationships, folks in service at the state would be in dialogue with us to get our perspective as a city,” says Henderson. “Coalition building, I think, is really important all across the state because state policy absolutely does affect and have local results — for the good and the bad.”