A council member at the Murfreesboro City Councilmeeting on May 1 urged colleagues to consider moving the citys ongoing dispute with a landfill operator from settlement talks to federal court after an attorney for the operator sent a letter to the council and the planning commission during active proceedings.

The council member said the letter, sent by an attorney in Nashville, and a public-relations campaign by the landfilloperator have undercut settlement progress and amounted to intimidation of city decision-makers. "If protecting our public, protecting our natural resources, protecting the health and environment, and the safety of our residents, if that's wasting taxpayer dollars, then we definitely have a definition about what the role of an elected official is," the council member said. "I'm ready to pull the band aid off and say, we're done. We're gonna take this to federal court."

Why it matters: The dispute involves a federal lawsuit and long-running complaints about odors and other impacts associated with the landfill. Council discussion indicated months of attorney-to-attorney negotiations with the operator (identified in meeting remarks as BFI and Republic), and council members said the city has gathered technical data and hired experts to study alleged impacts.

Discussion and next steps: The speaker asked colleagues to meet with the city attorney (referred to in the meeting as Adam) before the next council meeting and to schedule further discussion under "other business" at an upcoming meeting. The speaker said public comment and a recent town hall had featured participants presented as local residents who were later identified as employees of a public-relations firm working on the operators campaign.

The council member acknowledged uncertainty about outcome, saying the city "may lose" if the case goes to trial but that the city would "go down fighting" to protect residents. The remarks were made during the councils general "other business" portion; no formal motion or vote on litigation strategy was taken at the meeting.

Council context: Multiple council members and staff referenced prior efforts to investigate odor sources and the citys engagement with experts. One council member publicly thanked the city attorney for responding to the letter and correcting factual points in it.

Ending: Council members agreed to continue discussions with city legal staff in the coming weeks and to place a discussion of the federal lawsuit on a future agenda if the attorney or council requests it.