NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF-TV) — A state memo has led to questions about what Mayor O'Connell's office has claimed about the Music City Loop.
Metro officials have indicated they were blindsided by the announcement that Elon Musk's Boring Company wanted to drill a tunnel from the airport to downtown.
But a state memo prepared for Governor Bill Lee in June paints a different picture.
The memo was first reported by the Nashville Business Journal and obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
It claims Metro was part of past meetings about the project, but Metro "needed to distance themselves" from the project.
One council member said the memo reveals the Mayor's office has lied about the project.
This is what Mayor O'Connell told reporters after the tunnel announcement in July.
"We knew that Boring was interested sometime last spring, early summer of last year, but then it was, we didn't hear about it for almost a year," O'Connell said.
But the internal state memo states, "Mayor O' Connell's office was intrigued in our first May 2024 meeting but requested we cease coordination" until after the transit referendum.
Then, after President Trump won the election and Elon Musk became "a more visible political figure," Metro officials said they "would not oppose the project," but "they needed to distance themselves" from the project.
Metro Council Member Courtney Johnston said that is very different from what the Mayor's office has said publicly.
"Whether you are supportive or not of this project, I think we all deserve to know the truth and not be lied to," Johnston said.
She was especially upset by an email the Mayor's office sent to council members last month, shortly after the announcement.
It claimed Metro had only heard "informal chatter" about the project and there were never "signs of a serious proposal."
"All of it has been a lie. When they say they were blindsided and that it was 'informal chatter,' it's nonsense. It's beyond nonsense. It's a straight-out lie," Johnston said.
The email to council members included a long list of questions Metro sent to the state.
Johnston said the list of questions was "performative."
She said Metro had a chance to ask the questions if it wanted, but instead, Metro asked for "distance."
"They have been part of many meetings where they have been discussing the route, the different stops, all of it," Johnston said.
In fact, the memo states "the Boring Company's original plan to surface outside the Bridgestone Arena was abandoned" after input from Metro officials.
Tennessee's Comptroller of the Treasury, Jason Mumpower, said on Inside Politics in July - that he traveled to Las Vegas to see Musk's tunnel there, and the Mayor's office was never kept out of negotiations.
"He was aware, but for some reason, he didn't think it was a serious proposal. It absolutely was," Mumpower said.
The Mayor's office sent a statement which said the memo is an "internal briefing" that "appears to share the author's point of view."
The Mayor's office wrote the idea Metro "needed to distance itself does not reflect statements made by Metro."
The Mayor's office said the Mayor did not attend any meetings with Elon Musk's company - that only his staff members did.
The Mayor's office sent this statement about the memo:
"I want to again note that this is not a detailed notation of any meeting, nor is it a play-by-play of every discussion, rather it is an internal briefing document that appears to share the author's point of view of multiple discussions. The viewpoint that the administration felt it needed to distance itself does not reflect statements made by Metro."
But Courtney Johnston stood by her assessment.
"The truth is there was definitely more than 'informal chatter' that was going on," Johnston said.
