Origins of the Rutherford Neighborhood Alliance

The Rutherford Neighborhood Alliance is an outgrowth of Referendum Now!, a citizen group organized by several Murfreesboro citizens to force a ballot initiative in 1999 to counter the development of a costly taxpayer funded Commerce Center. The Commerce Center Project involved, among other things, the issuance of municipal bonds to pay for properties that were owned by local business leaders. The petition drive was successful in that enough signatures of registered voters were collected to place the issue on the ballot. Subsequently, the Murfreesboro government decided to stop work on the Commerce Center Project rather than face a certain defeat at the polls.

Referendum Now! began to dissolve after the City Council decision to drop the Commerce Center Project. However, several members continued to meet at the local Hardee’s to discuss issues of the day. The group decided that the community could use a citizen organization that was non-partisan and endorsed ethical and voter responsive government. That the organization be non-partisan was very important to this nucleus of about a half-dozen people; Democrats, Independents, Libertarians and Republicans. The organization’s goals were set around many cups of coffee and the Nashville Neighborhood Alliance was kind enough to provide the RNA with a copy of their bylaws as a basis upon which to write our own. The Tennessee Secretary of State approved the RNA charter application on May 7th of 2002.

The Rutherford Neighborhood Alliance was in business!