James Bruce Stanley was elected to the Nashville Metropolitan Council in 1995 as a neighborhood and citizens? rights advocate. He promised supporters that he would give them a voice and that he would never support something against their wishes or best interests. The young public servant discovered that joining the Metro Council was an adventure in citizenship, large municipal management, closed-door politics vs. community rights, and big-business incentive deals. From his seat on the Metro Council, Stanley shared in some of Nashville's biggest challenges, including the wooing of a professional hockey team, the corporate incentives that brought Dell Computers to Nashville, and the controversial deal that allowed football team owner Bud Adams to move the Houston Oilers to Tennessee while receiving great favor from the Metro government. In "A Promise Kept, Stanley gives an insider's portrait of this increasingly popular form of local government and its impact on communities.