Nashville no longer has a colossal mayoral field. On Aug. 3, voters selected Freddie O’Connell and Alice Rolli to advance to next month’s runoff.
Earlier this year, WPLN solicited questions from our audience on the issues they are most concerned about. We selected five and presented them to candidates — on the topics of affordable housing, public transit, gun violence, relations with the Tennessee General Assembly and the environment.
Although the mayoral race is nonpartisan, a look back on O’Connell and Rolli’s responses show two very different options for Nashville’s next leader.
O’Connell, a Metro Councilmember and software architect, has represented District 19 since 2015. Before that, he chaired Metro Transit Authority’s board, led the Salemtown Neighbors Neighborhood Association and served on various other boards and committees.
Rolli served as campaign manager for Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander during his 2014 reelection bid. She also worked in the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development under Gov. Bill Haslam.
We’ve compiled their answers to our five questions below.
Candidates were asked to limit their responses to around 200 words and are published in full. Responses are organized alphabetically.
How will you address the need for affordable — not market rate — housing in Nashville?
Courtesy Freddie O'Connell Freddie O’Connell
Councilmember Freddie O’Connell:
As mayor, I will create a standalone Office of Housing to strengthen connections across multiple Metro departments including Planning, WeGo, and NDOT, as well as produce and implement new projects and policies. I’ve created a Metro department before as a Councilmember – the Office of Homeless Services – and the two can work hand in hand to ensure that our housing strategies are inclusive of all income and abilities. I know what works and what doesn’t in Metro and will cut the red tape that leads to delays on affordable housing projects and makes it difficult for nonprofits, faith-based organizations, and others looking to make a difference in this space to do so. And we’ll accelerate usage of a catalyst fund that is designed to acquire land quickly for engaging the private sector in production of affordable housing. Metro is finally in the process of preparing a comprehensive inventory of public land and buildings so we know where we can easily build on public land. And our administration will work to implement the ambitious affordable housing goals in the East Bank Vision Plan now that Metro will be the master developer for the land around the new Titans stadium. I’m also fully committed to dedicating $30 million to the Barnes Fund each year. This fund has been one of our most important tools for leveraging multiple funding sources to create affordable housing.
Shannon Fontaine Courtesy Alice Rolli campaignAlice Rolli
When my husband concluded his military service we settled in Edgehill about 12 years ago. Edgehill is an IMBY (In My Back Yard) neighborhood – where a great deal of housing, including affordable housing, has been built along our city’s transit corridors. To spur on additional housing stock and increase supply – we need to review all of our tools (MDHA, Barnes, Catalyst Fund) but also figure out what is missing from our portfolio and bring it to the table. We need to reset our relationship with the THDA to ensure that state programs are benefitting residents of Davidson County. We need to performance manage projects to be sure that every taxpayer dollar is effectively used. We also need to look at how we can get creative to address backlogs in permitting – for example legislation recently passed in the GA to allow electricians to participate in electrical inspections. We should get smart and focused on identifying other bottlenecks that may be slowing the ability to bring housing online which contributes to higher costs. Finally, we should not raise taxes so that our existing landlords of older housing stock are not required to pass on tax hikes to renters.
How EXACTLY do you plan to fix Nashville’s transportation system?
Courtesy Freddie O'Connell Freddie O’Connell
Councilmember Freddie O’Connell:
There is no other candidate in the race as committed to or capable of building the transit system Nashville urgently needs. As a former chair of our transit board and regular rider, I know how important transit is for cost of living and quality of life. We don’t have to wait; we just have to put into action the 3-year WeGo Public Transit work plan already written, which can be done without raising taxes. That plan will create crosstown connectivity and bring traffic out of the downtown core to help everyone get where they need to go faster, and it will bring transit closer to communities, extend hours and frequencies, and introduce more technology. We will also intentionally work on increasing participation in the WeGo Ride program, an employer-sponsored commuter program, especially among businesses receiving incentives. Work I led on Council means that our historically Black colleges & universities (HBCUs) will be able to participate like their peers to allow faculty, staff, & students to ride without fares. Five years after the failure of a transit referendum, we’ll resume the effort to secure dedicated funding, joining the ranks of every other major American city. Right now, the airport and convention center are literally waiting on the city to create the single light rail line that makes the most sense — the one linking the airport to the heart of the city. Transit is the biggest missing ingredient to Nashville’s long-term success, and I’m ready on day one to fix that.
Shannon Fontaine Courtesy Alice Rolli campaignAlice Rolli
For all the discussion of what the state is taking away from Metro, we were given the ability to levy dedicated transit funding and we failed spectacularly in 2018 when we took a go-it-alone approach. Davidson County voters — and just as importantly voters from the surrounding counties — are absolutely ready to engage in a thoughtfully planned process which should culminate in a ballot referendum either in November 2024 or 2026. The Rolli administration will absolutely support running a process that listens to residents and is transparent, clear, and regionally aligned. Without dedicated funding we are not able to draw on federal and state dollars and we are putting our taxpayers at a disadvantage relative to other cities that are able to leverage those funds. Near term, incremental improvements can be made with expanded schedule for the STAR commuter train and identifying expansion for satellite Park-N-Ride and neighborhood bus centers that can serve to reduce car trips into downtown. Where feasible, using technology (such as Adaptive Signal Control Technology) to improve traffic synchronization and flow can also alleviate some congestion. We are in for a painful decade ahead as we work to catch our infrastructure up to our expanded population.
How are you going to protect our children at school?
Courtesy Freddie O'Connell Freddie O’Connell
Councilmember Freddie O’Connell:
In 2016, our young people told us exactly how to keep them safe. Mayor Barry presided over a Youth Violence Summit coordinated by Lonnell Matthews. I was an active participant in this countywide initiative that solicited input from young people across the city to offer several priorities we still need to address: training and employment; meaningful youth engagement; health awareness and access; restorative justice and diversion; a safe environment and education. The voices of these young people and the work of this summit still matter. When I’m mayor, we’ll reinvest in this important work. We should also implement a Group Violence Reduction Strategy (GVRS) to bring together community stakeholders, social service providers, and law enforcement to focus on the places we already know crime is occurring. This approach has worked well in other cities to reduce gun violence. As mayor, I’ll also work to increase first responder salaries and fund school hardening initiatives. And I’ll work to build our capacity as second responders, including for areas experiencing trauma, so we can solve problems that lead to violence before it occurs and respond thoughtfully if it does. One of my most successful collaborations with Mayor Cooper was the work he led with John Buntin on creating community safety partnership funding opportunities that resulted in The Village. I will expand upon this work.
Shannon Fontaine Courtesy Alice Rolli campaignAlice Rolli
Public safety and the safety of our school children is job one for the mayor. Both the tragic shooting at Covenant School and rising crime across our city means we’ve got to reset our approach to school safety. Schools today must have the same level of protection we give banks and other government buildings. The Rolli administration will take full advantage of our city’s share of the $140 million recently appropriated by the General Assembly and insist that we have a School Resource Officer at every Metro Nashville Public School — from elementary through high school. We will also take full advantage of the additional state funding now available to pay for these officers as well as available state funding to support security enhancements across all of our schools. This is important — both for protecting our kids but also our teachers. We must do everything in our power to ensure we are employing best practices to enhance security across all of our city’s schools.
What are you going to do to keep Nashville shielded from the partisan bullying of state lawmakers?
Courtesy Freddie O'Connell Freddie O’Connell
Councilmember Freddie O’Connell:
Cities like ours are the economic engines of the state. It is our people — and our policies — that bring in the money that state legislators use to improve their far-away counties and to fund state-based programs. So, I will revisit the relationship between Metro Nashville and the state government, but it needs to come from a place where Nashville understands our value, knows our points of leverage, and asserts our power. I’ve been deeply effective in local government and yet I know that the state might create obstacles and constraints, and I think that’s the experience we need a mayor to have. I also think that there is a fundamental difference between the public policy perspective that I offer and the performative politics of others. We need a mayor who is willing to put in the work on projects that matter, outside of the spotlight of the press and social media, and build real offline relationships with the governor, leadership, and committee chairs. I also expect to reinvest in regional relationships with city and county mayors as well as other big city mayors and work with organizations like We Decide Tennessee to help our county delegation to the General Assembly and state legislators know Nashville doesn’t stand alone. Fundamentally, though, the most important thing a mayor can do for Nashvillians is use the power of the mayor’s office to focus our energy and resources on a Nashville for Nashvillians rather than toys for tourists the state wants.
Shannon Fontaine Courtesy Alice Rolli campaignAlice Rolli
I believe it possible to love both Nashville and Tennessee — and our residents benefit when we work together. The highest point in the county is named for my great-grandfather — Ganier Ridge at Radnor Lake. Residents nearby don’t care that it is a state park — they are glad that our city leaders worked with the state and today we have a park instead of 300 houses on that land. In this, my approach is decidedly different from the rest of the field. As of a few weeks ago I was the only candidate who’d been to meet with our fast-growing neighboring mayors. And we share challenges — around our inability to charge impact fees to capture the cost of growth at the site of growth — and I believe we’ll get more done to change that state law when we work together to bring solutions that benefit us all. Also, we’ve got to get our city’s priorities in order: we are dead last in the state for high school preparedness and we devote more of our city’s budget to our debt payments than the entire state of Tennessee, combined. Managing our city well — and working with the state — will ultimately benefit our residents.
What are your plans to address local environmental issues such as new construction (and handling its waste), improving local recycling facilities, water/sewage upgrades, strengthening tree canopy laws and cleaning up the Cumberland River?
Courtesy Freddie O'Connell Freddie O’Connell
Councilmember Freddie O’Connell:
I plan to keep doing what I’ve been doing for the past 8 years —focusing on sustainability and resiliency issues on all these fronts. The stronger green building standards I created mean Metro is reducing construction and demolition waste, and we need to ensure that in major public deals like the stadium we’re setting the standard. I’ve worked on advancements in recycling — including moving to twice-a-month curbside collection — and stepped in and did it myself when the city couldn’t. I was a citizen advisor for Clean Water Nashville that eliminated two combined sewer overflows into the Cumberland River while increasing green source reductions. I’ve supported advancements in tree policy that the council has led on for the past several years, and I’ve gone out on multiple tree planting campaigns with Root Nashville. Cities can and should lead on climate issues. That’s why I led on energy policy that has us on track to have 100% renewable energy in Metro buildings, a zero-emission fleet of Metro vehicles and stronger energy standards for buildings than ever before. These policies reduce cost, provide energy security and ensure cleaner air and water while offering climate resiliency. As soon as I take office, we’ll move from a temporary setup that has our water department in charge of trash and recycling to a more permanent solution. And we’ll work on a program that accelerates Metro’s advancement to having all of our local government’s energy needs met by locally supplied solar.
Shannon Fontaine Courtesy Alice Rolli campaignAlice Rolli
The Rolli administration will create a business minded and customer-focused government that is responsive and coordinated in our ability to execute basic city service functions such water, sewer, trash and recycling. We will set acceptable service levels and hold ourselves accountable to the public. I’m a Nashville native and our family has owned a farm on the Cumberland River since 1942 that was the first river-certified farm in the county — so I’m deeply aware of the importance of the Cumberland River and its health and cleanliness to our food and water supply. We support ongoing efforts to educate industry and agriculture to continue to ensure the health of our Cumberland River. In this work my experience at the state and federal level and relationships are critical — and unlike any other candidate in this crowded field. Under Gov. Bill Haslam, I was an Asst. Commissioner at TN-ECD, where the National Flood Insurance Program reported to me — and also my time working for Sen. Lamar Alexander when he was the chair of the Tennessee Valley Authority Caucus. The Rolli administration will consistently bring our federal and state partners to the table in working on issues related to river health and our environment.
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