Briley Lunch Part I

The kids played the grownup game today as we sat down to lunch with Councilman and Mayoral candidate David Briley to discuss the various issues affecting his campaign and Nashville in General. This was the first blogger lunch I've set up (actually, the first thing beyond dinner with friends that I've set up), and there were some quirks and some people who couldn't make it. I want to thank those who did show up: Brittney, Kleinheider, Hutchmo, Ned Williams, Rob Robinson, and Sarah Moore for coming out (honorable mention to Bruce Barry who didn't get the email about the time change...many apologies). Now, onto the program.

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It would be hard to say that this Grandson of the first Mayor of Metropolitan Nashville has led what could be considered a "normal" life. Upon graduating from Montgomery Bell Academy in 1982, David made the move to Nashville where he attended and later graduated with a Bachelors from Georgetown University in Washington DC. Rather than jumping into law school, David Briley traveled down to Latin America where he traveled, met new people, became fluent in Spanish, and spent some time teaching English in Ecuador. Briley then decided to go to Golden Gate University in San Francisco to earn his law degree. While there, Briley married his wife Jodi, and learned a passion for the topic of environmentalism.

Upon returning to Nashville, Briley practiced law with his brother Rob, and in 1999 was elected to the Metro Council and is currently finishing out his second term as an At Large council member. This experience, along with his experience as a father of a 3 1/2 year old son, is what David believes has prepared him for the role of Mayor. David says that he has spent the past eight years learning the ways of Nashville Government; what we do well and what we do not, "I feel like I’m the best prepared candidate in this race to take advantage of the momentum we have as a community to keep us moving forward, and at the same time, look at some of the areas where we really could do better."

David is optimistic about the current economic growth of Nashville, but feels that our schools are still not where they need to be in order to compete globally saying that "our public education system here in Nashville still has a long way to go." Part of the education problem is related to Juvenile crime, and David feels that we "have to do some things with the juvenile court to address truancy, deal with recidivism amongst juveniles, and to start transferring to the adult court the juveniles who we know are going to create the biggest problems for us in the community."

However, the issue that he will soon become known best for, is the environment. David has more or less staked his campaign on the need for Nashville's Government to lead the way in improving environmental sustainability. David looks at companies like Walmart and Dell, and he notes that they realize that not becoming more energy efficient or taking care of the environment "threatens their economic vitality;" Briley feels that Government should take a similar approach to the issue.

The questions opened up with Brittney Gilbert who asked whether or not Briley thought it was a risk to put so much emphasis on the environment, when it has become a politically divisive [for no particularly good reason, imo] in politics. Briley stated that it was simply "the right thing to do" and that environmental sustainability should be seen as part and parcel of an economic sustainability program. David noted that some religious figures, including his Methodist minister, have become to take up the issue of the environment under the guise of stewardship.

Adam Kleinheider followed up with a question about a statement Briley made in his press release about "environmental racism" and whether or not David felt this might alienate voters by focusing on race rather than economic class. I have to agree that I felt the term used could be going to far in an Southern city like Nashville. Folks don't like the term "racism" down here, unless used to denounce affirmative action, so it could be a term that would be more likely to lose him votes, rather than gain them. But Briley held his own on the issue. He said that he understood ACK's apprehension, and had a similar feeling when he first heard the term, but noted that "all of the empirical evidence that has been developed shows that race does have a role in those kind of impacts."

I personally haven't studied the issue, but it seems to make sense that race would have a lot to do with it. Urban environments unfortunately tend to cluster those who live in poverty, and for the most part, those clusters tend to have large majorities of one race or ethnicity. Briley pointed to landfills in Bordeaux as an example of a heavily African-American community whose environment is negatively impacted. If we were talking about a fairly white state like West Virginia, I'd agree, there probably isn't as good a case of "environmental racism". But Nashville is a city whose population of African-Americans is around 35%. Generally speaking they have a much higher poverty rate than their white counterparts, and so it makes sense that they would be more negatively effected by "class" based environmental decisions. I think the term "racism" usually denotes intention, and I'm not sure hurting Black people is anyone in Government or Industry's intentions...but it might diminish their concerns.

Moving past the environmental question, Rob Robinson asked a question on the mind of many progressive votes; why David Briley and not Karl Dean? Briley responded by saying that Karl was a great guy, a friend, and he had nothing bad to say about him; having said that, the qualifications come down to experience. While Karl Dean has spend most of his public life as a public defender and legal counsel, David has spent the last eight years listening to the complaints of the community, working through the system to find it's flaws, and experiencing the successes and failures that any Government goes through. David also said that the fact that he has a son who is soon to begin attending Metro Schools is also a unique qualifier, because his desire to fix public schools will not just be abstraction, it will be personal.

In response, Brittney asked whether or not Briley would ever send his son to a private school, to which he essentially replied "no", but with the caveat that his son has yet to enter school and so he wants to leave the door open in case his son ends up having special needs which can't be adequately filled by public schools. He would like to send him to Lockland Elementary, which David has been involved with since it's conception, but that there are limited number of spots and he's not sure if Sam will make it in or not. Of course, if Briley becomes Mayor, and his son does get in, I'm sure David's political detractors will attempt to portray it as an abuse of political influence. Sort of "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation.

Rob Robinson asked a follow up to that about whether or not Briley felt that Teacher's Unions were a help or hindrance to the public education system. It didn't seem as though Briley rushed in to praise the Unions, saying:

, I think that nothing I ever say about the Unions should be taken to impugn the teachers because they are separate. I think over the recent past, the fight over incentive pay has been a negative for the community overall. Because the teachers union has been involved in that, I think they are going to take some blame for the discourse. I think there are plenty of ways to reward success, both financially and non-financially, to get us out of the fight with the unions and the private sector in Nashville.

Briley said in response to Rob's question about school funding and whether or not it produced results, said that the key to a good school is "good principles, good teachers, and involved parents." Unfortunately, there isn't much the Government can do about getting parents involved, however, Briley thinks that it is important to provide young kids with a good role model, and he wants to lead an "unprecedented" effort in getting role models from all over the community, into Middle Schools where kids are in an important transition period where they will make decisions which could effect the rest of their lives. David noted that the vast majority of criminal offenders haven't graduated High School, and that if we can increase the graduation rate, we can reduce crime and costs in the future.

Of course, not all kids are destined for that Bachelors in English, and it should be the responsibility of the public education system to prepare kids for alternatives to a liberal arts college. So Brittney asked about vocational education, and whether or not he supported it. Briley noted that Bredesen has been working on a five-year high school program which would incorporate an associates degree into a student's senior year in high school, followed by an additional year at a community college.

Sarah Moore was also concerned about public schools, and asked what Briley's positions on charter schools and "school choice" were. Briley said:

I think parent’s need to have the option to send their children to a school that has uniforms. I think parents need to have the option of sending their kids to single-gender schools. I think parents need to have all kinds of options when it comes to the system.

I think the elephant in the room which was never really addressed, is religious education. For all the different options the school system can offer, one that they cannot is religious instruction which many parents feel is a necessity in their child's education. While I don't support religious instruction in public schools, or school vouchers (Briley doesn't either), I can certainly understand the frustration of Parent's who want one option that the Government can't (or won't) provide for them. As for Briley's statement about school uniforms, "I don’t think we need a blanket, 'you need to wear uniforms across the board' system," I have to disagree on this point. If studies show that school uniforms improve the educational experience, than I can't see a reason why not to impose those standards on all schools. I can't imagine a situation where school uniforms would hurt educational performance.

John Hutchenson followed up with a question about Charter schools, and whether or not the system needs to be fixed...Briley thinks it does. David said that having the School Board control the Charter process is "kind of like WalMart deciding if a Target can come into town." It's a conflict of interest, and while he doesn't advocate putting the control in the hands of the Mayor, it doesn't sound as if he is all that opposed either. David seems to feel that, while the Metro Charter puts a lot of control in the hands of the School Board, that the Mayor has a lot of leeway in influencing educational decisions; especially via the budget process.

That's all for now folks, I'll have my thoughts on round two tomorrow.

Read the Transcript - Listen to Part 1 of the lunch

Update: Round two is up