Eric Brown is the latest staffer from Mayor John Cooper’s office to leave — following senior policy adviser Dia Cirillo, transportation adviser Faye DiMassimo and press secretary Andrea Fanta in recent months.
“I was looking for another job anyway,” Brown says. “It's just time to move on.”
Brown, whose title was North Nashville economic and community development manager, tells Scene sister publication the Nashville Post his last day with the mayor’s office was Wednesday. According to the mayor’s office, he had already stopped working as of Tuesday.
“We appreciate Eric’s tenure here and wish him well in his future endeavors,” chief of staff Jennifer Rasmussen-Sagan says via a spokesperson.
Brown joined the mayor’s office in 2019, shortly after Cooper was elected. His tenure working in North Nashville included the fallout from a destructive tornado, a pandemic and a stalled effort to cap the interstate that runs through Jefferson Street. He says some of the highlights of his tenure were helping secure federal relief funds earmarked for business development in North Nashville, helping coordinate tornado relief and kickstarting a pilot participatory budgeting process in North Nashville.
“I'll say it was a great start, as far as making sure to really start talking about the injustices and inequities that happen in the North Nashville and the Bordeaux area,” he says, noting that he "took a big push into acknowledging that there was a lot of things that needed to be reconciled in North Nashville," and that he's "really happy about that."
The work is not done, though, he says. Specifically, Brown says it’s important to continue working on diversity and representation in city leadership and community engagement surrounding the proposed interstate cap.
“I still don't see where on the website that you can actually see the pictures of those who are on our commissions and boards, to understand what they look like,” he says. “Do we have Asian representation? Do we have Latino/Latina representation? Do we have enough Black representation? And not just in tokenized fashions, but they're actually on boards that are really essential to the city.”
In the mayor’s office, Brown says, he was “really happy that I saw people that looked like me.”
“I want to make sure that continues, and I would like to see that the data actually proves that diversity, equity and inclusion is still in the office,” he adds.
Brown says he was “a little disappointed” about the process surrounding the interstate cap.
“I think we could’ve done a better job of listening to the community and making sure North Nashville got to talk about the issues that really matter to them first instead of just throwing down an interstate project,” he says. “Faye DiMassimo did a wonderful job of making sure the history was heard and discussed and talked about, and how that was done. [Economic development director] Courtney [Pogue] made sure to advise and say we need to deal with the issues first before the interstate cap was just put down. For me, I think we can do a better job of making sure that the growth that we have here, which is great growth, is a balanced growth that is not top-heavy and essentially makes Nashville lose the diversity, equity and inclusion that's here, but it actually is done in a manner that makes it to where everyone that lives in the city can be proud of the city and feel they’re part of the city [and that] people are being integrated into that community instead of being erased from their community, [which] essentially colonializes the area.”
Basically, he says, the city shouldn’t put “the cart before the horse” when planning an interstate cap and should focus on neighborhood issues like crime, unemployment and business development before planning an ambitious cap.
As for why so many staffers seem to be leaving the mayor’s office, Brown says he “can’t speak for them.”
“As far as for myself, I think I want to make sure I bring more value to my community of North Nashville,” he says. “I am concerned that so many people are leaving, but they have to speak for that for themselves. I just want to make sure North Nashville is taken care of, … that they are able to say what’s best for them. For me, I feel it’s time to do that in a manner, for right now at least, outside the mayor’s office.”
Brown does not have a new job lined up but says he wants to keep working on economic and community development in North Nashville.
