Delishia Porterfield

Delishia Porterfield

Twenty-one candidates qualified to run for at-large seats on the Metro Council.

The campaign for at-large is unique. Because the top five vote-getters win, candidates typically remain positive, and surprising candidates can sneak into the winners’ circle.

Early voting for Metro Council and mayoral elections starts July 14, with Election Day following Aug. 3. A runoff, if needed, would come in September.

Our latest Q&A with an at-large candidate features Delishia Porterfield, the one-term District 29 councilmember now seeking countywide office.

Previously, we spoke with candidates Burkley Allen, Russ Pulley, Quin Evans Segall, Marcia Masulla, Jeff Syracuse and Zulfat Suara. This interview has been edited for length.

You were one of the most vocal opponents of the Titans deal. You said "there's no reason for us to think this is the best version of the deal." Would you have supported any deal? What would one you could have voted for looked like?

For me, I tried to be as an open-minded as possible throughout the whole ordeal. I joked with the Titans lobbyists and Burke Nihill about when we had our meeting, I was pacing back and forth in the Titans office for two-and-a-half hours trying to find something that made sense to me, and we just couldn't get there. One of the biggest issues I had with the deal was that it was never in my opinion real clarity or transparency about what a rebuild would look like. We immediately went to, "We need a new stadium, and we need a Cadillac of stadiums." Working people, when we can't afford something we just don't buy it. The Titans could have had a state-of-the-art stadium that was something that could have been more affordable and not at such a cost to the city, but that was never considered. The numbers we were given were such a jump. It just did not seem believable for me.

So you would have been open to renovation or even a cheaper new stadium?

The deal was never "stadium or no stadium." We didn't have the option to say, "We're not going to do anything, and we're just going to fund our priorities like education and affordable housing." I wish that was an option, but it wasn't. Our only options were renovation or new stadium. Looking at those options, my primary focus was what is going to be in the best interest of working-class Nashvillians and the people that make our city run. I was willing to look at whatever version was going to work in the best interest of our working people in Nashville and cause the least amount of harm to the people in Nashville.

How could the deal have been better for the people of Nashville? A community benefits agreement?

I think Councilman Taylor's amendment, had that been allowed to stay on, would have been a better deal for people in Nashville. Councilman Mendes had a lot of great amendments to the deal that would have strengthened it. There are obviously concerns with the state taking over so many positions on the sports authority board, and we are now about to go into this deal with them, which is obviously alarming. We didn't even limit the ability to have gambling on site. There were a lot more protections we could have put in place for working people that the body was not willing to seriously explore. Anything that was looked at to improve the deal was marketed as an attack against the deal. Instead of being open-minded and looking at this as how do we best protect Nashvillians and how do we pass the best and strongest version of the deal, it was looked at as a way to take away from the deal or kill the deal. The longer we deliberated, the more new and fresh ideas came about. I would have liked to have seen a stronger deal.

A lot of stuff like that gets hashed out in the Budget and Finance Committee. You were the vice chair of that committee, and often the vice chair has been elevated to chair. Did you want to lead that committee?

I absolutely wanted to be the chair of Budget and Finance. I would have been honored to serve the city in that capacity. Councilwoman Toombs and I made history with having a Black woman as chair and vice chair. We passed arguably the most equitable budget in Nashville's history. We worked really hard to make sure that working people and minorities had a fair share of that budget. That work would have continued. Unfortunately I was not given that opportunity.

You said you were pleased with funding for a new Southeast police precinct. Is that compatible with some of your other positions on police funding, including from the 2020 budget debate when you said some police resources should be diverted to other priorities?

As a district councilmember, I work very hard to balance the needs of my council district with the values of many progressive people in this city, including myself. I don't shy away from the fact that I believe we need to reimagine public safety in our city. We have to be very intentional about what public safety looks like. For some people, more police makes them feel safe, and for others it doesn't. I believe public safety comes with things like affordable housing and education and workforce development and mental health services. People out in Southeast Nashville have been trying to get a police precinct for over 20 years. There have been times when my constituents have called me and there was someone shooting and they're saying it took an hour for the police to get there. In this community, across various socioeconomic and racial demographics, one of the top concerns I've heard from people here is that they want more police and that they want the police precinct. That is what they feel will make them safe. I do try to balance this geographical need and desire and request from people in my community with the need of what I believe is overall public safety. I think we can get there when we look at creative solutions, like if we remove police officers from traffic stops, that lightens the workload of officers so they can respond to some of these other calls a lot faster. If we have mental health specialists responding to people that are in mental health crisis as opposed to armed police officers, that can have a better outcome for people that are in crisis. It also frees up police officers to deal with actual violent crimes and instances where we actually need an armed police officer. Sometimes we get so married to an idea and change is scary. Sometimes when you want to make things better, people take it as an attack. I don't have any attacks; I just want to improve the way we do things.

You were among the councilmembers who called for former MNPD Chief Steve Anderson's removal in 2020. Have you been pleased with his successor, John Drake?

Nashville has had some very trying times this term. Chief Drake has come into a very hard environment. We had the Covenant shooting, we had the Christmas Day bombing, and I think Chief Drake has navigated those situations very well. I do think there are other areas of opportunity where there can be improvement. It's incumbent upon us to support when things are going well but also hold people accountable when there are areas that need to be improved. We can't be beholden to individuals. We have to work in the best interest of the people of Nashville.

Are you supporting anyone in the mayor's race? What do you want to see from the winner?

I have a lot of friends that are in this race, and I'm excited to see where it goes. I'm looking forward to working with whoever wins this race to make sure we are creating a Nashville that's welcoming for the people here, especially for working people and minorities. I want to see someone that is going to proactively work with our Metro Council, and someone who is going to be very proactive in addressing the issues that people face in our city. It's great we've created this amazing utopia where people can come. This is still a place where people live, and I want to make sure we have a mayor that's going to remember that. The people who work here should be able to live here. We don't want to create this city where people can work at the concessions of the Titans game but they can't afford to go to one. That's not the type of city I want to live in.

You're director of leadership and advocacy at Stand Up Nashville, which frequently engages with Metro on development and other issues. How are you able to keep those roles separate?

For me it's a very simple balance. I do leadership training with Stand Up, and I work to implement the current [community benefits agreement] that the previous council voted on. I work to implement that CBA with Nashville Soccer. It's a clear divide of what I do for Stand Up and what Stand Up does outside of me.

Is there a role for CBAs moving forward? Should the council prioritize those?

Community benefits agreements are definitely a tool that can be utilized by our community in areas in which we are preempted. There are certain things council can't demand of developers, as much as we would like to. Community benefits agreements, the beauty of them is it puts the power in the hands of the community. It allows the community to mobilize and galvanize and come up with a vision of what they want for their community. They're able to work directly with these entities and create legally binding contracts between the community and the developers to get the things they are passionate about. I think it's a wonderful tool. We can't withhold legislation because something doesn't have a CBA. We can't require a CBA. But I do think it is a powerful tool. When we're trying to create a better Nashville, we have look at all the tools in our toolbox.

How can the city incentivize, subsidize, prioritize affordable housing?  What do you want to do on that front in the next four years?

We definitely need to make sure we have dedicated funding sources that will help address affordability and affordable housing here in Nashville. We have to make sure we are creating pathways to equitable home ownership. We have to make sure we're providing family housing and housing solutions for individuals. Over this term, I think we've done a good job. Creating Angie Hubbard's position was huge. We have to make sure we're looking at these policies through an equity lens. Another piece that people really miss in the affordable housing conversation is it's not just about having housing stock. How do we address wages in our city? That's one of the fastest ways to address affordability in this city. Metro is one of our largest employers, and when we pay our Metro employees, we are giving them the ability to choose their housing and live with dignity. When we lift the wages of Metro employees, other entities have to lift their wages in an effort to be competitive. There's not just one piece or one solution. It's a both-and. We have to address wages and we have to make sure there is a stock of affordable housing and dedicated funding for affordable housing.

Should there be another transit referendum?

We need dedicated funding for transit. There are so many things we can do before we get there. We need walkable neighborhoods. We need sidewalks. We need bus shelters. We need more frequent routes, later routes, cross-city routes. Many of the bus stops in our neighborhood don't have benches or shelters. People should be able to wait with dignity. We have to prioritize those things and work with people that are transit-dependent and hear their needs, and also work with people that aren't riding the buses to find out what's keeping them from using the systems we already have. Transit is also an equity issue. People need transit to get to jobs. People need housing along corridors that have transit. Those are the things we need to address before we can get to looking at things like referendums and light rail and other options. We have to address those basic things first.

Child care was a part of the CBA with the soccer club. Do you see that as a model for how the city can support child care around the city? Is there a role for Metro in doing that?

Absolutely. This council, especially the women's caucus and the minority caucus, have been looking at prioritizing child care. Years ago, child care was an issue that affected people from a lower socioeconomic status. It was still really important then. Now it's impacting people that are from a higher socioeconomic status, people that are middle class. I talked to parents, both are attorneys, and one parent was leaving their practice to become a stay-at-home parent because they could no longer afford child care for their family. It got to a place where child care had become so expensive that it was more beneficial for them to have an attorney stay home with their children than to pay for child care. To be clear, this issue was also very important when it was solely impacting people from a lower socioeconomic status. Now it is so widespread that we cannot continue to ignore it. That's one thing that has really put it on the radar for the women's caucus and the minority caucus. That's the benefit of having diversity in representation. We bring our lived experiences to the work that we do. Nashville's CBA has been a model across the country. It's one of the strongest CBAs in the country. It's been a model on how communities can work with developers to make sure that development is not happening to the community but it's happening in tandem with the community.

Why are you running for at-large when you could run for another term in your district? Will the district suffer by not having that continuity in leadership?

When you look at what a district councilmember does, they're primarily focusing on things like zoning and making sure trash is being picked up, these really localized issues that impact one specific geographic area. Anyone who knows me or who's seen me over the last four years, the fights that I'm most called to are these fights for justice and equity, and being a voice for working families and minorities. Over the last four years, I've been fully present for District 29, showing up for my community, but I've also been fully present for these citywide issues like affordability and protecting democracy. Being fully present in two different spaces is extremely hard, and it doesn't leave any time for yourself or your family. I want my district to have someone who is fully present for those district issues, and I want to be able to fully present serving District 29 but also the rest of the city making sure working people have a voice. I want to be a part of the solution and making sure Nashville continues to be home for the people that made our city what it is. It was definitely a decision to be made. I'm very confident in this decision. Going across the city, the messaging is resonating with people. People are excited I've gotten in this race. People have looked to me to be a moral compass over the last four years. I've been a strong voice for working people. I want to be able to continue to do that. As far as harm in the district with regards to continuity, I've talked to several of them in the race, and whoever wins I am dedicated to helping support them in any way. I'll still be here as a resource in any way possible.

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