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Mike Fant, Nashville Tennessean
The Metro Council is in the midst of a push to diversify Nashville’s commissions and boards.
But last week the council of voted down a Black woman nominated to serve on the Fair Board, exposing divisions among council members and community groups about how best to accomplish the task.
Former council member Sandra Moore was one vote short in securing a seat on the commission that oversees The Fairgrounds Nashville. A council contingent thwarted her nomination as it sought a Hispanic community member for the board who they felt could represent a larger sector of the city’s soccer fan base and advocate for workers.
Vice Mayor Jim Shulman, who nominated Moore, said she is immensely qualified to serve in the role. Several of his colleagues agreed. But those who abstained or voted against her argue that, while that may be true, she is not the candidate they asked for.
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As the city continues to expand and diversify, with a growing number of ethnic and racial groups calling Nashville home, the traditional approach to diversity has fallen flat. Advocates are adamant that the experiences of different minority groups aren’t interchangeable.
“Our appointee ask was specific and it was blatantly ignored, as if it was acceptable to exchange a Hispanic male for a Black female. It is not acceptable,” said Council member Joy Styles, who voted against Moore’s appointment.
The ongoing saga reveals the complexity around issues of diversity and representation. It also exposes competing interests at The Fairgrounds Nashville, a divisive hub where some of the city’s biggest projects are under way or in the works.
Shulman promised minority pick
The mayor gets to make nominations to city boards and commissions. Despite a year-long push by some to appoint a Hispanic member to the currently all-white Fair Board, Mayor John Cooper’s office initially selected a white man.
His nomination was later withdrawn. But Cooper’s window to make a new pick closed by the time the administration decided on Q-Juan Taylor, a Black man in Nashville’s hospitality industry who is a managing partner and co-owner of Sinema restaurant and Eighth & Roast coffee.
The nomination then fell to Shulman. Cooper recommended Taylor. The minority caucus endorsed Leon Berrios, former director of law for the Hispanic Family Foundation whos worked with the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and Conexión Américas.
Cooper spokesperson Andrea Fanta cited the “unprecedented year” for why the administration missed the deadline.
But during the time it took to try and fill the seat that’s been open for a year, another seat came open. Cooper nominated former Council member Sheri Weiner, a white woman, for reappointment after she served for the remaining year on the term of a former commissioner.
A two-hour, heated debate during a February council meeting ended with Weiner successfully confirmed — despite an effort to defer the vote — and a promise from the vice mayor to nominate a minority for the other seat.
‘Is this the message we want to send?’
Moore was the person he was looking for, Shulman told The Tennessean last week.
A former minority caucus chair, Moore served two terms representing the district that includes the fairgrounds. She’s lived in the ethnically diverse area much longer. While supportive of placing “new people” on boards who could bring fresh perspective, the fair board requires someone who “knows the ropes,” Shulman said.
“I realized the best thing to do was not pick either side but pick somebody I thought that both sides could agree to,” he said.
Moore needed 21 votes to be confirmed at last Tuesday’s council meeting. Between seven council members voting no, six abstaining, five absent and one experiencing technical difficulties, she fell short.
It’s the first in recent Metro history. Typically appointees are put up with confidence after enough vetting. And on occasion they are withdrawn on the front end when considerable opposition is expected.
Ultimately what happened, Shulman said, was the council voted down a Black woman who was immensely qualified and willing to serve.
“Is this the message we want to send? We want people to serve on these boards and commissions. To have council vote down people doesn’t achieve that,” he said.
Minority caucus split over vote
At-Large Council member Sharon Hurt said she is disappointed “political game playing” interfered with the council doing what was right — appointing Moore.
Last month, the minority caucus penned a letter endorsing Berrios after he was recommended by council members Sandra Sepulveda and Colby Sledge.
Sepulveda is Nashville’s first Hispanic woman to serve on the council. Sledge represents the fairgrounds.
“We fully stand behind Leon and will provide him the community support needed to accurately speak on behalf of the thousands of Brown, Black, Immigrants, and working-class people we represent,” Hurt wrote on behalf of the caucus.
Berrios, she said, has the track record of serving underrepresented communities in Nashville who have been impacted by the decisions made by the fair board.
“I think when people speak, you should hear them. Period,” Hurt told The Tennessean last week.
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But when Berrios wasn’t ultimately an option, she said she supported Moore, who had the right credentials and is a “double minority.”
Hurt said Shulman’s “clever” decision to avoid politics backfired as it was just as divisive.
It’s one that put the minority caucus at odds with itself. Styles was the sole member to vote against Moore. Two others abstained.
“We said this was our person,” Styles said about the group’s decision to stand behind Berrios. When the council was asked to then appoint a Black woman, she said it was clear to her that Shulman and those supporting Moore weren’t listening.
Styles on Monday said she stood by her vote.
“We are not doing our jobs appropriately if our boards and commissions are not reflective of all cultures and backgrounds,” she said. “Diversity is imperative. It is not just black or white.”
Sepulveda said the vote put her “between a rock and a hard place.”
“I’m glad they at least this time nominated another person of color. That’s great,” she said. “But we’re supposed to be the minority caucus that fights for all minority groups. I couldn’t at the end of the day vote in favor, so I abstained.”
Pivotal moment for fairgrounds
Stand Up Nashville Executive Director Odessa Kelly said the city and Fair Board would have benefited from Moore serving. But it shouldn’t have come down to two former council members as the only considerations, she said, especially when the first seat went to Weiner.
“If this isn’t the perfect case of gaslighting, I don’t know what is,” Kelly said. “You don’t take one of the best representatives in the city and use that person as a pawn to silence a community voice.”
Getting the right representation at a pivotal moment for the fairgrounds is critical, she said. Stand Up Nashville led the historic community benefits agreement as part of the Nashville’s MLS stadium deal.
It guarantees affordable housing, minority business opportunities, job creation and worker safety and cultural spaces and amenities at the mixed-use development.
It goes beyond seeing those agreements enact, Kelly said. It is also about maintaining the galvanizing spirit the city saw in 2018 when a cross-section of the community challenged the status quo.
The Metro Charter gives Shulman 60 days to make another nomination. Moore can’t be nominated for a city commission for a year.
Shulman hasn’t decided what he’ll do next. Hurt said in her view, he now has the prerogative to pick whomever he wants after fulfilling his promise to appoint a minority but was then rejected.
She said she hopes his next pick will be a person of color while Styles said the next appointment needs to reflect the specific ask for Hispanic representation.
“To be ignored again, would be tone deaf and willfully so,” she said.
Yihyun Jeong covers politics in Nashville for USA TODAY NETWORK – TENNESSEE. Reach her at yjeong@tennessean.com and follow her on Twitter @yihyun_jeong.
Board and commission demographics
The Metro Clerk since March 2020 has compiled data on board and commission appointees. That’s when the council authorized nominees confirmed by council to self-report their information.
In the past year, 112 people were appointed to various city boards and commissions. Here’s the breakdown:
- 47% Female
- 52% Male
- 1% Non-binary
- 56% White
- 27% Black
- 4% Asian
- 3% Hispanic
- 3% Indian
- 1% Jewish
- 2% Multi-ethnic
- 5% Unknown
