Nashville vice mayor election: Meet Jim Shulman

David Plazas | The Tennessean

Editor’s note: This questionnaire allows The Tennessean Editorial Board to get a better sense of the Metro Nashville vice mayoral candidate’s priorities and your values prior to the Aug. 2 election. There are three candidates in the vice mayor's race: Sheri Weiner, Jim Shulman and Matthew DelRossi.

Meet vice mayor candidate Jim Shulman Vice mayor candidate Jim Shulman sits down with Opinion and Engagement Editor David Plazas about his campaign.

Jim Shulman

Age: 58

Education

Vanderbilt University, B.A., 1982; Vanderbilt Law School, J.D., 1985

Job history

Executive Director, Tennessee Commission on Aging and Disability

Deputy Commissioner, Tennessee Department of Health

Chief of Staff, Office of the Tennessee Speaker of the House

Family

Married to Lori, daughters Audrey and Madeline

What makes you better qualified than your opponents for this position?

I have served as both a district councilman (District 25, 1999-2007) and as a councilman at-large (2015-present). During my first two terms, I chaired the Budget, Transportation, and Public Works Committees. In the current term, I chaired the Rules Committee and now serve as vice chair of the Budget Committee. Knowing the rules and the Council procedures is important to properly and efficiently running the meetings. Outside of the Council, I have spent almost thirty years in public service, working with and learning from members of both major parties in Tennessee. I received my training from people who understood the power of working together and who prided themselves on achieving results.

What will you do to restore faith and trust in public institutions in Nashville and Davidson County?

You have to lead by example. The public must first understand how their government works (for example, hosting Metro Council 101 classes and replaying them on Channel 3); they must also know how to reach and talk to their councilmember. The Council, on the other hand, must do its job by paying attention and attempting to address the public's concerns.

Better utilization of the Council Office can also help to ensure that information gets out. I think we can do a better job of making sure that the public understands what items are actually on the agenda (something as simple as posting the Council agenda on the wall outside the Council Chamber); we must also continually search for the most effective ways to get public concerns addressed to the body as a whole. Meetings were held during then-Vice Mayor Briley’s term, which specifically focused on how better to get the community engaged. We must take those ideas, continue to work on new strategies, and find better ways of outreach. In the end, we have to engage in meaningful and truthful conversations with the people we represent. With the recent failings and with the recent budgetary issues, we have our work cut out for us.

Did Metro kick the can down the road on tough financial decisions. How can you ensure that the city is in a better financial position in 2019 and beyond?

In June of this year, members of the Council spent almost five hours in budget discussions trying to decide what items it felt it could cut from the Mayor's proposed budget. Facing a $57 million shortfall, the Councilmembers could only agree on less than $80,000 in cuts. One could argue that we kicked the tough budgetary decisions down the road. But with the unwillingness to cut, with limited discussions about tax hikes, and with concerns about affordability (after last year's reassessments), we ended up passing a basic status quo budget.

I believe the review of next year’s budget should start now. We simply cannot afford to wait until next May to start our review. With concerns about education and employees and the use of non-recurring revenues to fund recurring items, we have a responsibility to understand what next year’s budget looks like, what our revenues and expenses may look like, and what possible budgetary options are available. Having meetings with the public allows citizens to engage, as well.

This will be Mayor Briley’s first full year of being in office. I think we should delve into the budgetary options with the Mayor while at the same time working as a Council to fully understand next year’s budget (and future budgets). We have to be careful about balancing the wants and needs of the community with the overall cost to our taxpayers; we have to know how the actions we take today will impact us from a budgetary standpoint in the future. We have to set our priorities.

What are you hearing most from voters about what they want you to accomplish, if elected?

The issues that started this Council term are still there. Concerns about overdevelopment, the lack of affordable and workforce housing, and traffic remain.

People want to see specific actions taken in an effort to address those concerns. I think it is the role of the vice mayor to focus the Council on those issues and then assist the members in taking specific actions to better address those items.

Describe a difficult decision you had to make in life or professionally and how you resolved it?

I had the chance to go to Washington when I was younger and work as the top legislative aide for a United States senator. My wife and I had two small children and she did not want to move to D.C.. She told me that I could go. It was a very good opportunity; but so was the opportunity to spend every day with my two little ones. In the end, it was not a difficult decision and those years with my children were some of the best years of my life.

Describe a mistake you made in your career and how you recovered from it?

I have had a number of different jobs over my career. Most have been really good learning experiences. I made one wrong decision along the way, however. I didn't take the time to learn about the job or the entity itself. I rushed into the opportunity way too quickly. It did not take very long to know that I needed to make a change. I have always had a strong work ethic (instilled by my parents) and a strong desire to achieve (also instilled by my parents). This particular situation caused me to question my judgement and abilities; it did a pretty good job on my confidence, as well.

It took a while to recover. At some point, however, it was time to regroup and re-focus. I spent some serious time soul-searching. I thought through the values that I was raised with, the good experiences that I had had, and the valuable lessons that I learned from others. Basically, it was time to quit feeling sorry for myself and move ahead; and that is what I did.

Will you commit to being civil in how you present yourself and the way you interact with opponents and others?

Yes

Is there anything else you would like us to know about you, your values and priorities?

This is what I want to do if elected as vice mayor:

Focus on civil discourse. In order to get things done, people must be able to talk to each other. In Government, just like everywhere else, people must feel open to discussing ideas and solutions. Differences of opinions need to be shared and conversations need to be encouraged and comfortable. Sometimes compromise is the right answer. Focus on the issues. There are specific concerns impacting Nashville right now. Budget concerns, affordable housing, traffic congestion, and social issues. The Council has one year left on this term. It needs to, as a body, determine what it wants to accomplish in the remaining 12 months concerning those issues. Focus on achieving. Once the Council determines the specific issues that it wants to address, it needs to set its sight on specific objectives and then accomplish those specific goals.

David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee and opinion and engagement editor for The Tennessean. Call him at (615) 259-8063, email him at dplazas@tennessean.com or tweet to him at @davidplazas.