A Few Questions With

A Few Questions with At-Large Councilmember Zulfat Suara

Zulfat Suara is highly respected in the Nashville community and beyond. She was the first immigrant elected to an at-large Metro Council seat, the first Muslim immigrant elected to the Metro Council, the first Muslim immigrant elected in the state of Tennessee and she was also the first Nigerian woman (as far as we know) to win an election in the United States.

The Contributor talked with Suara as part of a series called A Few Questions With where we interview councilmembers about their district’s most pressing issues.

What made you decide to run for an at-large seat rather than a district seat in 2019 and will you run for a second term?

Once I decided to run for office, I looked at the issues that are important to me. I was very much interested in the budget and in education. Those are countywide issues. Also, when I looked at the history of the work that I’ve done statewide for the last 20 years, … I felt like the majority of people who know me and my work are not in one area of the city. I wanted to have the ability to represent them, especially in the Muslim community. All live in different parts of the county. That’s why I decided to run for an at-large seat.

I just announced my intention to run for re-election and will have my official kick-off on March 6.

Which constituents do you hear from the most, and what are the main issues you hear about?

These days the issue that’s on everybody’s mind is affordable housing.

Every time something is going on in a district, I am copied on those emails as well. Housing and the budget are the main issues for people countywide.

You chair the Education Committee. Where do you think Metro stands in terms of funding public schools, and where are opportunities for improvement?

In the last two to three years, the Mayor has done a good job of increasing our funding for MNPS (Metro Nashville Public Schools). But that doesn’t mean we fund everything that needs to be funded. [For example,] in the last two years we did a good job with putting in social-emotional learning. We need to build on that to be able to make sure we have it in every school. We started in elementary school, and I think we’re looking into middle school and high school. So, we need to make sure that that happens.

Funding these new initiatives is great, but we also need to look at whether they are working. So, one thing I decided to do this year as chair of the Education Committee is to have early conversations with [Metro Schools] so that we learn how schools are operating and not just give money during the budget season. Metro Council and [Metro Schools] always talk around budget time. This year, we decided to invite [the School Board] Chair Rachael Elrod and some of the school board members to our Education Committee. We talked about funding from the state, did they get what they needed, how was the enrollment number, is it higher, is it lower. I wanted to make sure we have a continuous conversation. The MNPS board has been very gracious to come to our meeting to give us an update.

I’m hoping that we build on our relationship with the school board, so that we’re not just looking at the budget numbers but also are asking the questions in terms of programming and performance and then have the opportunity to pass some information to them as well in terms of what impacts their constituents.

What are your thoughts on community-based budgeting?

I love it! If you were on the trail with me when I was running and look at my website, I ran on three things: I ran on education, I ran on a livable wage for Nashville and I ran on community-based budgeting, although I called it participatory budgeting.

I love participatory budgeting because it allows the community to have input on how the money is being spent. The people on the ground actually know where the most urgent needs are. We do not have the money to do everything. So, we need to prioritize. That’s where community-based budgeting comes in. The community knows what is best for them.

I love it, and I’m so grateful for former Councilmember Fabian Bedne, who has done an amazing job on getting participatory budgeting started in North Nashville. We are about to get started on another round, and I hope we can build on it.

The Metro Council is currently looking at the Capital Improvements Budget. Do you see eventually an opportunity for the participatory budgeting process to include input directly in the Capital Improvement Budget?

Most of the things that are funded through participatory budgeting are capital funding in nature. You usually don’t use that process for operations, you use [it] for solid things like sidewalks and building something.

Once we are out of ARP (American Rescue Plan) funds, then yes, we are looking into opportunities where the community decides on what they want to do. Our proposals for the Capital Improvement Budget right now [come] from the councilmembers, and the councilmembers listening to their constituents, obviously, in terms of deciding what needs to be done. But the council gets to prioritize. So I hope we’ll get to a point where there [will] be a process where it will not be council-driven, it will be community-driven.

As a minority, an immigrant and an overall trailblazer (first Muslim woman elected in the State of Tennessee), where do you see opportunities for Metro to strengthen equity for any underserved populations?

There are a couple of things we can do better.

One is in the area of representation in terms of people having the opportunity to serve. We’re still fighting for improved representation on boards and commissions. Councilmember Sandra Sepulveda [recently] presented a bill that I think is amazing that will help with that. It will make sure that when we select members for a board or commission that we make sure it is very diverse, that we have voices of everyone that we represent on there. That people in the immigrant community can come to the table and can actually speak to what their community needs. If people are not part of the conversation, then they are not part of the decision-making. So being able to have diverse participation on boards and commissions and on the decision-making bodies will be great.

Another thing that has come to light is that language has always been a barrier, especially for the immigrant community. The information that’s provided is all in English. When people don’t have access to information, they don’t have access to services. So, I’m hoping we can improve on our language services. In the last budget season, we put in some money into interpretation services and language services. In our council meetings, we now have somebody who comes and interprets for Spanish-speakers. I think that’s a movement in the right direction.