A Few Questions With

A Few Questions With Councilmember Sandra Sepulveda, District 30

BY JUDITH TACKETT

Councilmember Sandra Sepulveda is currently the only Latinx member on the Metro Council. She fills the role that former Council member Fabian Bedne held in representing not only her district, but also the entire Nashville Latinex community.

The Contributor talked with Sepulveda as part of a series called A Few Questions where we interview council members about their district’s most pressing issues. Sepulveda talked with us about her district responsibilities as well as her expanded roles on Metro Council.

What does it mean to represent District 30? Do you feel pressure to represent the entire Latino community in Nashville?

It’s always a big responsibility representing almost 20,000 people in the community that I grew up with. I’ve lived here since I was five, so I’ve seen the changes through varying representations. And yes, there is a layer of expectations wanting to make sure that I represent everyone accurately and fighting for those who elected me and even those who didn’t.

I absolutely represent the entire Latino community. Being the only Latinx council member that responsibility falls on me. If I don’t [take on this responsibility], then there is no one else to do it.

When you look at at-large Metro council members, they represent the entire county, they don’t have district responsibilities. Similarly, I represent an entire group of people countywide, but I also have district responsibilities.

What are the main concerns you hear from your constituents?

What has been consistent is needing basic services, like wanting better sidewalks, wanting better roads, wanting that infrastructure that other parts of the city have been building for a long time that we haven’t necessarily seen over here. District 30 is one of the smaller geographic districts because we are much more densely populated. It’s an older neighborhood in a sense.

We have several immigrant community members who have moved in, but we have generational homes, where you see two, three generations living under the same roof. District 30 might be the most diverse district in the county.

From the immigrant community, what I hear most is people getting taken advantage of by their landlords. They get taken advantage of because they don’t know their rights, and the residents decide not to say anything because of legal status and other reasons. So a lot of my work in the immigrant community is helping out with that. People call me to tell me they received information that they don’t think is right and asking for help with interpretation. What I hear the most of is help to access basic services.

You are just one person. Who do you partner with to ensure people are linked to the services including interpretation services if needed?

We have several community partners I work with such as the Tennessee Immigrant & Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRC), Workers’ Dignity, Conexion Americas, American Muslim Advisory

Council (AMAC), and others. Sometimes they get the first call, sometimes I get the first call, and then it’s just a lot of handholding. I also help some of my colleagues [at Metro Council] sometimes when they have people who don’t speak English in their districts. I have been doing this work for much longer than I have been on Metro Council. It would be so much harder if we didn’t have some of that infrastructure provided by different organizations.

Vice Mayor Jim Shulman appointed you to the Financial Oversight Committee that is charged to distribute federal relief dollars, first of COVID-19 funds, now of American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds. What has worked well in that process? Where do you see opportunities for improvement?

Us being able to ask several questions to the organizations that are bringing proposals forward before it gets to the Metro Council, the whole set up of how the committee was imagined, that part was great. We filtered everything through, we vetted it, we looked for equity, we put some specific reporting requirements, and then the proposals went to Metro Council. So doing a lot of that work before it gets to the Metro Council floor, I think has made some of that process run smoother.

Where we still need to do a lot of work is to figure out our priorities. I personally pushed from the very first meeting on a survey because it was important to [seek] community input on how this money should be used. Just approving everything that comes before us I think is not the right way to approach things. While we can still approve, we should make sure that we never forget the community input in all of this, no matter who puts a proposal in front of us.

What was the total in ARP funds the city received and how much is still open for discussion on how it will be used?

The city received a total of $259,810,600, and we got that in two installments.

We received the first half, and that’s what we’ve been working on. And we have yet to receive the second half. So from the first half, it was $129,905,300, we have spent all of that except for $60,465. That’s where we’re at right now.

Editorial note: Cities must obligate their ARP funds by Dec. 31, 2024, and unexpended funds are not subject to recapture or return until Dec. 31, 2026. Of the close to $130 million remaining ARP funds, the Mayor’s Office has announced they will request $80 million ($50 million to address homelessness, $30 million for community budgeting).

Vice Mayor Jim Shulman also appointed you to the Homelessness Planning Council (HPC). With the creation of an Office of Homelessness in Metro, a Metro report on homelessness, and the Continuum of Care’s (CoC)* strategic planning process all going on simultaneously, what direction would you like to see the HPC take?

That’s a hard question. You’re right, it’s all going on at the same time. We’re also looking for a director at the same time, and you know there is frustration on behalf of the providers not feeling heard, not feeling included, and then there is frustration on behalf of the administration because they believe that they should be leading what direction is taken when it comes to solving homelessness.

I think communication is in general what we need to work on. I don’t think I’ve ever seen it this hectic, this reactive. It has completely divulged into what it is now, and I don’t think that’s good for anyone.

That’s something we need to work on — communication.

For the Homelessness Planning Council itself, more diversity is definitely something that needs to happen. And it’s good to train young people and people interested in this work, so the next generation can pick up where people leave off. Hopefully it’s something we don’t need to do and [homelessness] will be solved, but we just have to be realistic and until there is a permanent solution we have to screen new, diverse young people to pick up the mantle and take it from there.

*The Continuum of Care (CoC) is a federally designated area in which all stakeholders from a community work together to build a system to prevent and end homelessness. CoC’s receive competitive federal funds for their systems work.