As Nashville’s seven major mayoral candidates congregated at a forum hosted by the Nashville Business Journal, one of the big questions revolved around competition:
“If a Fortune 500 company were looking to relocate to Williamson County, how would youbring it to Davidson County instead?” a moderator asked.
Businesswoman Linda Rebrovick pointed to her career experience, saying she knows how to sell Nashville to big companies. Attorney Charles Robert Bone, on the other hand, said Nashville’s authenticity does a good job of selling itself.
City councilwoman Megan Barry had a different take: What’s more important is transit, she says, “because the reality is, some businesses are going to relocate into Williamson County and some are going to be here. But everybody has to be able to travel in this region efficiently.”
But developer Bill Freeman countered that point. He said Nashville has to come before the region.
“I’m not running for mayor of Middle Tennessee. I’m running for mayor of Nashville,” he said. “I will be a jealous advocate for Nashville, Tennessee.”
Taking a more neutral stance was former school board chairman David Fox, who said it’s important to be aggressive, but that the best way to attract companies is to improve public education.
Charter school founder Jeremy Kane and criminal court clerk Howard Gentry say they would take an additional step before beginning to recruit: making sure a company would be a good fit and bring quality jobs to the city.
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