- A large field of candidates is now down to two.

Chattanooga will soon elect one of these two candidates to lead the city for the next four years.

We'll talk about experience, priorities, and the future of Chattanooga with Tim Kelly and Kim White next.

- [Narrator] Support for this program is provided by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(exciting music) - Welcome to this debate between Tim Kelly and Kim White.

I'm your moderator, Ray Bassett, host of Scenic Roots on WUTC, 88.1 FM.

The following organizations have partnered to make this possible.

United Way of Greater Chattanooga, the Community Foundation of Greater Chattanooga, Venture Forward, the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga 2.0, the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, and the League of Women Voters of Chattanooga.

WTCI and WUTC are the media partners in this endeavor.

The League of Women Voters of Chattanooga will be keeping time for us during this debate.

Answers to questions will be capped at two minutes.

The other candidate will then have one minute to respond.

We'll begin with a brief introduction from each candidate.

We flipped a coin and we'll start with Kim White.

- Thank you.

Thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight.

I'm Kim White and I am humbly asking for your vote to be Chattanooga's mayor.

There's never been a more important time that we elect the right leader with the right background, experience, and vision.

And I believe I am that leader.

In fact, I believe this is a role that I've been preparing for my entire life.

I was born to 17-year-old parents.

I grew up in Hixson.

I went to Hixson High School.

I'm the first of my immediate family to go to college, and I worked my way through UTC.

I left after school and began my career path.

And in the midst of that, found my husband of 32 years, Joe Dan.

After a 20-year absence, we decided and we chose Chattanooga.

I came back here without any political or business connections or family business to run.

I had to do like what many of you had to do, start over again.

And I did that by rolling up my sleeves and getting to work, finding a way to use my voice in this city.

And that's what I have done.

I have a great business background working for a Fortune 500 company.

I have met payroll, I have balanced budgets.

But for the past 11 years, I've been the president and CEO of an organization called River City Company working to make downtown a great place.

In that time, I was able to attract over $1.2 billion of investment, thousands of jobs.

I am ready to lead this city day one.

We have a Day One Playbook that we're gonna hit the ground running.

My experience of the last 11 years working beside city government, building partnerships and coalition has put me in a place to lead this city starting today.

Thank you very much.

- Thank you, Kim White.

Thank you, Tim Kelly.

- Good evening, my name is Tim Kelly, and I would appreciate your vote for me to be Chattanooga's next mayor.

I grew up right here in Chattanooga.

I raised my kids here.

I built my businesses here and my only interest in running for this seat is to move Chattanooga forward.

I spent the last 32 years in the small business world and the entrepreneurship world, both having started six or seven businesses here including Southern Honda Powersports, which is the biggest Honda powersports dealership in the country.

Was a co-founder at Chattanooga FC, which is a great local success story.

And of course, in the car business, both with the Cadillac store back years ago and Kelly Subaru, which some of you may remember.

but I also spent the last 32 years in the nonprofit world.

I started out in 1990 on the board of Girls, Inc. And was on 15 or 20 different nonprofit boards since then, culminating really, I think, in my service as a chairman of the Community Foundation, also on the steering committee of Chattanooga 2.0 here today.

And in all that time, I realized that Chattanooga just hadn't made enough progress in the 30 years since I've been back here.

I have no future political ambitions at all.

I'm a localist.

I'm about preservation of local capital, local talent.

And again, my only interest is in moving Chattanooga forward and making it the greatest city in America, which I fully believe that it has a potential to be with the right leadership.

- Thank you, now to the questions.

COVID-19 relief.

How will you as mayor ensure the federal stimulus money is spent on COVID-19 relief as intended?

What transparency and accountability will you provide on a regular and real-time basis to the city council and the public to deliver dialogue and results?

This question to Tim Kelly.

- Right, so Chattanooga's very fortunate in that it looks as though we'll be receiving $39.8 million in federal relief funds.

We've studied the guidelines for those funds, and they will indeed help us tremendously in recovering.

Transparency and accountability are my watch words and will be throughout my administration.

I'd like to say the value of a small business experience in an executive political role like this is not necessarily that we understand business better, it's that we understand organizational management better.

So we've got plans.

We've got 12 different plans.

And we have had for for many months on our website at kellyforcha.com that you can look at.

We've got 100-day plan.

And we will be using that money to supercharge, really, the plans that we already had to pull this city out of the pandemic, including appointing a city director of public health to work with the county to accelerate relief.

A one-stop shop for small businesses to help them recover and get rebooted.

And then of course, the money is also eligible for infrastructure investments in broadband, in water and sewer, and especially I think, in the area of homelessness and affordable housing, which has really become a full-blown crisis during the course of this campaign.

So I look very forward to putting that money to work and working with the county, which is also receiving $70 million in relief funds to help the city really make lemonade out of the lemons of the COVID pandemic.

And I'm sure we can do that by partnering effectively with the county to put the money to work.

I should also add that the effects of this pandemic have been disproportionately impactful on low income and communities of color, and our approach to using that money would recognize that and make sure that the people that need the relief most are gonna get it.

- Kim White, your response.

- Yes, thank you.

Well, the COVID relief funds are needed.

And we have put together very specific plans of what we need to do to jumpstart our economy.

This is just icing on the cake.

I do believe that sitting down with the county, looking at how we can actually combine these funds to do some things transformational for the future, but also making sure the resources get out immediately.

We're gonna create an Office of Small Business Support to really go out into the community to make sure that we put those funds where they're needed most.

And then supporting the small and medium size businesses that are hurting.

It's also making sure that we're taking care of families that are in critical needs.

So we're gonna put together a process that will look at how these can be actually used to accelerate some of the plans that we've laid out.

How do we actually jumpstart some of our affordable housing plans.

But it will be working with city council, will be working with the county.

We'll bring these to the public to make sure they understand the rules and regs around how we use those funds.

And we look forward to the opportunity to really put these into action.

- All right, next question.

More of a focus on affordable housing.

Kim White, this will be to you.

Tim Kelly, the response.

Our real estate market is described with words from soaring to overheating.

High-end, high-profile housing projects are in the works as people and money pour into Chattanooga.

How should the city guarantee affordable housing for all Chattanoogans?

What backing should the city provide for ideas such as community land trusts?

- Yeah, right, thank you so much for that question.

This is one area that we have such a specific plan.

I think my background with real estate and development, my working with the city really understands where we have levers that we need to be pulling.

The city has about 500 parcels of back-tax properties located all throughout the neighborhoods that need to be back on the tax rolls.

We wanna utilize those working with partners like Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise, like the neighborhood associations, to make sure that we use those for affordable housing.

We also wanna put together a $2 million housing fund and leverage that to actually get other funds from foundations and banks so we grow an affordable housing fund.

We need to streamline our building processes to make sure that we can actually get houses out of the ground quickly.

And that we look at different types of housing units.

It's been since the '70s that we've done anything with that.

A land trust, a land bank is absolutely necessary.

The city had started that, but nothing ever happened with it.

So I know that we can execute on this plan.

We believe that we can put 700 units of affordable housing into the market during my first term.

If we're able to leverage other funds coming from the federal government, we could actually scale that up to do even more.

So it is working first with the community, making sure that we're fitting housing that fits with the community's needs, and then building from that plan.

We're very lucky to have an organization like Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise that's put together a tremendous framework.

They've analyzed the neighborhoods.

They've looked at priorities.

And we'll be sitting down with them and others to actually hit the ground running.

And this is one of the first priorities, but you're right, we need all types of housing.

Right now, the real estate market, there's not enough housing in general, but when you look at affordable housing which also affects the homeless issue that we're having, it's critical that our city take a lead and we believe that we can do this by bringing partners together and working together to make sure that we bring the right type of housing to our city.

Thank you.

- All right, thank you.

Tim Kelly, your response.

- Well, this is one of those areas where I think, if you wanna know what somebody's gonna do, you need to look at what they've done.

And I have spent a good part of my life in the last 30 years working on nonprofits, specifically in our remarkable nonprofit community and foundation community here, both as a trustee at Benwood and as a chairman of the Community Foundation board, on issues just like this.

And Chattanooga's fortunate in that we've got some large private and public foundations here that are sort of the keel for our community and really look out for the long-term interest.

And I know they're interested in the general concept of impact investing, which is essentially the investment of dollars straight from an endowment into mission-driven projects.

And there is nothing more important, more pressing than affordable housing that we're facing.

It is an epidemic.

It is a basic economic function of supply and demand.

We have to increase the supply of housing generally in order to make an impact here.

But we also have to create vehicles and methods so that these aren't band-aids, so that they're permanent solutions to the problem.

And community land trust is a great way to do that.

If possible, we would like to use some of the federal relief fund to seed a community land trust to help support the creation of sustainable, affordable housing, oh, sorry.

- We're at time on that one, but let's stick to that general area for the next question.

Homelessness and evictions.

Tim Kelly, the question go to you.

Kim White, the response.

We've seen the surge in homelessness and an evictions crisis due to the economic fallout from the pandemic and our current real estate market.

What are steps you would take as mayor to provide immediate relief for those who are homeless and those caught in the cascade of evictions?

- So the job of the mayor as much as anything is to be the orchestra conductor.

And we have remarkable body of nonprofits in Chattanooga who work in this area, and the city in fact has an Office of Homelessness.

And so I think the mayor has got to lead the effort in a very proactive way to make sure that we aggressively address this problem.

And it's not a simple problem.

My wife and I volunteered for years down at the community kitchen, and I have a very good grip on the problem, but we have to be more intentional about how we address it.

And I think the city needs to get out front with the nonprofit community and address this.

We shouldn't be bulldozing tent cities, which we have done without first triaging and seeing if we can direct some folks to the remarkable FUSE program that the county has stood up, which is for the homeless who are struggling with mental illness.

That's a remarkable program, federally funded.

And there are plenty of seats available if we can get people to it using the nonprofit community to make sure that the folks who just need a hand up can do that.

But also look, ours is, we have extensive program on our website on homelessness.

And again, we have had that for many months, and it is a housing first model.

So this does get back to the affordable housing issue.

We've got to aggressively expand the supply of housing and get people into housing.

So to me, it is essentially a leadership issue.

The city has got to get out front and make sure that we're taking as an aggressive approach to this as we possibly can, because I think as the paper said the other day, the homeless population's up 81% year-over-year, which is anybody in Chattanooga knows, it is in fact an epidemic.

As for evictions, I would continue the mayor's program, as with Emily O'Donnell's help to prevent evictions and make sure that folks are able to get an advocate to prevent eviction when possible.

- Thank you, Kim white, your response.

- Yeah, thank you so much.

The homeless issue is one that is growing, and we're all seeing at all parts of our city.

There are over 40 organizations working in this area.

And the number was 326 people, families that are homeless.

I think as a city, we've solved some really big problems.

We need to hold that number out there.

326 families that our city can figure out how to get housed.

It is actually working together to make sure that we're coordinating efforts, we're not duplicating efforts.

Signal Centers was just given a grant to be the backbone agency to pull these organizations together.

I look forward in our administration to jump in the middle of that conversation, to look at some of the great work that's already been done and what leadership can bring to make sure that we shine a light on the need for housing.

So our affordable housing policy plays into this too.

So we do have to have the housing units to put them in.

But it really is working beside and working in a coordinated way with the agencies already involved in the issue.

- And we'll stick with you, Kim White, for our next question.

We're going to shift to economic development.

What's your plan to work in partnership with the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, Hamilton County government, state of Tennessee leadership, to attract jobs and new industries to this city?

- Yeah, thank you, Ray.

I am the candidate that has the experience in attracting jobs, I think, and investment to our city.

Since my tenure at River City Company, $1.2 billion in investment.

And I wanna do that in a big way, working in coordination with a lot of partners.

I don't think that we've been a very good partner with the Chamber of Commerce and others.

And I look forward to saying, the mayor is the number one salesperson working with partners to help us bring investment here.

We plan on having an Office of Small Business Support to really look at how we can bring resources to grow our own.

How we can come beside small and medium size businesses that are already there.

But how we can do things in our administration to streamline processes, to recruit more business here.

We are a very, very difficult city to do business with.

And we've heard it from investors.

We've heard it from companies coming here.

We wanna roll out the red carpet along with our partners and say we're open for business, we want you to come here.

There's never been a better time, especially with COVID and what we've seen with our wonderful internet service that we are a city that people wanna come to or can come to to grow their business in and do things remotely.

So we plan to, economic development was the number one policy that we put out.

It is a renewed focus on growing jobs, being a great partner, and making sure that we take advantage of all the assets that we have in our city, and we're out there selling those.

So this is something that I've done my entire career.

I've been an advocate, but I have been for the past 11 years selling Chattanooga, the territory just bigger in this arena.

So I look forward to working with Mayor Carpenter and the state.

We also haven't had a very coordinated effort with the state.

So this is something that we need to jumpstart to make sure people can get back to work and we bring more opportunity to every single part of our city.

Thank you.

- All right.

Thank you, Kim White.

Tim Kelly, your response.

- So this is one of the areas where Kim and I are a little different, because I'm the only candidate who's actually had a track record of creating jobs in Chattanooga.

I've created hundreds jobs in Chattanooga, and I've been on the Chamber of Commerce board twice in very active roles both times.

So I am intimately familiar with the process of business development and business recruitment.

And as Kim correctly said, the Chamber needs a better partner in the mayor's office.

And I too would pledge to be the Chamber's chief salesperson for the city.

I have an intimate connection with the history of this city.

I know it very, very well, and I sell it very well.

And I know that if they need me to get on a plane and go to New York or Silicon Valley or Austin and recruit, that I'm going to bring home the bacon.

And I know that I can, and I will.

And it's not just about recruitment at the Chamber, however.

Look, it's about small business development and the development of local businesses and entrepreneurship, again, which I'm also intimately familiar with, having started multiple businesses right here in Chattanooga.

- All right, thank you.

Next question on economic mobility.

Tim Kelly, this will go to you.

Kim White, the response.

According to the most recent data, nearly one out of every five Chattanoogans now lives in poverty.

And many of those experiencing poverty have been grappling with it for generations.

What solutions, what strategies will you implement to begin to end the cycle of poverty for so many?

- So my time on the foundation, in the foundation world here in Chattanooga has been interesting and edifying, and it's really what brought me to public service, realizing that you can only do so much from the sidelines of philanthropy.

And I've never seen in my lifetime, local foundations so keyed in in agreement on the central problem of economic mobility.

So I look very forward to working with the nonprofit community to attack the problem.

There are long-term solutions, and there are medium-term solutions, and short-term solutions.

Long-term, education is the answer.

And the mother of, the head of that stream is early childhood education.

So again, because I don't have future political ambitions, these are things that won't pay off in my term.

They may not pay off in my lifetime.

But there is no question that continuing Mayor Berke's dedication to expanding early childhood education seats, affordable, accessible, high-quality early childhood education is the single most important thing we can do for the long-term social, cultural, and economic health of Chattanooga.

There's a reason that Chattanooga 2.0 lives at the Chamber of Commerce.

In the medium-term, we have a tremendous opportunity here with programs like Chattanooga State Skill Up program, which takes folks making minimum wage through a six-week program, gives them the skills to be able to hold $15 an hour jobs, from minimum wage to living wage.

It's a fantastic program, and I look forward for the city supporting that.

Also, skilled trades education.

What Dr. Johnson's doing with the development of the Future Ready Institutes is fantastic, and there are many ways in which the city can help.

I have the support of all the local trades and labor unions because, not because, it's unusual for a small business guy, but they understand that my dedication to building back the middle class, through keeping local work local, and creating a pipeline of talent in their apprenticeships and programs, to build up the core of skilled trades, people here in Chattanooga is key to closing that gap and creating economic mobility.

- All right, thank you, Tim Kelly.

Kim White, your response.

- Yeah, thank you so much for the question.

We have over 2,300 jobs right now that can't be filled, but yet we have so many people living in poverty that want an opportunity.

So we've got to do more to fill that gap, and that is workforce development.

We foresee actually going out into the neighborhoods to create more opportunities there.

Actually, how do we show a pipeline with vocational training and apprenticeship programs?

There are so many companies right now that have great paying jobs that can't find workers, and they're doing one-offs.

I tend to, I wanna use my business background and my experience and connections to actually build a stronger network, to show that there is a network of folks where you actually can have skilled trades with great paying jobs.

We can't find enough workforce to actually fill all the jobs that we have here today.

So I think, how do we actually build that up?

How do we bring opportunities?

Some of it is also going into the neighborhoods where there are small and medium size business to offer support and making sure that we're providing resources to people that wanna grow and start a business, we're showing them how.

So it's multifaceted and we believe that we can hit the ground running with that.

Thank you.

- All right, next question, jobs and economic development.

This will be to you, Kim White.

When we say jobs and economic development should be inclusive for all neighborhoods and all communities across Chattanooga, what does that mean to you?

Would you give a specific example from your own background where you helped to achieve that?

And how would you apply the lessons you learned from that example as mayor?

- Sure, I think I've been blessed in my role at River City Company to deal with so many people wanting to start and build a business.

I look at Cherita Adams or Briana Garza that came into our office really wanting to find the resources.

And what I found in that role was that we just need to connect people to opportunity.

And I think the role as mayor, that's one of the things that really excites me is how we can actually bring opportunity to every part of our neighborhood.

It's not going to the third floor of city hall and trying to figure out all the different offices that you go into.

It is for us going out into those neighborhoods with our Office of Small Business Support, actually bringing resources out there and making sure we understand where the gaps are.

If it's financial gaps, how do we connect them with a bank?

How do we create networks?

My history over the past 11 years has been creating partnerships and collaborations to fill the gaps in our downtown.

We're gonna use that same method to actually go out into the neighborhood and fill the gaps that people are experiencing with trying to figure out how to start a job or create opportunities.

It really is actually, how do you actually connect people to opportunities?

And that's where I have the skillset to do that.

It's very rewarding to see all these small businesses, and that's what makes our city so great.

And we believe by actually providing the resources, giving people a way to build up, showing them, giving them a hand up will be a great economic driver.

And we look forward to the opportunity to actually bring those resources to every single neighborhood.

Thank you.

- All right.

Thank you, Kim White.

Tim Kelly, your response.

- Well, this is another area where I think my experience is just plain better.

I'm an entrepreneur myself.

I'm a small business owner myself.

I've been a GIGTANK mentor during the days when CreateHere had that program going.

I've taught new venture creation at UTC back when I had time to do that.

That's probably what I'll do when I retire.

And I still mentor entrepreneurs today because I love it.

And it is the path to creating wealth, local wealth in Chattanooga.

And so back to the issue of economic mobility, it is the only way that you can literally make two plus two equal five and create wealth.

And coding is great, and I'm glad Chattanooga has programs like Tech Goes Home.

But what I find is most entrepreneurs and small business people here that are trying to grow need more basic support.

If you can't produce a P and L and a balance sheet in QuickBooks, you can't go to the bank and get a loan.

So I think we need to get more basic in the neighborhoods, and I'd love to do training at community centers and even perhaps in Hamilton County schools.

- All right, next question on diversity and inclusion.

To you, Tim Kelly.

Response from Kim White.

As mayor, what will you do to ensure that your administration and its leadership represents the diversity across the city of Chattanooga?

- My commitment to diversity and inclusion is thoroughgoing.

As I've told many people throughout this race, if you look at our plans that have been on our website for months and months, these are not cut and pasted from elsewhere.

And they were developed with input from the community, from leaders in the community around working groups that we convened, every single one of them has equity at its core.

And so, again, our slogan is one Chattanooga, because I'm determined, my only determination in becoming mayor is to finally address some of these difficult issues that we've been struggling with here for the last 30 years and keep sweeping under the rug.

And this is chief among them.

So my administration will look like the community.

We have made a commitment to 40% minority representation, and we will stick to that.

We may not get there overnight, but we will get there.

I think if you're gonna talk the talk, you have to walk the walk.

So I look forward to doing that and having a diverse administration that will reflect the community and will drive forward our agenda to really close the gaps and build wealth in communities of color and low income communities.

- All right, Kim White, your response.

- Yes, thank you.

We're also committed to make sure that our administration is very diverse.

As a female, that so many times, I'm the only woman in the room or the only woman in the boardroom, I know how important it is to make sure there's other faces and other people that look like me and look like others.

So we're committed not only to have an administration that looks like the community, we want an administration that thinks like the community.

And that's making sure that we provide, we get wide input, but we wanna make sure not only the people sitting on the third floor of city hall look like the city, but also all the boards.

I think there's a great opportunity for us for all the boards that the mayor has to fill, there's 168 seats, to make sure that the boards are represented and we create a pipeline of talent.

I think that's what we've been missing.

But we're making sure that we have a very diverse group of people that are making decisions in our city, and we're committed to that.

- All right, next question on disparities.

This will be to you, Kim White.

Tim Kelly, with a response.

In Chattanooga, as it is in many cities across our nation, we have significant inequities across many key systems, education, housing, transportation, that prevent many residents of color from having a fair chance to reach their full potential.

What will you do as mayor to improve the outcomes of neighborhoods that have not benefited from Chattanooga's recent growth?

- Yeah, thank you, thank you.

There are many disparities.

And since I have announced in September, that's where I've spent my time, It's in the neighborhoods.

In fact, one of the reasons that really propelled me to actually run for office is that I saw so many areas of our city that were left out and felt like the same tools that we've been using to build a great core of our city could be used in every single part of our city.

And I'm committed to that.

And you look at the policies that we have on our website.

It starts with how do you actually go out and recruit jobs.

How do you actually make sure that there are jobs in the neighborhood and there's workforce training in the neighborhood?

How do you make sure that the youth and family development centers that are located throughout our city are programmed correctly, that we have afterschool reading programs and tutoring programs and we bring resources to the community?

It really starts neighborhood up.

I am a firm believer that nothing we do is top-down.

It really is from the voice of the neighborhood.

Transportation is another area that's a huge disparity.

CARTA is one of the most underfunded transportation systems in the country.

We're committed to make sure that we work with CARTA and we give them the resources they need to actually bring people to jobs.

So I think it's listening to the community's voice.

It's making sure that we put the resources there.

Every single one of our policies is based on doing that.

And when we look at my Day One Playbook, it is about how do we start and strengthen neighborhoods.

It's also how do we actually start and strengthen families.

And we're excited to actually roll out a program talking about what we're gonna do in our administration to be a leader to provide childcare, and really to challenge other businesses to provide childcare.

When I look at so many people that are out of the workforce and they've hit those communities the hardest, I think that we have a huge opportunity to take a bold step and we're excited to be an administration that does that.

And we'll be announcing that today.

- All right, thank you, Kim White.

Tim Kelly, your response.

- So again, this is really at the core of our campaign and why our focus is on neighborhoods and not so much on downtown.

The gaps are frankly immoral.

The rate of home ownership in African-American community in Chattanooga is 37% versus 62% in White community.

That is the core of every family's net worth, and we have to find ways to increase home ownership in the African-American community and minority communities generally.

The gaps in household income in Chattanooga are 30% greater than they are nationally, and they're already gaping nationally.

And again, gaps in net worth are almost 10 to one.

So this is long-term.

And look, divided economies don't work.

They fail.

Look at Ferguson, Missouri.

There are thousands of examples through history.

So this is an urgent problem.

And it is the mayor's job to lead the fix on this one, and CARTA certainly is part of the problem.

Physical mobility leads to economic mobility.

Education's a huge part of the problem.

Educational inequity leads to economic inequity.

- Thank you.

Next question will be to you, Tim Kelly.

This will be about the budget.

We have seen in this pandemic how fast conditions can change.

How will you as mayor prioritize city spending and budget for outcomes if conditions change yet again?

And then yet again, down the road, where would you have to look at cutting first?

- So this is I think where my business background really comes in handy, in small business and entrepreneurship.

I've managed huge budgets of my own money.

And when business conditions change, I couldn't rely on donors to fill the gap.

I've had to do it myself.

So I know how to manage large budgets.

I know how to manage them when they turn on a dime as they did in the 2008 recession.

That was undoubtedly the most difficult time in my life.

But I managed to get through it and not have mass layoffs and not file bankruptcy.

And it was not easy, I can tell you.

So God forbid we should go through that at the city.

I think the city is actually in pretty good shape at this point.

I think a lot of folks don't realize our sales tax collections are actually slightly up year-over-year, but should it happen, I have a great grasp on organizational management, on a budget management.

And we wouldn't do budgeting for outcomes.

We would keep the public input portion that Mayor Berke stood up and he should be applauded for for budgeting for outcomes.

But we would look at things through the lens of budgeting for impact.

What monies, how do they impact taxpayers?

How are they felt?

And what is the long-term strategic value of these?

I think budgeting for outcomes has caused particularly a lot of nonprofits to whom the city outsources essential services to jump through hoops year after year in very torturous and laborious ways, when what we should be doing is keeping tabs on them, looking at reviews, and giving them runways of three to five years to do their work without constantly having to check in and sing for their supper.

So again, we would have a streamlined budgeting process that would retain the public input portion.

And we would incorporate a community survey such as Kansas City has.

If anybody wants to go out there and research that, it's a really great program that gets a broad base of input from the entire community to inform how we're doing.

- All right, thank you, Tim Kelly.

Kim White, your response.

- Sure, thank you.

I think that we've seen over the past year how quickly things can change.

We never knew about COVID.

We've had COVID, tornadoes, you name it in this community.

So you have to have an experience, group of people at city hall to actually make those hard decisions.

The fact that I've had 11 years experience working beside the city gives me a lot of insight about what needs to be done and what we can do with a business lens and how we can think about things differently.

We're gonna have a strong framework about what our priorities are, and know that if they change on day two, we'll have to change, but that's management.

I've managed organizations, very large organizations, have been in charge of budgets.

And the city is in very good shape.

It's also looking at some of our partners.

What businesses a city need to be in and what business don't we need to be in.

And those require hard decisions.

And I've been a leader that has been able to make hard decisions and willing to make those.

So we're gonna get in and we're gonna roll up our sleeves and look at where we are.

And if it changes, we have the ability to make those decisions.

- All right, thank you, Kim White.

Next question will be to you, and this will be on early childhood education.

What should the city's role be in early childhood education a decade from now?

What would be your first steps as mayor to push us there?

How would your steps be inclusive to provide for all children while also targeting disparities in underserved communities?

- Yeah, thank you, Ray, for that question.

I think city hall, we have an opportunity to be a leader talking about the importance of early childhood education.

So the first step we're gonna do, and I'll announce it here is that as a city, that we're gonna provide childcare for our employees.

And we're gonna challenge the other business communities to actually come beside us to create 2,000 more seats in early childhood education.

I think that that is the role of the city in education.

It's that in the YFD centers.

But early childhood education, we're in a crisis right now, and crisis calls for bold leadership.

And we wanna set the example.

We know families are hurting.

We know how many women are out of work right now because they're having to juggle between a job and trying to take care of their children.

We know how many families that affects.

So we're gonna take the lead and we're gonna say our administration is gonna provide childcare for our employees.

And we do wanna challenge the business community in Chattanooga to come alongside us and help us set the example, we really could be something that other communities look to throughout the country, and we wanna do that.

The Early Matters coalition has already done great work.

I plan to jump in the middle of that to see how we can use the mayor's office to be a voice to help bring some additional resources that are very well needed in this city.

- All right, thank you, Kim White.

Tim Kelly, your response.

- There's nothing more important, there's literally nothing more important to the future of this city than expanding affordable, high-quality, accessible early childhood education.

It's really just that simple.

And again, I applaud Mayor Berke for getting us to 1,000 seats, but we would expand to another 1,200 seats, hopefully in the first year, working with the faith community.

If we need to put seats in, helping the small business community that now provides those seats to expand, but we've got to get there.

We only have a quarter of our kids currently in organized childcare, and only 40% of children coming in to kindergarten know their letters and their numbers and their colors.

I went through graduate school late in life and I had a professor there who made a huge impact on me and made me understand that by the time a child is six years old, their brains are wired.

Like this, our first investment's our best investment.

So to answer the question more directly, a decade from now, I'd like to see us at 4,000 seats of early childhood education, getting 100% of children into kindergarten, knowing their letters and their numbers and their colors.

Sounds simple.

It's an achievable goal.

And if we do it, we will change Chattanooga for the better forever.

- All right, next question on wraparound supports for public school students.

Tim Kelly, this will go to you.

How would you as mayor partner with the Hamilton County schools on what are known as wraparound supports for public school students, an intensive, individualized care for use with serious or complex needs, especially as we look beyond this pandemic?

- Well, look, I have a wonderful connection and relationship with Dr. Johnson and the school system.

And one of the most shocking things about this campaign, very frankly, was learning that the city and the Hamilton County school system don't collaborate much.

I worked very hard on the budget working group to help write the blueprint for Dr. Johnson when he came in.

And again, my dedication and conviction about education is thoroughgoing.

It is not a campaign act.

It is something that I deeply believe in.

So I'm gonna be looking for any and all ways that we can help Dr. Johnson achieve his goals, because to me, the schools in the city are city schools.

And I think we've taken the wrong approach over the last few years, since the school system split up, in taking a step back and saying, oh, well, funding for K through 12 comes through the county, so it's not our job.

It is our job.

It has to be our job.

Again, it's not just a cultural, social, moral issue.

It's an economic issue.

There's a reason that Chattanooga 2.0 lives at the Chamber of Commerce.

And so the city mayor has got to be more engaged.

And we would dedicate funds to help Dr. Johnson where needed to perhaps supplement teacher salaries.

Perhaps it's helping fix up schools that have been neglected like Brainerd.

And we would also again, use CARTA where possible, to help get kids to the Future Ready Institute of their choice.

We would be open to looking at, I'm a big fan of the community schools model.

If we could provide city services and educational services in schools, that would be a fantastic thing.

It's been done elsewhere around the country.

It'd be great to do it here.

In many low income communities, you have a trust gap between the community and the school itself.

So you're killing multiple birds with one stone with that approach.

So I look forward to meeting with Dr. Johnson on a regular basis and helping him and his team in whatever way that I can.

- All right, thank you.

Kim White, your response.

- Yeah, thank you.

As a child of public school, I know how important they are.

And every neighborhood, every area deserves a great public school.

I think our role, my role as mayor is to work with Dr. Johnson and with Mayor Carpenter to see what services the city can help provide.

I know immediately, one of the first things that we can do and what we plan on doing is taking the YFD centers, the youth and family development centers, and making sure that we can supplement programming and it's aligned with the city school system where the school system is not.

After school programming, reading program, STEM activities, that's one thing.

Dr. Johnson has said one of the biggest issues they have is transportation.

We need to think outside the box.

What can we do as a city to help get kids to afterschool programming or to vocational training or apprenticeship programs?

And so I think we have a tremendous role that we can play there.

But we look to be an active partner, and partner is the word.

We're not gonna usurp our authority, but we wanna be a partner to find out where we can help supplement the needs at the schools.

- All right, thank you.

Kim White, next question is to you on policing.

The Chattanooga police department's cadet academy hit a goal recently to mirror the city's racial demographics.

How would you as mayor build on that so officers reflect the neighborhoods they serve?

- Yes, thank you.

And Chief Roddy and his team are to be commended because that's a goal that they've had is to make sure that there is diversity in the police force.

One of the biggest issue is pay.

I've come out strongly in support of Chief Roddy and the police officers.

I've gotten the endorsement of both police unions because of my strong stance.

They need to be paid correctly.

They need more money.

They need more resources.

When I've been out into the community talking about community policing and relationships, I haven't had anybody say we need less.

We need more police officers, but they need to look like the communities in which they're serving.

And in order to do that, we've gotta be able to pay them more and give them the resources they need.

We also need to come alongside them with mental health professionals and addiction treatment specialists to make sure that there's some resources there.

It is more interaction and more conversation with the community and with the police officers.

This has been a tough year.

Because of COVID, there hasn't been a lot of those conversations, but we want those to happen.

And I think that making sure that they have the full resources, that people are actually wanting to come and be a police officer in Chattanooga instead of getting trained here and going other ways, other areas right outside our community, is one of the first things that we can do.

And I'm committed to make sure that we pay them correctly.

We give them take-home cars.

We actually give them enough money.

We are training the best of the best.

I know that we had the right leadership in the police department.

We just needed to make sure that they have the right resources and I'm committed to do that.

- All right, thank you.

Tim Kelly, your response.

- So yes, I would say Chief Roddy and the whole department are to be absolutely commended for hitting that goal.

I know it's been a tough slog.

And my support for Chief Roddy is unwavering.

I think he's doing a great job and will continue to do a great job.

I was lucky enough to get the endorsement of former Chief Fred Fletcher, who really brought the community policing model to Chattanooga.

And I look forward to working with Chief Roddy to continue that progress and that role so that the Chattanooga police department restores trust in the community and is really part of the community rather than sort of a military force over the community.

And I know Chief Roddy wants to do that.

Pay is an issue.

We've got to give them a raise.

That's the thing we can do most immediately so we're committed to that, and we're the first campaign committed to that.

But the fact is right now, the department is 15% African-American and the population is 37.

So we have to continue to close that gap.

- All right, thank you.

We'll stick with policing for the next question, and this will be to you, Tim Kelly.

Should the city's police advisory board and the city council have even more oversight than has already been given, including with state help?

- Well, I think there are legal issues with what's been proposed from the state level, but the advisory board is a result of the lack of trust between the police department and the community.

And so just to piggyback on the last question, look, we've got to get police men and women out of their cars and into the community, both working in rec centers, and getting to know people in their districts.

And we can do that through some boring stuff like reworking the IT backbone so they're not on their laptops doing paperwork all the time.

That's key to the policing model.

So again, it starts with restoring trust.

Relative to the police review committee specifically, I think as designed, it can work with some tweaks.

I think it's important that it exists.

I do think they're gonna need some administrative help that answers only to that board to keep them from being bogged down in hours and hours and hours of video review.

I think there are real problems with the way that it's structured now, it might fail.

Conversely, if we were to move to a system that gave them subpoena power, that creates, essentially electing judges at that point.

And if that's the case, I think the city needs to do a referendum and really hear from the community on how it is.

And those positions would probably need to be elected.

They certainly don't need to be appointed by groups who feel as though it's their job to appoint them.

But the fact is that the process has got to serve the community and never forget that the goal is accountability on the police side and trust between the police department and the community, which has been sorely damaged and we've got to continue to work to repair.

- All right, Kim White, your response.

- Yeah, thank you.

I think the current police review committee as it stands, and it really has just now gotten really started is where we need to start.

I'm committed to really sticking with that, and let's see how it works over the next year.

I think it is a great start.

It's a great way to actually start building community trust, and we can review what needs to happen.

But I've heard both from the community, from people on the committee, and from Chief Roddy's team that they feel like it is working in its current form.

So I intend to, let's stick where it is, and then if we need to make changes down the road, we can.

But I don't believe anymore authority like subpoena power is what's needed in this review committee.

- All right, thank you.

Next question to Kim White.

This will be on roads and transit, which we have discussed earlier in this hour.

In other cities, mayors have been very hands-on about riding their own cities, mass transit on a regular basis, spending more time than just for a photo op at road projects as a way to show that city hall is responsive and to spur results.

We have a lot of roads to fix and we have a transit system to reimagine.

Where will we see you out there as mayor?

And how often do you plan to ride CARTA?

- Well, thank you.

We do have a lot of roads that need to be fixed.

Everywhere I go, it doesn't matter what part of the city, we talk about roads and the poor condition.

And the roads are not a very good reflection of what a beautiful city and great city we are.

CARTA is also not a great reflection of what public transportation needs to look like.

And I would say it's because CARTA hasn't been funded correctly and they haven't been a real partner.

So what I look forward to doing quickly is to go out and be out in the community, which I have been, identifying some of the projects that are the most important and working with city council to make sure that those projects are taken care of.

And to sit down with CARTA.

They have been working on a transit plan.

How can we get more resources behind them?

So I have ridden the downtown shuttle.

People have seen me ride the downtown shuttle.

But it would be wonderful to have a very robust public transportation system that takes people to jobs and something that you can depend on.

So I look forward to being part of that behind the scenes, and then you're gonna see me on transit where I can actually get somewhere I need to go.

- All right, thank you.

Tim Kelly, your response.

- Well, in my business experience, I'm a huge fan and always have been of management by walking around.

I would have already been on a truck with the Public Works guys were it not for the COVID crisis.

They come by my office from time to time and tell me how it's going with the pothole filling.

I really did fill those potholes in those commercials.

So, look, I'm not afraid to dig a ditch.

I've done in my family's business every job from the bottom-up.

So I would really rather be out there with city employees than sitting behind a desk somewhere.

So I will be out there.

I did ride CARTA as a kid.

That's how I got to Northgate Mall from my house when my mom didn't wanna take me.

And I think we've got some tremendous opportunities to innovate at CARTA, including using UberPool and smaller sprinter-type vans like they're doing in Dallas.

So I look forward to eating my own cooking and getting out there and spending time on the ground with Public Works and with CARTA to see if it's working, 'cause that's how I manage.

- All right, next question on the arts.

Should the city use some of the federal stimulus money for block grants to help fund our arts sector?

Nashville and Memphis are committed to doing just that.

The art sector at this point, almost $8.5 million in the hole due to the pandemic, and in the arts community, they would consider those grants to be a lifeline.

Tim Kelly.

- Yeah.

Well, as a former board member at Allied Arts and an artist myself, and a former board member at the Tivoli, I know that the community is hurting.

And being a localist, I've gone on record many times being very much in support of local art and local artists.

And so I wasn't aware that Nashville was committed to that, but I think considering the volume of money coming down, if it's eligible for COVID relief, whether it's directly from the city budget or using the 39.8 million coming from the federal government, that is a form of economic relief that's been very heavily negatively impacted from the COVID crisis.

So look, our plan is, as part of neighborhood development, we want to give grants to neighborhoods.

As I've said many times, great cities are composed of great neighborhoods.

My second favorite city in the world after Chattanooga is New Orleans.

And if you go to New Orleans, you can really see it, and we need to do more of that in Chattanooga, supporting the history and the culture of Chattanooga's neighborhoods.

And we can do that by supporting art in our neighborhoods.

And I would certainly support that.

- All right, thank you, Tim Kelly.

Kim White.

- Yes.

Art is such an important part of who we are as a city.

I think when people talk about what makes Chattanooga special, it's the intangible sometimes.

It's the sculptures and it's the concerts and it's all the things that really make our city so vibrant.

So I would do whatever I could to help support the arts.

I have been, I've worked on boards.

I was an art major a long time ago.

So I understand that it's also a huge economic driver.

I can't tell you how many companies that we've talked to that have come here and been amazed by the creativity of our city.

And that's a part of it.

So we absolutely will look at what those funds could be used for, but I am a big supporter of the arts and I plan to keep doing that.

- All right, thank you.

And this will now be our last question response, and we'll end with what we're calling quality of place.

How should Chattanooga maintain what has always been unique about Chattanooga, growing its own talent while attracting talent from elsewhere, as dynamic cities do?

Kim White.

- Chattanooga is a beautiful place and it's a very special place.

I love hearing the stories about people that chose to come here just after going through the city.

I know I chose to come back here 20 years ago.

So it's making sure that we grow smartly.

We are growing as a city, but how we need to keep this authenticity.

And it is things like making sure that we protect its natural beauty.

Making sure that we grow small businesses that reflect the culture of our city.

Making sure that we program things in our parks that reflect the diversity of our city.

It is supporting the arts and the food scene and bringing resources to some of those small businesses.

And we're prepared to do that.

I think that when we go out and talk about our city, one of the most important pieces of it are its people.

And it's making sure that we're giving opportunity and hope to every single person in the city so they feel like they're a part of it.

That's what I'm committed to do and that's what's been so rewarding during this campaign.

As I've gone out to neighborhoods and talk about people that, they've grown their families here, this is a third generation, or they've just moved here, they wanna be part of it.

We plan to have an administration that actually broadens the table and widens the table to make sure everyone's voice is heard.

I look so forward to the opportunity to work with the neighborhoods and helping the YFD centers look like the community and helping bring art programs into the community.

So I think that we have so many opportunities to highlight what's special about Chattanooga, but making sure that every person in the city feels like they're part of it too.

And that's the role that I'm looking forward to playing as mayor, as we actually bring coalitions and partnerships together to do that.

- All right, thank you, Kim White.

Tim Kelly, your response.

- One of the most extraordinary things about this campaign is meeting so many new people.

And it hit me the other day that Chattanooga's full of really extraordinary people, really talented people that could be in larger markets, making more money or in some higher position on career ladder.

But they're here because they love this place.

Because there's something really magical about this place.

And a friend of mine who moved back recently said, he said something kind of offhand.

He said, there's more to life.

And it's a pretty good slogan for Chattanooga, because people that are here understand that that there is more to life.

But that quality of Chattanooga, our incredible natural assets and our incredible community, we have to preserve it.

It's critically important that we preserve it.

And that's why the job of this next mayor, that's why the election is so important, because it's not going to be an easy task to navigate the narrow path between development on the one hand and regulation on the other.

It's going to be a difficult management exercise, and it's not gonna be a simple thing to do.

- Thank you.

And with that, our time for this debate is coming to a close.

We want to thank all of our partner organizations for their diligence and commitment to making this debate a reality.

We want to thank the candidates for joining us to share their vision for the future of Chattanooga.

And of course, we want to thank you for watching.

Early voting started on March 24th and runs through April 8th.

The last date to vote is April 13th, election day.

More information about how and where to vote can be found at the Hamilton County Election Commission website at elect.hamiltontn.gov.

I'm Ray Bassett, good night.

(exciting music) - [Narrator] Support for this program is provided by viewers like you.

Thank you.