The Mayoral Forum at Christ Chruch Cathedral: Several candidate express concern about Metro's pension liability; advocate change.

On Sunday night I attended the Mayoral Forum at Christ Church Cathedral. Afterwards, someone asked me who I thought stood out and honestly I had to answer, "no one."  All of the candidates gave good answers to questions.  There were some that seemed a little more polished than others, some projected more personality than others, but no one stood head and shoulders above the rest.

Christ Church Cathedral filmed the event and posted the below video. About the first 7 minutes of the video is blank and then there is a prayer and introductory remarks and the sound is not working properly. Each candidate gets an opening statement and unfortunately the sound is not working for several of the candidates opening remarks, so if you join the video at time stamp  11:39 you are not missing anything.

The candidates were asked to address issues of poverty and homelessness and affordable housing and how the city can work with the faith community. That is the primary focus of this forum but some other issues are also addressed.

After the forum there was a reception in the fellowship hall. I got to speak to four of the candidates individually.  One of the major concerns I have is what metro will do about its unfunded pension liability.  If we don't do something to get it under control it may freeze out funding for everything else.  If Nashville was to see a decline in our fortunes rather than continued growth, we could be forced to raise taxes even if we did not want to.  I wanted to know how the candidate felt about this issue and if they agreed it was an important issue facing our city. I also wanted to know if they would be inclined to support a transition from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan.

Currently, we have a defined benefit plan as do most cities but not very many companies. At one time most pension plans were defined benefit. A defined benefit plan says something to the effect that after x number of years being an employee, the employer will pay you x% of the salary you were making at retirement for the rest of your life.

A defined contribution plan says something like, the employer will contribute an amount equal to x%  of your salary every year you are employed into a retirement fund. Often, above the first amount which the employee does not have to match, the employer may match another x% of the employee's salary if the employee wishes to contribute more to his retirement. Often the investment options are limited to a few options with varying degrees of risk and return.

Some employees will do better under a defined contribution plan than a defined benefit plan, but others will not do as well. For the city, it removes future liability.  Transitioning to a defined contribution plan would not address our current $396 million unfunded pension liability but it would stop it from growing.

I asked my question of candidates David Fox,  Jeremy Kane, Kenneth Eaton, and Charles Robert Bone.  I was pleased with the answer from each candidate. Each said they would support a transition to a defined contribution plan. Each seemed knowledgeable of the issue. Now I can't recall which one it was, but one of the candidates volunteered we had to make changes in Metro's retiree health plan also. He said that liability also ran into the millions.

Even before I got my question out David Fox said, "I'm already there," and he expounded on the topic with enthusiasm. Jeremy Kane was also especially convincing. He relayed his experience as head of the Lead Academy charter school organization and said that Lead had already transitioned the non-certified personal (meaning people other than the teachers) to a defined contribution plan.  He said at first there was resistance, but now the teachers are asking how they can get in the plan. Charles Bone who has served as legal counsel for Nashville's Convention Center said the convention center has already transitioned to a defined contribution plan and it was something the city had to do.

I don't believe any of them were just telling me what I wanted to hear and none of them gave weasel answers. I believe they were each telling me the truth. I am pleased. Unfortunately, I did not get to speak to the other candidates, so if a candidate would like to email an answer to the same question, I will be glad to post that candidates comment.  If I failed to reflect any candidates position adequately, please feel free to set the record straight or if any candidate would like to expound on this issue, I will be glad to post your comments.

There are other issues I feel strongly about, such as education, and sidewalks, and metro's pro-gay and political correctness policies, overextending our bond commitments, mass transit and traffic, and managing growth, but I think there is no issue more important than our unfunded pension liability. We must address it and stop it from growing.

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The Christ Church Cathedral Mayoral Forum, Sunday, February 8th at 3PM.

The Christ Church Cathedral Mayoral Forum will be Sunday, February 8th at 3PM. All but one of the mayoral candidates have confirmed they will attend. The forum is expected to end at 4:30. The Cathedral leadership has asked candidates to include remarks in their presentation that would address these topics:

• poverty and affordable housing in a growing Nashville
• the relation of church and city during the next mayor's administration
• the commitment to civility in political dialogue and discourse in the next election cycle

This is a great opportunity to become better informed and judge the candidates. An added bonus is that this forum takes place in a awe inspiring sitting. If you have never attended an event at Christ Church Cathedral, this is worth attending just to sit in the pews for a while.

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If we are going to build a new courthouse, I hope we build an impressive stately building.

The Federal Court House

Union Station

The Customs House

Christ Church Cathedral 

President Obama's budget proposal includes $181.5 million for a new federal courthouse in Nashville. I would prefer us keep the current courthouse rather than add $181.5 million to the $18 trillion debt of the United States. However, if we are going to build a new courthouse, I hope we build an attractive building. The Federal Courthouse at 8th and Broad is an ugly, ugly building sitting between the beautiful Customs House and the stately old post office which is now the Frist Museum, which is next to the grand Union Station. Across the street from the court house is the serious Hume-Fogg school and the beautiful Christ Church Cathedral. The federal court house sticks out like a sore thumb due to its ugliness. It may be the ugliest building in Nashville.  If not for the ground floor shinny marble veneer, it would look like a prison or classic soviet architecture. If we build a new courthouse I hope the current building is torn down and something worthy of the building's surroundings it is build on that spot.

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A Blessed Easter

I went to Church this morning and the earth didn’t swallow me or the roof didn’t fall in. I do not regularly attend church and have not done so in some years. This being Easter I wanted to attend. Without young children to hide Easter eggs for if you don’t go to church, Easter is just another day. For the last few years on those rare occasions when I do go to church, I attend Christ Church Cathedral, an Episcopal church in downtown Nashville.

My spiritual journey has been all over the map. I was raised in a small country Baptist church where the minister and church leaders were uneducated if not ignorant men. I was taught a very legalistic, literal, fundamentalist brand of Christianity. The King James Bible was the only acceptable version, alcoholic beverages were absolutely forbidden, the earth was only six thousand years old, and evolution was an evil theory.

My father was a gospel singer and I often had the opportunity to travel with him. His ministry was non-denominational and I was also exposed to a lot of charismatic and Pentecostal churches in addition to Baptist. In our home, we had regular prayer and Bible reading. Despite being immersed in religion, I started doubting my faith about the time I turned 16 or so.

As a young adult, while in Vietnam and especially afterward while in Thailand, I was exposed to Buddhism and began studying Buddhism and began to doubt that Christianity had the exclusive claim to the truth. I never became a Buddhist but admired and respected the religion. I simply could not believe that all of those kind devout Buddhist I came to know in Thailand were destined to hell.

For a few short years I considered myself agnostic. For a very short period of time, actually only a few months, I called myself an atheist. This was about the same period in which I also called myself a libertarian.

Later, after getting married I drifted back into church and for about eight years or more became quite religious. I attended, in succession, two charismatic, modern, non-denominational, Pentecostal-type churches. I still had my doubts, but simply chose not to try to reconcile my doubts. I lived by faith and ignored reason. These churches believed in the “gifts of the spirit” and I experienced religious joy which some might dismiss as mere emotionalism.

When my marriage ended, I found it difficult to live a life that conformed to what I thought was an acceptable standard of moral purity. As a single guy with a sex drive I got tired of going to church and feeling guilty, so I again found myself unchurched.

If I had to describe my religious faith now, I would say that I am simply secular. I would not call myself an atheist or even an agnostic. I don’t reject that part of my culture and heritage. I don’t object to displays of religious faith. I am not angry with God. I like the ceremonial aspect of religion. I like the religious component of Christmas even if I do think it is myth. I like public prayer at important occasions. I think it adds a solemnity and seriousness to the occasion. I don’t mind if someone wants to start a meeting with prayer or have prayer prior to a meal. I am respectful of the faith of other and not offended by expression of religious faith. If I am experiencing some struggle or hardship and someone says they will pray for me, I appreciate it. I myself just ignore religion and don’t think about it very much. I would say that I am a generic liberal Christian who simply chooses, for the most part, to ignore religion.

When I do attend Christ Church, I really enjoy it. I love the incense, the beautiful pipe organ, the robes, the choir, the special music, the responsive reading, the kneeling and standing, the ceremony, and the structure and formality. I like it that no one tries to convert me. Most of all, I love the beautiful building. Christ Church is, I think, my favorite building in all of Nashville. I feel like I am in the presence of God just walking in the door. The beauty of the building ministers to my soul and makes me feel blessed and awed.

The building build in 1894 is built of sandstone and is of gothic design. It has gargoyles and beautiful stained glass windows. Inside there is a rich dark wood ceiling and ornamentation and polished granite columns. Everywhere you look there is something beautiful.

Today, I feel like I have been to church. I had a blessed Easter. I may go to church more often.

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