Activist Coalition to File Ethics Complaint Against Megan Barry

Last night, the Metro Council decided to create a special committee tasked with investigating Mayor Megan Barry's use of public funds during an extramarital affair with her bodyguard. And now another oversight body is set to receive a formal complaint related to the matter. 

Activist Theeda Murphy tells the Scene she will file a complaint with the Council Board of Ethical Conduct this afternoon on behalf of a coalition of activists working under the banner of Community Oversight Now. The group has been advocating for civilian oversight of the Metro Nashville Police Department in the wake of the death of Jocques Clemmons, a black man who was shot and killed by a Metro police officer a year ago. The complaint raises concerns about the mayor's ability to be an "honest broker" between the community and the police department, given her extramarital affair with a police officer. The relationship, they say, could have affected her in a number of ways, including the possibility that the possibility of the affair being exposed could have been used against her.

The five-member board is chaired by Councilmember Sheri Weiner and empowered to conduct investigations based on complaints and make recommendations about the conduct of elected officials. The mayor is also the subject of a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation inquiry into whether she or Sergeant Rob Forrest broke any laws during the affair. 

The complaint also says the mayor violated one of her own executive orders by acting in a way that adversely affects "the confidence of the public in the integrity of the Metropolitan Government.”

At her press conference publicly acknowledging the affair, Barry answered "no" when asked if she'd been "blackmailed" over it. In response to questions raised publicly by Community Oversight Now earlier this week, Barry's spokesperson Sean Braisted told The Tennessean, "Mayor Barry has taken policy positions she believes are in the best interest of the entire community based on staff and community input."

Barry and the MNPD have opposed a community oversight board since it was first raised in earnest nearly a year ago. The effort stalled out in the Metro Council last month.

The ethics complaint not only calls into question her objectivity in past discussions of policing issues, but also says that revelations about the affair make it all but impossible for her to change her position going forward. An excerpt from Community Oversight Now's complaint:

We feel that Mayor Barry may have been improperly influenced against the community oversight board due to her relationship with Sgt. Forrest. Additionally, we contend that she violated the provisions of Section 2, subparagraph II, section 1 of Executive Order 005 in that her relationship with Sgt. Forrest created the appearance of giving preferential treatment (payment of excessive amounts of overtime), losing complete independence or impartiality as will be further explicated below, and affecting adversely the confidence of the public in the integrity of Metro Government.

It is unknown at this time whether Chief Anderson or anyone else in MNPD knew of the relationship between the Mayor and the Sergeant, however, it is not unreasonable to assume that knowledge of such a relationship could have been used as leverage against the Mayor. Regardless of whether anyone was aware or actively advocating to influence her decisions regarding any issue of public safety policy which was at odds with the official MNPD position, the simple fact is she knew there was at least one officer who could air her dirty laundry at a moment's notice and that fact alone brings into question her ability to be an honest broker in any discussion or consideration of these issues.

Furthermore, this revelation has created a climate in which she will now have no ability to back any form of civilian oversight or any reform of MNPD policy, investigations or disciplinary processes without opening the door to questions regarding why her view has softened or changed entirely. At this point, any shift would allow the opposing side to legitimately interrogate her statements of objectivity.

The

works through the past year of strife between activists, the police department and the mayor's office (among others). They include a dispute between the MNPD and the TBI over the Clemmons investigation that raised questions about the

. The complaint describes a tense meeting in December 2017 between members of the coalition and the mayor, during which a pastor in the room asked the mayor, "What does [the chief] have over you?"

Anderson told The Tennessean last week that the mayor's affair with Forrest was "improper" but did not appear to violate any department rules. Still, he said, "any time you have a personal relationship with someone, it could affect your thinking and your professional job. Your thinking might be clouded.”

Speaking to the Scene this morning, Murphy expressed the group's frustration.

"This entire series of events and how it has played out, it's just been one insulting disappointment after another," she says. "I feel I can safely speak for the group when I say that we are shocked, we are saddened. We were hoping each time we went to the mayor, each time we tried to interact with the police chief, that we would get something other than disrespect and contempt. We kept hoping that, and it just never happened, and then this comes out and it's like adding insult to injury.

"I'm just disappointed in the government of our city."