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Metro Human Resources investigators determined in a fact-finding report completed in April and obtained by the Nashville Banner that both District 32 Metro Councilmember Joy Styles and Metro Human Relations Commission executive director Davie Tucker behaved improperly toward two Metro Arts employees.
The report stems from a Feb. 26 meeting of the Metro Council Public Facilities, Arts and Culture Committee meeting chaired by Styles and called to discuss ongoing issues at the Metro Arts Commission. According to the report, Styles spoke with the two Metro Arts employees after the meeting, and the duo filed a formal complaint with Metro HR the following day.
Styles’ behavior after the meeting was “inappropriate,” Metro HR investigators determined.
“Touching, leaning in, isolating the person from others, while discussing sensitive topics like supervisor complaints or financial matters would all lead to more feelings of intimidation, especially coming from an elected official who has inherently more power,” the report notes.
As for Tucker, the report primarily focuses on his public statements the following week, when he said Metro Legal “has weaponized” Metro Arts staffers and called for the withdrawal of the complaints.
“These statements could intimidate and coerce the complainants into silence,” the report notes. “This conduct is inappropriate, and employees are protected from this behavior under the Workplace Conduct Policy.”
At the Feb. 26 meeting, a Metro Arts finance official questioned Metro Arts executive director Daniel Singh’s statement that the department could use salary savings to cover consulting costs. (The finance official later revised the statement.) The fact finders determined that the staffer “did not attack or disparage Director Singh, nor did she complain about Director Singh during her statement.”
Yet in the conversation that followed the meeting, Styles explained that she had not permitted the employee to continue speaking during the public portion of the meeting so that she would not “attack your boss publicly,” Styles told investigators.
During the conversation, Styles touched the staffer, though the two have differing views on how significant the physical contact was. Three witnesses claimed Styles grabbed the employee “aggressively,” while Styles told investigators she “absolutely did not place fingers on her. … I put my hand on her to calm her, because she was rapidly speaking and exclaiming that ‘she had to work with integrity’ and that ‘Daniel [Singh] told her to do something she’s not allowed to do.’”
Styles explains her reasoning when reached by the Banner.
“She got on a microphone, and she contradicted Director Singh,” says Styles. “So, the next time … which was when I was planning on ending, she attempted to do that again. And because it was just an attempt at being disruptive, I ended the meeting.”
Styles asked for phone numbers from multiple staffers, one of whom “reluctantly” complied, with the other suggesting the councilmember email her instead. Sydnie Davis, one of the Metro Arts employees, alleged that Styles “was running” or “galloping” after her as she left, though fact finders found “no evidence to support this description.”
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Styles calls the HR report a “pack of lies.” As issues with Metro Arts escalated over the past year, Styles emerged as an outspoken voice on the council, specifically against Metro Legal’s and Metro Finance’s handling of the situation. She said this is an instance of people in power “weaponizing” Metro Arts staff.
“A lot of what is being portrayed in this is that somehow, in asking questions, we’re out of our lane. And that is not the case,” Styles tells the Banner. “And I would rather stand up for fighting for constituents than covering up for anyone in Metro government who was standing by and being complicit by saying nothing or participating in slandering anyone’s name. And that’s either if they’re doing it themselves or sending other people to do their dirty work.”
The two complainants, both Black women, took particular offense to statements by Tucker, Styles and others that white Metro leaders were using them to attack Singh.
“Metro Legal has weaponized employees at Metro Arts,” Tucker said at a March 4 public meeting.
When investigators asked about the statement, Tucker said he had only circumstantial evidence and said it was “very, very interesting and concerning that charges like these would come up, in this way, a couple of days before our report comes out.”
Tucker also quoted author Matthew Desmond’s statement that “complexity is the refuge of the powerful.”
Investigators asked Tucker whether a department head who “can speak uninterrupted in front of news cameras” or two Black women who have been employed by Metro for a few months have more power. He responded, “It depends.”
“The staff became legal fodder for what’s about to happen,” Lydia Yusef, director of the Elmahaba Center, said at a Metro Arts Commission meeting on April 25. “These white people — [Metro legal director Wally] Dietz, [Metro finance director Kevin] Crumbo, the white commissioners — don’t care about you. They are using the staff to get to us, and to defund us again for the second year.”
“I’m not going to lie, [Tucker’s comments] scared me bad,” Davis (the Metro Arts employee) told investigators. “It made me want to quit on the spot. … It felt like a threat. … I’m allowing myself to be weaponized only because I don’t want to solely and blindly follow someone [Tucker] that I’ve only met once?
“I have a child who’s one day going to read about these things and to know that I’m being accused of attaching myself to white supremacy,” Davis continued. “I have dealt with the actual hand of white supremacists. I have dealt with that my entire life.”
Davis went on to say that she agreed with MHRC’s determination about inequity at Metro Arts.
“That to believe in one [funding equity], and to also believe in the other [allegations posed in this report] does not mean that I don’t want equitable funding or that I’m attaching myself to racism,” she said, according to investigators. “Two things can be true at the same time. I think [Tucker] had a decent motive when he started this, but it almost feels like it’s become personal and the idea to speak out against him is to speak out about equity.”
Reached by the Banner, Davis declined to comment other than to say that her “name has been disparaged for a lot of things that have absolutely nothing to do with me.”
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Tucker, through an attorney, told investigators he believed the complaints were retaliatory because the commission he leads was set to present results of its own investigation into Metro Arts the next week.
The HR report “will be maintained confidentially to the extent possible and will not be disseminated externally by Metro HR except as required by law.” A public records request for the report had not been fulfilled as of press time.
Investigators recommended that both Styles and Tucker abide by Metro’s Workplace Conduct Policy. Both complainants were not seeking specific punishment but rather to be vindicated and allowed to do their jobs.
“I’m sitting in this position going through an HR investigation as I’m not even a Metro employee, and to see that they took so many lies as truth,” Styles tells the Banner. “It definitely to me says we need to do something with our HR department as well. Perhaps new leadership is needed.”
