Vice Mayor Names Special Committee Members to Investigate Mayor's Conduct

Vice Mayor David Briley has named the seven Metro Council members who will serve on a special committee to investigate Mayor Megan Barry's use of public funds during her affair with the former head of her security detail.

The council voted last week to create the special committee — which will effectively have subpoena power — to investigate the mayor’s conduct, invoking its power to do so for the first time since 1974.

The council members on the committee are Erica Gilmore, Bob Mendes, Brenda Haywood, Robert Swope, Burkley Allen, Mina Johnson and Russ Pulley. Notably, Allen and Pulley voted against creating the committee.

In a letter accompanying the announcement, Briley says the committee’s first meeting is scheduled for Feb. 15. at 4 p.m. The council inquiry is one of three prompted by the mayor’s affair.

Decades ago, council members carried out the investigation themselves, but in his letter Briley encouraged the committee to obtain outside counsel. He also urged committee members to hew to their stated objective: to investigate “the circumstances involving travel and other expenses, including overtime expenses, potentially related to the Mayor’s admitted improprieties involving an employee of the Metropolitan Government to determine if there was any improper use of public money."

“The investigation should not stray from these limits,” Briley writes.

The vice mayor also asks the members to refrain from public comments about the proceedings outside of the committee’s public meetings.

“None of us know what your ultimate conclusions might be,” he says. “It is clear to me, though, that public acceptance will be more likely if they are unanimous or at least broadly agreed to. Please keep an open mind to learning new facts and refrain from a decision until you hear all perspectives. Nashville’s trust in the process depends on it."