Nashville Mayor Megan Barry took her lover/police guard on far more trips, and on longer journeys, than her previous two predecessors, multiple media outlets report.
NewsChannel 5 broke the story Wednesday of Barry’s years-long affair with the former head of her security detail, Metro Police Sgt. Rob Forrest, who abruptly announced his retirement after 31 years with the department. Forrest traveled with Barry across the U.S. as well as Greece and Paris.
District Attorney Glenn Funk asked the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to look for any potential criminal wrongdoing by Barry.
NewsChannel 5 on Thursday interviewed former Mayor Bill Purcell. He said Forrest joined another officer on the mayoral security detail after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. One officer would drive with him to events “in the city of Nashville, primarily,” while the other would drive separately.
Purcell was asked if Forrest traveled with him outside the city. Purcell said one or both would travel with him around the region, but he does not recall them accompanying him out of the state.
Former Mayor Karl Dean told The Tennessean Thursday his security detail joined him when he drove to a location like Louisville or Little Rock, but not when he flew somewhere like Japan.
Forrest earned $75,462 in overtime during the 2016-17 fiscal year, according to records provided by Metro, The Tennessean/USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee reported. He earned only $31,748 during the 2013-14 financial year, when Dean was mayor. He took at least nine trips as the only Metro employee accompanying Barry, the newspaper reported.
That raises the question: Did Barry change the security policy when she assumed office? NewsChannel 5 said the affair began shortly after her election.
“When I came into office, the (police) chief said that you are always the mayor and you should be secured appropriately,” Barry told The Tennessean in the same story where Dean was interviewed. “It was definitely the recommendation of the police that I should have (a) detail.”
Mayoral security arrangements vary by city, The Tennessean reported. Charlotte, North Carolina’s executive does not travel with guards, while the mayor of Fort Worth, Texas, takes a police officer on official trips.
he may have increased his pension pay by tens of thousands of dollars. Often your pension pay is based on your 3 highest paid years of work. bingo!!!! job well done…
Barry was a Mueller before she married athiest Barry. Reckon she’s related to the Klinton employee who is investigating(lol) President Trump?
The World According to Megan: When you are sneaking around on your spouse using the taxpayer’s dime, security is very important so as not to be caught by either.
The whole thing reeks of progressive, elitism! And an entire system full of corruption.
The Chief of Police needs to go. How could he NOT know what his men are doing? Also, if he told her she needed an entire special detail for security, 24/7, (and two specially oufitted white Chevy Suburbans), he’s being dishonest and wasteful.
Where is the fiscal oversight, the checks and balances? Oh right, Party politics. Can’t say anything against a fellow Party member if you want to keep your position, Comrade.
I would think the chief had to sign off on the overtime pay.
Typical left winger! Do as I say, not as I do.
From 2003 to 2012, Barry was vice president of ethics and compliance at Premier, Inc.,
Reckon what her atheist communist husband thinks about being married to a skank?
The whole time she bashed Trump, she was using her position as mayor to carry on an affair at taxpayers expense.
What a worthless hypocrite!