A rally calling on embattled Mayor Megan Barry to resign “effective immediately” will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, February 20, at 5 p.m., on the south side steps of the Metro Nashville Davidson Courthouse, organizer Rick Williams told FOX 17.
Late last month Mayor Barry admitted to having a two-year-long extramarital affair with her Metro Nashville police officer bodyguard, Sgt. Rob Forrest.
The two took nine trips alone together out-of-state at taxpayer expense over the two years. One of these trips was to Athens, Greece, another was to San Francisco, California, and yet another was to Washington, D.C.
“Having sex with a subordinate is an ethics violation for sure at a minimum,” Williams explained to the Fox affiliate, adding:
They feel like she was busy with a romance for two years and didn’t tend to the things she promised. Corporate leaders, they question whether they should work with someone with a recent tainted past.
I personally like Megan Barry. I felt very sorry when her son passed away, I attended both the visitation and funeral. It’s not anything personal at all, I just think she’s lost the trust of the citizens.
Long-time pastor and Nashville community activist Enoch Fuzz is expected to be one of the speakers. Last week, Fuzz called on Barry to resign.
Jonann Porish, an East Nashville resident currently working in the music industry will also speak.
Former Vanderbilt professor Carol Swain has also been invited to speak.
Last week, Barry repeatedly refused to answer questions from a WSMV reporter about taxpayer resources used to send her and Sgt. Forrest on luxury trips, including the Athens trip.
The previous week, “in a blockbuster report that aired on Friday, NewsChannel 5’s Phil Williams revealed that documents obtained from the Mayor’s office which purport to show Chief Anderson approved Forrest’s travel with her are factually incorrect.”
The Mayor’s office attempted to call the document it produced which showed Chief Anderson had approved Forrest’s travel request when in fact those requests were approved by the Mayor’s Chief of Staff, Debbie Mason, “a computer glitch.”
As The Tennessee Star reported:
After an audit, Keith Durbin, the head of Metro Nashville’s Information Technology Services department wrote in a memo obtained by NewsChannel 5, “After completing the investigation, ITS has concluded that due to a long undiscovered system flaw affecting an infrequent situation, Chief Anderson did not receive nor approve Sgt. Forrest’s travel requests pursuant to protocol.”
“According to the memo, the travel for Sgt. Forrest and other members of the mayor’s security detail was approved by the Mayor’s chief of staff,” NewsChannel 5’s Williams reported
Mayor Barry is currently the subject of three investigations: one by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, one by a special Metro Council committee, and one by the Metro Ethical Board of Conduct.
On Facebook, the ‘Resign Now! Megan Barry’ rally’s call to action reads:
South side steps
Speakers at 5 p m
Attendees are asked to wear red.We are Nashville! This is Tennessee’s Capitol City. Stand with us!
We cannot be lead by a person with no moral or ethical standards. Mrs. Barry’s capacity for deception and lack of respect for this Community is abhorrent.Please pray for the people of Nashville and Tennessee. Please pray for all our community leaders: Faith, Corporate, Education, Government, Media, Elected Officials, and all Candidates seeking office. We need them to stand with us and publicly denounce Mrs. Barry’s abuse of authority and public trust.
Nashville must hold Mrs. Barry accountable for her 2-year extramarital affair with a married employee she forced taxpayers’ to pay over 150K in overtime to and also the expenses of their extravagant travels; including trips to Greece and Paris.
We, the people of Nashville, demand her resignation, effective immediately.
The rally is the result of bombshell revelations surrounding a years-long affair Mayor Barry had with her security chief, Rob Forrest. During the course of their relationship, Forrest more than $150,000 in overtime payments in 2017, as well as accompanied Barry on luxury out-of-town and overseas trip alone.
At issue is the possible ethical and legal exposure of Barry, Forrest, and many top Metro Nashville City officials the expenditures and subsequent cover-up could represent.
The Metro Nashville Davidson County City Hall and Court House is located at 1 Public Square, between James Robertson Parkway and Union Street.
Megan Barry’s husband’s involvement with the ACLU is in great conflict with her kowtowing to MNPD and Police Chief Anderson. After her public admission of the affair, she made a telling comment saying she should have gone to the PC and told him of her affair and it was wrong that she did not…the PC clearly impresses upon her that he sees her as his subordinate. She misunderstood her role as Mayor, apparently. She “kindly” allowed her office to take Sgt Forrest’s salary and overtime out of the MNPD’s budget and put into the Mayor’s Office budget…wow! And then there are the millions she allowed MNPD to invest in military defense equipment whilst homocides in Nashville near an all time high…the mice will play when the cat’s in Greece…playing with their spy and intimidation tech, tinting cruiser windows while not trying to integrate as trustworthy defenders of the community that employs them and forgetting to go after the real criminals…afoot! Civil liberties of Nashvillians be stomped. And now the sudden surge of action going after real criminals…covert surveillance abounds. Hang on Nashville, Mayor Barry just hung you out to dry. Keep on fighting the good fight, Mr. Barry, even if your wife just cancels you out.
Brian McMurphy: I agree with you. I just learned of the gathering a few days ago. There is an astounding number of people wanting Barry’s resignation who will likely not be able to attend that rally on short notice- republican and democrat. I am a democrat who will not support her hypocrisy…and narcissistic personality disorder thumbing her nose at what is best for Nashvillians. She has failed on many levels. And this is an embarrassing drip drip of revelations over 3 investigations that is bringing embarrassment to the city. You are right, if there is not a good showing of people at the rally she will dig her heels in harder. She will go. We know that. But this rally could just aid the process of removing her in dragging out.
Reply to Toni Corbin: Based on your own reasoning why don’t you call out Megan Barry for her hypocrisy? I think it’s astounding that her desperate supporters are commenting across many publications in her defense, citing every embattled (republican), lying, cheating, misappropriation of funds politicians they can name who have KEPT their jobs…is that really the direction you want to go with her?… Hey! We got one of those too (shaking your fists at Trump supporters)! And we shall keep ours! Isn’t this where you turn to her and say, “You deceived us. You are not what we expected when we elected you. And we will not move forward with you, because we are better then that.”
Sorry, can’t make the rally to answer important questions. I’ll be attending a CAIR dinner. ( hope I don’t get stoned )
Rick Williams ,how can you be such a hypocrite …you support that adulterer Trump ,then you say people can t work with her ,but you expect people to work with trump and if it s about the money ,remember, Trump is the Grifter In Chief…..I m telling everyone that will listen about your agenda …and expect a counter protest ,calling out YOUR hypocrisy.
Megan Barry will go, it’s only a matter of time. She can make this easy on herself and resign or suffer the humiliation of a handy defeat in 2019 or, better yet, a recall election. She is no longer considered a “rising star” in democrat circles and has effectively committed political suicide. Maybe she and the the nutty professor can start a foundation and become political consultants once she’s ousted and he has quit his day job as a basket weaving instructor at Vanderbilt.
lb: Agreed. This doesn’t seem well thought out. And if you only have 30 people show up then Barry will say “is that all you’ve got?”.
The local news will always promote some lunatics protesting at Centennial Park, Murphy Road, or the Women in Black downtown even though only about a dozen members of their loose knit drum circle get the band back together.
But if you have less than a couple of hundred people show up at a weeknight downtown protest then it will be spun as a Barry referendum for keeping her.
These “organizers” are playing into her hands.
This would be better attended if they did it on Saturday–most of us who support her resigning work and cant get off during that time to attend this event
We’ve seen Barry’s charm offensive.
Hang out at TSU. Handout Section 8 vouchers. The only thing she hasn’t done is pass out white tube socks and t-shirts outside of Swett’s.
Can we call Animal Control on PanderBarry?
She will laugh at the rally. That’s her personality.
What’s the old saying; something to the effect of “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
If Barry will not leave, how do you get her to go? Practically, it may not be legally doable.
The voters MUST be more discerning in the future in whom they cast their ballots for. I did not ‘know’ during the mayoral campaign that Barry would be the Far Left person that she has proved to be, but I strongly suspected it just given the few things that I did know. I do not vote in Nashville, but had I been able to do so I would not have voted for her. But enough did.
And now Nashville, and Tennessee, has this mess to deal with!
Seeing how her husband has been deeply involved in the leadership of the ACLU for many years it should be no surprise that Mayer Megan is so far left she is off the scale. Of course this fact was not widely publicized during her campaign. Rather he was touted as a highly-regarded professor at Vanderbilt. Of course, that should have also been a clear indicator.