Tag: Rich Riebeling

Embattled Chief Operating Officer Rich Riebeling OUT of Metro Nashville Government

Laura Baigert
Rich Riebeling, Emily Passini

Newly elected Mayor David Briley announced Tuesday that Metro Nashville Government Chief Operating Officer, Rich Riebeling will be leaving his administration. As part of a reorganization of the Office of Mayor, Briley named Emily Passini as Chief of Staff, the administration’s senior official who will “organize the policy priorities of the office, manage staff and work with department heads to drive the Mayor’s agenda.” The appointment of Passini displaces Riebeling as well as current Chief of Staff Debby Dale Mason. Riebeling recently came under heavy fire for being the focal point of several financial scandals during his 11-year tenure in Metro Nashville Government which spanned three different mayors from gubernatorial candidate Karl Dean, to disgraced Megan Barry to a short stint with David Briley. Much of the attention to Riebeling’s improprieties was drawn by Carol Swain, Briley’s chief rival in the May 24 special mayoral election and The Tennessee Star’s Culture of Corruption series. Mayoral candidate Swain called for then Acting Mayor Briley to fire Riebeling when it became public in early May that Riebeling was involved with $7.4 million of federal relief funds for the 2010 flood being redirected away from victims to design the Ascend Amphitheater. Of that,…

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Culture of Corruption: Metro Nashville Paid $175,000 for ‘Cost-Efficient’ Paint Job to Spruce Up Fairgrounds and It’s ‘Already Peeling’

Jason M. Reynolds
Rich Riebeling

The Nashville Metro government paid over $175,000 to paint the fairgrounds but Larry Atema, the fairgrounds project manager, asked the painting contractor who did the job to use “cost-efficient paint” that turned out to be under warranty for only three months. “But some of that paint is already peeling, after less than a year,” the News 4 I-Team reported in the investigation that broke the story. Metro Council had voted two years ago to invest $12 million to spruce The Fairgrounds Nashville up, the station said. The News4 I-Team said it found emails in July 2017 between Larry Atema, CEO of Commonwealth Development and the fairground project manager, and Metro Nashville Chief Operating Officer Rich Riebeling discussing the details of the $175,000 paint job. The two are friends, the news station said. Riebeling, the long time city finance director under former Mayor Karl Dean, has served as the Chief Operating Officer of Metro Nashville since the election of former Mayor Megan Barry in 2015. “The culture of corruption that has permeated Metro Nashville Government for years revolves around Chief Operating Officer Rich Riebeling, the man who appears to be in control of all the reins of power,” The Tennessee Star reported in May,…

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Acting Mayor Briley ‘Doesn’t Have Any Comment’ on Carol Swain’s Call for Resignation of Rich Riebeling, Metro Nashville Official at Center of Financial Scandals

Tennessee Star Staff
Rich Riebeling w Acting Mayor Briley

Acting Mayor of Nashville David Briley has no comment on election day rival Carol Swain’s call for Metro Nashville Government’s Chief Operating Officer Rich Riebeling to resign. “Mayor Briley doesn’t have any comment,” a spokesperson for the mayor’s office told The Tennessee Star late Sunday in response to a request for comment on Swain’s call Friday for Riebeling’s resignation, in light of the $7 million federal funding scandal that originated in 2010 and 2011 when Riebeling served as director of finance in former Mayor Karl Dean’s administration. Two polls conducted prior to the May 1 transit referendum put Briley in first place in the May 24 special mayoral election in which Nashville/Davidson County voters will select a mayor to complete the remaining one year and three months in the term of disgraced former Mayor Megan Barry, who resigned on March 6, the same day she plead guilty to a felony. Both polls showed Swain in a distant second. Briley has stumbled badly in recent weeks, however. His first misstep came when he backed the $9 billion transit plan introduced by Barry before her March resignation. Voters in Nashville/Davidson County soundly rejected that Barry-Briley plan on Tuesday by a 64 percent 36…

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Erica Gilmore Blasts Acting Mayor David Briley’s Metro Nashville Budget Proposal for 2019

Tennessee Star Staff
Erica Gilmore runs for Nashville Mayor

At-large Metro Council Member Erica Gilmore took the gloves off Friday and blasted Acting Mayor David Briley’s Metro Nashville budget proposal for 2019. Gilmore, who is among the top tier of candidates challenging Briley in the May 24 special election in which voters will select a permanent mayor to serve out the one year and three months in the term of disgraced former Mayor Megan Barry, said Briley has proposed a “Promises Made, Promises Broken Budget” to the residents of Nashville/Davidson County. “The budget proposed by Acting Mayor Briley is a Promises Made, Promises Broken Budget. Nashvillians have been told we need ‘continuity’ in this month’s election. But this budget reflects continuity for some, and broken promises for everyone else,” Gilmore said in a statement released by her campaign on Friday. “This morning, Acting Mayor Briley insisted ‘most citizens will not notice any difference at all.’ I could not disagree more,” Gilmore continued. “Our employees nearing retirement will notice,” the At-large Council Member said. “Young workers trying to save to buy their first home will notice,” she added. “Parents trying to put their kids through college will notice,” Gimore noted. “And our Metro Public School students and teachers–who will not…

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Mayoral Candidate Carol Swain Calls For Immediate Resignation of Metro Nashville Chief Operating Officer Rich Riebeling After $7 Million Funding Scandal

Tennessee Star Staff

Mayoral candidate Carol Swain called for the immediate resignation of Metro Nashville Chief Operating Officer Rich Riebeling on Friday. Earlier in the day, WSMV broke the story that Metro Nashville Government used $7 million in federal funding received in 2010 and 2011 that was supposed to be dedicated to flood relief to build the Ascend Amphitheater. Riebeling was the finance director for Metro Nashville at the time. “The voters of Davidson County are tired of broken promises, underfunded schools, and cronyism that rewards those at the top. Riebeling has been in Metro government since 2007 and served as finance director under Karl Dean and COO under Megan Barry and David Briley,” the Swain campaign said in a statement released late Friday. “For too long Metro government has been squandering the taxpayer funds of hard working Nashvillians,” Swain said in the statement. “Today’s revelation of the misappropriation of federal HUD flood relief funds is just another example of the corruption that is plaguing City Hall and the rest of Metropolitan government. As finance director of the city, Reibeling was either complicit in this act or ignorant of it. He can delegate authority, but he cannot delegate responsibility,” she continued. “Riebeling has…

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