The Tennessean Editorial: Mayor Megan Barry Must Resign for Nashville’s Sake (VIDEO)

WHEN YOU HAVE LOST THE LIBERAL TENNESSEAN, ITS TIME TO RESIGN …

The Tennessean, the liberal newspaper of record of Nashville, TN who endorsed the mayor, is now asking her to resign. Mayor Megan Barry’s extramarital affair has not only been an embarrassment to Nashville and herself, has caused another marriage to go to divorce, but also most likely broke laws and her own ethics standards. There are four current investigations into the actions of Mayor Barry, one of which is looking into there was misappropriation of funds where her boy toy, now retired Metro Nashville Police Department Sgt. Rob Forrest, was paid tax payer dollars and claimed to have been working when having their affair.

A leader must put the interests and the needs of the people she serves above her own.

We thought Nashville Mayor Megan Barry was doing just that.

However, it has become abundantly clear in recent weeks that this is not the case after the revelation of her affair with her subordinate and former head of security, retired Metro Nashville Police Department Sgt. Rob Forrest.

This is a confounding and disappointing situation:

How he could rack up more than $170,000 in overtime pay over three years, which included extended domestic and overseas trips with her alone and overtime charges in Nashville for hours after the mayor’s calendar showed official events of the day had ended.

How her Chief Operating Officer Rich Riebeling let the Mayor’s Office approve and pay for security detail travel requests – and how those trips grew from one with just Barry and Forrest alone to nine more after Chief of Staff Debby Dale Mason started supervising those requests.

How despite promises of cooperation with authorities and transparency with the public, Barry and her administrative team have only done so when forced to. Several public records requests are still unfulfilled with the mayor’s office citing a “deliberative process” exemption.

On Feb. 4, the Sunday after Barry confessed to her affair publicly, the Tennessean Editorial Board chose to rebuke her in an editorial entitled “Megan Barry betrayed Nashville.”

The truth of the matter is, Tennessee may be a red state, but Nashville is as liberal as it gets. Mayor Megan Barry thinks she is just going to go on business as usual. However, that is far from the case. What Mayor Barry has not figured out because she is surrounded by “yes” individuals is that it is the LEFT that is now against her and her political career is over. I personally know people who actually voted and campaigned for Mayor Barry and they want her gone. Even women on the LEFT think she is an embarrassment. We have not even got to the possible crimes that she has committed where her boy toy security guard was paid a ridiculous amount of overtime while having this affair. Rob Forrest was on something, I don’t believe it was the job. All things considered, when the liberal newspaper of Nashville comes out against the liberal mayor that they endorsed … MEGAN, HAVE SOME DIGNITY WITH WHAT IS LEFT AND RESIGN.

Megan Barry has debased her leadership position, acting selfishly and deceitfully for nearly two years in a secret affair with her head of security.

She shocked and angered the community. She tore apart two families.

This would not be any of our business if she were an ordinary citizen. And, to be clear, the relationship between Barry and former Metro Nashville Police Sgt. Robert Forrest Jr. was consensual. It was not sexual harassment.

The Tennessean endorsed her in 2015. We commended Barry, a Democrat and former corporate ethics and compliance executive, for her empathy, her inclusion and her accessibility.