A pair of investigations into former mayor Megan Barry are seeing a flurry of activity this week. The Metro Auditor’s much-anticipated findings could be made public soon. And on Tuesday, members of the Metro Board of Ethical Conduct — running their own probe — said they plan to call officials to testify.
The actions show that Barry is still facing potential repercussions for using city funds to carry out an affair with her top security guard, but that the focus may turn from punishing her to determining how the city can prevent future abuses.
Barry’s attorney, David Garrison, addressed the ethics board Tuesday, arguing a hearing isn’t necessary and that there’d be little action left to take. The board can reprimand officials, request their resignation, or hand over evidence for civil or criminal legal action.
“Most of those remedies have already taken place. Or in other words, they may be moot,” Garrison said.
He also asked the board to think twice before taking the unprecedented step of sending subpoenas to public officials.
But activist Theeda Murphy, who filed the complaint, says there are unanswered questions. She charges that Barry violated city conduct standards by helping her bodyguard, Sgt. Robert Forrest, receive excessive overtime payments. And that their secret relationship influenced Barry’s policy decisions about the police department.
“There has not been any full disclosure of what happened. Where was the breakdown in the procedures that allowed all of this overtime to be paid out?” she said. “How much was actually misappropriated?”
Some insights may come from the Metro Auditor, and Garrison asked the board to look at those forthcoming findings before locking in its own hearing.
Murphy said the auditor may fill in some blanks, but not necessarily on the policing question.
Murphy has been fighting to create a Community Oversight Board over the police. And she said this ethics case could set a rigorous standard for investigating Metro officials.
“It’s worth happening because government is going to work better and be more responsive and accountable to the people,” she said. “I as a citizen — we all as citizens — need to be able to hold our government accountable.”
The ethics board decided previously that a hearing was warranted. Members reaffirmed that commitment, and clarified that they do plan to ask officials to testify, although they haven’t agreed to
Murphy’s full list of officials.
Some on the ethics board worry about burdening those people, and their relevance to the matter. They’re also trying to carve out a process that hasn’t been used before — and which differs from rules used in traditional courts.
The board voted to ask Murphy for written justifications for each potential witness. Barry’s team will have a chance to respond.
“The question, as I understand it, is whether the relationship with Ms. Barry and Mr. Forrest somehow influenced her reaction to a request for an oversight board,” said board member Keith Frazier. “If these witnesses go to that, great. … It’s a very narrow question we have agreed to have a hearing on.”
The board is waiting to take further action until they see the Metro Auditor’s findings, which could come this week. And there remains another pending legal challenge about the board’s procedures, which is due for a Sept. 14 court hearing.
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