Mayor Megan Barry potentially violated her own ethics rules during affair with officer, experts say

Mayor Megan Barry's affair with the head of her security detail potentially violated ethics rules she established in the early days of her term, according to multiple experts.

An executive order Barry signed Feb. 24, 2016 — shortly before she says the affair began — bars city employees from "giving preferential treatment to any person," losing "impartiality," or "affecting adversely the confidence of the public in the integrity of the Metropolitan Government."

The same order stresses the importance of avoiding conflicts of interest.

Barry has maintained that the affair with Sgt. Robert Forrest was a personal failing. But multiple business and government ethics experts say there are indications Barry might have broken her own rules for professional conduct.

“It’s going to be hard to say it’s an entirely personal matter," said Brian Gaines, a professor at the Institute of Government & Public Affairs at the University of Illinois. “Almost anybody’s going to see there’s a strong chance for conflict of interest."

Mayor's office oversaw Forrest's day-to-day work

Although Barry, a Democrat, did not directly supervise Forrest's supervisor, she and her office had broad discretion to oversee his day-to-day duties, Metro police Chief Steve Anderson said.

The mayor's schedule dictated his overtime and travel — he was the only city employee who accompanied her on nine out-of-town trips in 2017.

Anderson recommended Barry keep security with her on all city business, even if that business took her to Greece. But he said she had the ultimate say on where and when her detail was deployed.

"Obviously the mayor is the boss and I would have to do what the mayor says," Anderson said.

Anderson, and the police department as a whole, report to Barry, according to an organization chart posted on the city website.

Her input in Forrest's activity and eventual overtime pay raise legitimate questions, said Chris Young, an assistant professor of professional practice at Rutgers Business School in New Jersey.

Young said relationships between supervisors and subordinates are typically forbidden because "it's not hard to make the leap" that bosses could give their romantic partners preferential treatment.

“She chose when she would take details internationally and on various trips," he said. “Was this person on every detail? Did he have to be?"

'We don't have all the facts'

But Young and others stressed there wasn't enough evidence to prove a violation because there could be plausible explanations for Forrest's schedule and overtime.

“There may be an ethical violation here, and I want to be very careful that we say may," Young said. “We don’t have all the facts and unfortunately ethics dives into as much data and facts that you can get your hands on.”

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation will investigate the issue at the request of Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk. The city council and other agencies might also launch investigations of their own.

Even if seemingly ironclad evidence did emerge, it could be difficult to enforce ethical rules that rely on someone's motivations rather than more concrete factors, experts say.

“Most ethical arguments are always going to have areas of gray, even some of the most egregious violations," Young said.

Conflicts of interest are particularly hard to prove, Gaines said.

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“They’re often quite vague and they hinge on difficult-to-establish preferential treatment," he said. "It’s hard to show that the person who would have had the conflict would have treated someone else differently.”

Kathleen Clark, a professor at the Washington University in St. Louis law school, agreed.

“The best ethics standards don’t require inquiry into state of mind, they rely on facts that are observable to the outside world," Clark said. “If on the other hand you’re trying to look inside the mind of the mayor, good luck than that."

Regardless of potential violations, Barry could pay a political toll

Gaines said even if Barry is “in the clear by the letter of the law, it still looks very bad."

In many cases like this, he said, optics matter as much as guilt by ethical or legal standards.

“A lot of language like that is quite vague and it doesn’t really stand up in court, but it will play bad with the politics,” Gaines said. “It’s not good timing to try to ride the storm out and try to duck the question of whether this is a professional or personal matter.”

City rules say 'dishonesty' and 'immoral conduct' can lead to punishments

Civil service rules for all city employees say "dishonesty," "immoral conduct" and "conduct unbecoming an employee of the Metropolitan Government" are all grounds for punishment.

Barry has maintained she and Forrest followed all city rules.

Shannon Hall, director of the city's human resources department, said there is no citywide rule against romantic relationships.

"Unless outlined in individual department rules or policies, Metro does not have policies or rules surrounding co-workers or supervisors and subordinates who are in a consensual romantic relationship," Hall wrote in an email.

Rules for police officers do forbid romantic relationships between supervisors and subordinates, but Forrest's direct supervisor was in the department's special investigations division.

When relationships are discovered, the supervisor, not the subordinate, is disciplined, according to Anderson, the police chief.

“I know of no rules that have been violated by Sgt. Forrest who I have control over,” Anderson said in a Thursday interview. “We don’t try to regulate the private lives of individuals. It’s only when one of our specific rules, regulations, policies are violated that we step in.”

But Anderson said his personal advice would be: "You shouldn’t have affairs with the people that you’re working with, whether you work at the police department or whether you work at the bank or at the factory."

Reach Adam Tamburin at 615-726-5986 and atamburin@tennessean.com. Follow him on Twitter @tamburintweets.