Nashville mayor Megan Barry admitted Wednesday to having an affair with the head of her security detail dating back to spring 2016.
The controversy comes while Barry is trying to sell the public on her $5.2 billion transit plan. The Metro Council votes next week on putting the transit plan on the ballot in May, a key step for the mayor’s plan.
Barry’s affair with Metro Police Sgt. Robert Forrest Jr. reportedly lasted for a year. Sgt. Forrest earned $50,000 in overtime wages during that period.
“I’m embarrassed, and I am sad, and I am so sorry for all the pain that I have caused my family and his family,” she said at a news conference Wednesday. “I know that God will forgive me, but that Nashville doesn’t have to. … I hope that I can earn your trust back and that you will forgive me.”
Lipscomb professor of political science Dr. Marc Schwerdt agreed that the scandal will affect the voting for the transit plan.
“It’s going to personalize this referendum from her,” Schwerdt said. “It becomes a referendum on her instead of just about the merits of that plan.”
A metro council committee chairwoman announced Friday that she planned to create an investigative special committee to look into the use of taxpayer dollars and Barry’s trips around the time of the affair.
The mayor spoke at the youth summit held at on campus last month.