Belle hires new city manager

BY MATT MASTERS

The City of Belle Meade has announced the hiring of a new city manager, Jennifer Moody, who will replace current City Manager Beth Reardon at the end of February.

The announcement was made during the Jan. 18 Board of Commissioners meeting, and will mark the retirement of Reardon from the position which she has served in for the past 28 years.

Reardon was originally hired in 1990 as the city’s finance director and continued in that role until 2016 while serving in both administrative positions.

Moody currently serves as the City Administrator for Tullahoma, and previously worked in city administration leadership roles in Murfreesboro and Columbia, bringing with her more than 15 years of what Belle Meade Mayor Rusty Moore called “tremendous experience.”

Moody is a Nashville native who earned a master’s degree in Public Administration from Indiana University and

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A New Origin Story” in hand which he read silently in protest at times during Lee’s speech.

“We will have critics – critics who thrive on toxic incivility and divisiveness, but we don’t have to step foot into their arena,” Lee said.

“We can disagree and stand firm for our beliefs and our principles, but we should never forget the dignity of the other human being. We should never believe differences are a platform for demonization, or that one man has any greater value than another,” Lee said. “Civility is not a weakness. In fact, it has been and it should always be the American Way. And I know it can be the way in Tennessee.”

“The halfway point of any endeavor is a good time to reflect, but it’s an even better time to plan – to focus on the work still ahead,” Lee continued, calling for a “transportation strategy and an energy strategy” as well as the “need to enhance efforts to conserve our natural resources and preserve the environment.”

Lee also spoke of the “need to protect children in our custody and in our state with a better foster care and adoption process,” following revelations that the state’s Department of Children’s Services acknowledged “foster care instability” not seen elsewhere in the country.

While Lee laid out some challenges and priorities of his next term, he added, “we can never abandon the standard of fiscal responsibility that makes our success possible.”

Earlier this month, the 113th General Assembly convened for the start of the new legislative session which has already included legislation aimed at cutting in half the size of the Metro Council, criminalizing drag shows and restricting trans health care, as well as the possibility of changes to the state’s abortion ban.