Commissioner at the center of a ticket-fixing scandal loses re-election bid

By Jeremy Finley

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    NOLENSVILLE, Tennessee (WSMV) — Lisa Garramone, the commissioner at the center of a ticket-fixing scandal, exposed by WSMV4 Investigates, lost her bid for re-election Tuesday night.

Garramone came in third (2,311 votes), behind new commissioners Kate Cortner (2,535 votes) and Jessica Salamida (2,777 votes).

The vote comes as Williamson County District Attorney Kim Helper tells WSMV4 Investigates that she is deciding how to respond to the city’s request that her office review an ethics investigation into the ticket-fixing.

According to the city’s attorney, Garramone has yet to provide details into who she claims she was in the car with her, the night an officer suspected she was driving drunk.

WSMV4 Investigates revealed that Garramone knowingly had her traffic ticket voided by police chief Roddy Parker and that she was not the only elected official to receive such preferential treatment.

Wendy Cook-Mucci, the former vice mayor, also had her ticket fixed by Chief Parker but decided, before the scandal broke, not to run for re-election.

Cook-Mucci told WSMV4 Investigates in an interview that she did not remember getting the ticket and when she found out about the ticket-fixing, immediately asked the city manager to look into why it happened.

Garramone agreed to do an interview with WSMV4 Investigates before the election, but then never showed up and never responded to repeated calls or texts.

Additional reporting showed officers’ frustration, revealed on police body camera, of perceived favoritism for Garramone by Parker, which led to suspicions about her drunk driving not being investigated.

While Garramone refused to answer questions from WSMV4 Investigates at the last council meeting, she did tearfully apologize to the citizens in attendance, saying she never intended to receive this preferential treatment.

Garramone did eventually pay the ticket that was voided and went to driver’s education school, but only after a citizen filed a request for the body camera footage, under the Freedom of Information Act.

In the city’s ethics investigation into the ticket-fixing, Garramone told city attorney Charles Michaels that on the night she was suspected of driving drunk, she was actually riding with other people in a car and would provide the names of the driver and other passengers.

Michaels told WSMV4 Investigates this week that Garramone still has not produced those names.

“She was asked to do so but I cannot require (that she provide them),” Michaels wrote in an email.

WSMV4 Investigates will keep you updated on the district attorney’s decision.

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