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Murfreesboro Mayor Faces Probe From District Attorney Over Campaign Finance
Mayor says he fixed campaign finance issues
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Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFarland speaks about the opening of Trader Joe’s specialty grocery store at Medical Center Parkway and Robert Rose Drive.
- Records show mayor altered his campaign finance accounts
- Complaint accuses 2 mayors of violating campaign financing limits
- PAC changes records after complaint
- Stevens says his complaint seeks to hold authorities accountable
NASHVILLE − A district attorney is expected to investigate whether Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFarland violated campaign finance lawsstate officials decided on Tuesday.
The Tennessee Registrar of Election Finances unanimously agreed to request that Rutherford County Attorney General-elect Jennings Jones, who is the grandson of a former Murfreesboro mayor of the same name, investigate McFarland’s campaign fundraising in response to a complaint from State Representative Robert StevensR-Smyrna.
The Stevens’ Complaint mentions that the Murfreesboro mayor accepted seven campaign contributions of $2,500 or $2,000 in June 2022, which exceeded the legal limit of $1,600 per individual contribution before winning re-election.
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McFarland did not attend the state meeting in Nashville, but provided the following statement to The Daily News Journal.
“I have had contributions that exceeded the legal limit,” McFarland said. “When I found them a while back, I immediately paid the money back to those donors and corrected the reporting with the Rutherford County Election Commission. I have always tried to be transparent and if there are any other issues, as always, I will rectify and resolve them.”
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Records show mayor altered campaign finance accounts
The registrar’s office is awaiting the district attorney’s findings at a pending hearing before deciding whether to dismiss the charges or schedule a show-cause hearing. A show-cause hearing could potentially result in civil penalties of up to $10,000 for each campaign finance law violation.
The Daily News Journal left a phone message with Jones, the Rutherford County district attorney, and is awaiting his response.
Mayoral campaign adviser Mike Terry said after the meeting that McFarland made corrections shortly after Stevens made his initial complaint in January 2024.
Rutherford County Election Commission records show McFarland made changes to campaign finance records on Feb. 9, 2024.
Terry also serves as a political consultant for Smyrna officials named in Stevens’ complaint.
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Complaint accuses 2 mayors of violating campaign financing limits
Stevens also accused Murfreesboro Mayor Shane McFarland Construction LLC’s company of using a political action committee (PAC), Tennesseans for Greater Accountability, as a conduit to circumvent the individual campaign contribution limit to provide a $7,500 donation to Smyrna Mayor Mary Esther Reed.
McFarland’s company is involved in plans to build 61 townhouses for a “Cedar Grove Village” project along Chaney Road in Smyrna, on the city’s edge, adjacent to the La Vergne High School campus, public records show.
McFarland’s donation in question comes a few months after his longtime business partner, Steven Dotson of DM Homes LLC, won approval for the rezoning of a townhouse project on nearly 7.4 acres by unanimous votes from the Smyrna City Council, which includes Mayor Reed, during its August and September 2022 meetings, the Murfreesboro mayor confirmed in an April story in The Daily News Journal.
McFarland said he is avoiding seeking approval for rezoning and waiting to get involved in projects once construction begins.
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PAC changes records after complaint
Stevens’ initial complaint said the $7,500 donation from McFarland’s construction company to the PAC and from the PAC to Reed occurred on the same day, Nov. 23, 2022.
However, the PAC’s records have been altered since the complaint to show that McFarland’s construction company made the $7,500 donation on Nov. 15, 2022, followed by the PAC issuing checks to Reed and three other Smyrna officials on Nov. 22, 2022, said Terry, the political consultant for those named in the complaint.
“I made an accounting error,” Terry told members of the registry. “There was never any intent to deceive.”
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Stevens told registrars they should investigate his complaint to prevent candidates from using PACs to raise more in donations than the limit for individual contributions.
“This did not happen by accident and it definitely needs to be investigated,” Stevens told registry officials. “I believe there is more to see here than what we are being told.”
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State authorities want to examine PAC financial records
Campaign Finance Registry officials asked Terry to provide financial records showing he wrote checks to four Smyrna employees on Nov. 22:
- $7,500 for Mayor Reed;
- and $2,000 each to Smyrna Vice Mayor Marc Adkins and fellow Smyrna City Council members H.G. Cole and Gerry Short.
The PAC fund’s final balance after donations was just over $743, according to the amended fourth-quarter 2022 report.
Terry told state officials that McFarland’s donation excluded any guidance on who should receive the $7,500 and was intended to promote joint work between Murfreesboro and Smyrna officials.
Before the PAC fundraising and donations to Smyrna candidates, Terry said he sought facts from Alan Farley, the elections administrator for Rutherford County, “to make sure everything was legal, proper and correct.”
Farley confirmed to The Daily News Journal that he had heard from Terry before the fundraising and donations began. The election administrator said he had researched the questions with staff at the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance and provided the PAC consultant with information from the state.
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Stevens says his complaint seeks to hold authorities accountable
The Daily News Journal also left a phone call and text messages with Smyrna’s mayor and is awaiting Reed’s response.
Reed previously said he accepted a legal donation from the PAC. The mayor suggested Stevens made her complaint because she joined the Smyrna City Council majority in the decision hold a referendum March 5 asking voters whether the government should eliminate the local General Sessions Court presided over by Judge Brittany Stevens, the state lawmaker’s sister.
More than 71% of Izmir voters in March rejected a referendum seeking to abolish the city’s General Sessions Court.
“If voters had supported the Izmir referendum on March 5, his sister would not have secured another term as a judge beyond 2030,” Reed told The Daily News Journal.
“I believe Representative Stevens is attempting to use his position as a state representative to weaponize a state agency against me and others for a personal vendetta. The complaint he filed was based on inaccurate information. The record is available for all to see, and it shows that everything was done in accordance with election law.”
Stevens said Tuesday ahead of the Election Finance Registry meeting that he filed his complaint to hold elected officials accountable.
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Contact reporter Scott Broden with news tips or questions by emailing sbroden@dnj.com. To support his work with The Daily News Journal, sign up for a digital subscription.