Steve Glover resigns as CM at-large; Mayor's Office exodus continues
Fanta leaves a few weeks after DiMassimo, leaving Cooper comms-less
Steve Glover, one of five at-large CMs and a conservative fixture on council, resigned Tuesday citing health concerns, according to an email sent to councilmembers. Nicole broke the news on Twitter with a screenshot of the memo. Glover dealt with surgery and COVID in 2021 and his attendance at council meetings has been spotty in the past few months. Glover represented D12 (Hermitage) from 2011-2019.
Glover was a reliable advocate for austerity, introducing (failed) substitute budgets in 2019 and 2020. On the campaign trail and in office, he called for reduced government spending on everything but the police department and railed against Mayor Cooper’s tax increase last spring. In September 2020, Glover appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight to amplify a discredited, now-retracted Fox 17 story that accused the Mayor’s Office of hiding COVID data.
Andrea Fanta, the Mayor’s last remaining communications staffer, is out, according to Nate Rau (Axios). Down from a three-person team in September, the Cooper office is now comms-less. Alums include Katie Lentile, Chris Song, John Lasiter, and (sorta) Brandon Marshall, who taps in and taps out as needed. A skeleton crew may mean more gold like this Feb. 11 tweet, which could only have been approved by someone who does not use the internet.
Fanta exits a few weeks after Faye DiMassimo, a high-profile hire back in 2019, left for Savannah. Cooper gestured towards major infrastructure improvements when he brought on DiMassimo, touting private sector expertise that commanded the office’s top salary ($206k). DiMassimo helped produce the mayor’s 2020 transportation plan, though substantial improvements have yet to materialize, bureaucracy epitomized by a new parody account. Before leaving, DiMassimo oversaw the formation of NDOT, which restructured existing Metro responsibilities, and the stalled Jefferson Cap proposal.