#BREAKING: In a resignation letter today from embattled Roxy Regional Theatre Director Ryan Bowie, he details reasons he says he must quit, including his professional headshot being displayed “amid convicts.” As he resigns, he makes demands for a lump sum payment of the remainder of his yearly salary, a severance package, full health insurance, and a retirement package…
Tag: Ryan Bowie
Mayor & Council set to re-appoint embattled Roxy Director Ryan Bowie to Parking Commission for 2-year term
Ryan Bowie, who is embattled with allegations of inappropriate touching, sexual harassment, and financial mismanagement of the Roxy Regional Theatre, is set to be re-appointed to the City Of Clarksville’s Parking Commission. The resolution will be presented at tonight’s Executive Session of the Clarksville City Council on the consent agenda, which is reserved for legislation that is not expected to have any discussion or disagreement. If passed, he would serve until October 2024. You can email the council here: citycouncil@cityofclarksville.com
City won’t investigate touching/sexual harassment complaints on Roxy’s Ryan Bowie; he will continue working with children & the theatre
In the time since a half-dozen complaints have been received about Roxy Theater Director Ryan Bowie, alleging inappropriate touching, assault, sexual harassment, stalking, and inappropriate relationships with actors under his employ, two members of the Roxy’s Board of Directors have now resigned in protest as its own executive committee cleared Bowie of any wrongdoing, despite making changes including an HR director position and an “intimacy choreographer.”
Bowie’s name is closely associated with the Roxy Theatre, the City of Clarksville, and the Children’s Theatre programs; however, the city, led by Mayor Joe Pitts, says they can’t investigate the allegations because he’s not actually a city employee and isn’t bound to any ethics rules the city may have in place.
Emails obtained by Clarksville Today show the Roxy Board determined that “any of the allegations made against Mr. Bowie do not rise to the level of liability from a legal standpoint,” so they would no longer investigate the matter, either.
Citizens have been clear, whether there is a legal liability or not, where there’s smoke, there is likely fire, and this many complaints didn’t happen overnight or from single incidents. Citizens, actors, and even the APSU Threatre program professors have all made it clear — The Roxy can’t continue on its current path with the city and the children’s theatre program with Ryan Bowie at the helm, and if we’re waiting on a “legal liability,” the damage will have already been done to the Roxy & the City of Clarksville. Bowie is an agenda item on Thursday’s City Council Meeting at 4:30 p.m. [more documents inside full story…]
Actors say Roxy Theatre Director Ryan Bowie harassed, stalked, touched without consent
An actor at the Roxy Regional Theatre says he and a dozen others have been victims of harassment and inappropriate conduct by Director Ryan Bowie for at least the past year, with some complaints going back much further. In January, after several actors detailed formal complaints, the theatre’s Board of Directors & the Executive Committee admitted “mistakes have been made” and determined that Bowie, along with other staff, would enroll in “extensive HR training,” and someone on-site would be trained as an “Intimacy Choreographer.” Additionally, an HR Director would be appointed. Now that the city is directly involved with the theatre and its liability, the actors, and some city council members, are still concerned about ongoing issues at the downtown Clarksville landmark and are calling for action — they want Bowie removed as the Executive Director, weary of several lawsuit threats involving his actions.
Nashville Fire Dept. Paramedic Nicholas French charged with domestic assault in Clarksville
38-year-old Nashville Fire Department Paramedic Nicholas French was arrested at his Clarkville home after his girlfriend, Amanda Wenzel, says he was intoxicated and took her phone from the nightstand and hit her in the face with it while trying to use her face to unlock the phone so he could read her text messages. He reportedly then grabbed her and placed both arms behind her back and shoved her face into a wall. He is currently using vacation days for his assigned NFD shifts until the matter is adjudicated.
Clarksville is holding a listening session about parking — but they didn’t invite anyone to attend
Just before 4 p.m. Monday, the City of Clarksville quietly added a meeting to the events calendar for Tuesday at 5 p.m. — a “listening session” where they want to hear input from the public about the downtown parking options, except they didn’t tell anyone. In fact, at least one parking commission member was caught off-guard about the timing, as it happens at the same time the Mayor and one commission member have to be inside the City Council chambers for their own meeting.
So on Tuesday, at 5 p.m. the Mayor’s Parking commission will hold a listening session to decide the public’s input on parking, but the Mayor nor some of the commission will be in attendance, and they hope you won’t either, because they made no formal notice or announcement, despite promises from Parking Director Michael Palmore there would be a public outreach campaign to notify the public of the meeting, as he stated during a conversation last week when discussing the listening session.
Clarksville Parking Commissioner asks reporter to stop recording public meeting during controversial topic
During last week’s meeting of the City of Clarksville Parking Commission, Commission member Andrea Herrera asked a reporter to stop recording a portion of the public meeting, in violation of the state’s open meeting act, which allows for all portions of a meeting to be viewed, accessed, and recorded as a matter of public record. Herrera also asked for a special parking exception to be made for one of her employees, which seems to be a direct conflict of interest to her new role, and was visibly upset when the other commissioners didn’t necessarily accommodate her.
Clarksville Police will no longer tow vehicles for parking violations, despite $500K in unpaid fines
In a recent City of Clarksville Parking Commission meeting, it was revealed that the Clarksville Police Police Department is now refusing tow requests from the city’s parking enforcement officers. This, combined with the city’s fear to take on the liability for booting illegally parked vehicles, will continue to add to the over $500,000 of unpaid fines, and lack of downtown parking availability, as people know they can park all day without paying the meter, without any penalty or enforcement.
The city currently has no viable way to collect unpaid tickets or enforce the laws on vehicles. The city has stopped projecting unpaid fines as potential revenue until it’s collected since so little of it is ever paid.
