Outgoing Nashville Mayor John Cooper posted a farewell message to his constituents Friday on social media to wrap up the last few hours of his term.
Cooper, who announced he would not be running for re-election earlier this year, took office in 2019 as Nashville’s ninth mayor.
I leave this job with a great deal of confidence in Nashville’s success in the years ahead. I want to thank you for entrusting me with the responsibility of being your mayor.
It’s been the honor of my life to serve.
Thank you, Nashville.
John Cooper pic.twitter.com/n6dupwW7gW— Mayor John Cooper (@JohnCooper4Nash) September 22, 2023
“You know, Nashville has been tested more than any other city during these last four years and we’ve come through as neighbors and as a community,” Cooper said. “I will forever draw inspiration from the sense of community that we found on our most trying days. And through it all, our local government managed to deliver transformational progress.”
Cooper continued by acknowledging his work as mayor in regard to the city’s finances and investments in education and law enforcement.
“With your investment, we fixed the city’s finances and received Metro’s first ever bond rating upgrade,” Cooper said. “We increased per-student funding by over 40 percent in four years and made our teachers the highest paid in the state. We are back at having level five schools. We hired 474 new police officers and we fully staffed our fire department for the first time since 2001. We tripled the Barnes Fund and led the nation in using federal relief funds for housing. These are just a few examples of the progress we’ve made together – progress that allowed our city government to respond to the needs of a growing city.”
“I leave this job with a great deal of confidence in Nashville’s success in the years ahead. And I want to thank you for entrusting me with the responsibility of being your mayor. It’s been the honor of my life to serve,” Cooper concluded.
Mayor-elect Freddie O’Connell will take the oath of office at the historic Metro Courthouse on Monday at a private swearing in ceremony where he will become Nashville’s 10th mayor.
O’Connell won the Nashville Mayoral runoff election earlier this month with 64.3 percent of the vote, as previously reported by The Tennessee Star.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “John Cooper” by John Cooper.
