Tomorrows News Today
Nissan Whistleblower Request Change of Venue for Criminal Trespassing Trial
Sharyn Bovat, the relocation consultant to Nissan board member Carlos Tavares, delivered a motion for a change of venue for her criminal trespassing trial to the Williamson County DA Kim Helper. The motion is be heard in the General Sessions Court in Franklin, TN, at the Williamson County Courthouse 9am Tuesday, September 7th (Court Case # gsc3714). Bovat has 5 days until her day in court and has had difficulty finding adequate legal representation saying “either my case is too big, too time consuming, or too complicated”. Bovat says “With the rapidly approaching court day and the upcoming holiday I took it upon myself to file a motion that states due to my activism in the community in reference to Good Ole Boy networks I have become a polarizing figure in the community and will not receive a fair trial therefore a request to change the venue has been made.”
Sharyn Bovat, the middle Tennessee relocation consultant assigned to manage the move of Nissan board member Carlos Tavares in spring of 2009, was arrested for criminal trespassing July 7th at the Nissan North America headquarters. Bovat says, “The arrest was in retaliation for my whistle blowing because I told Carlos Tavares about a ‘Good Ole Boy network’ that dominated Nissan Human Resources.” Bovat claims discrimination against women and other problems she told Mr. Tavares about are being addressed and it’s clearly on the global Nissan website under the corporate governance section that changes in the Nissan Corporate Code of Conduct have been made and in effect late 2010. Bovat attributes the changes to her whistle blowing.
Bovat says for over a year Nissan employees used her as a conduit to Carlos Tavares the President of Nissan North America and she learned that a Good Ole Boy network dominated not only Nissan Human Resources but they were also connected to many that governed the local community.
In November 2009 a neighbor forwarded her an email from a prominent member of the community stating a proposed school rezoning was a ‘done deal’ this rezoning would have rezoned children for a 3rd or 4th time living in subdivisions whose residents were mainly Tennessee transplants and minorities. Bovat said when she did relocation work she learned there was a list of subdivisions that were to never be rezoned. A few years ago at Cracker Barrel Bovat saw the superintendant of the school district dining alone and she asked a few questions about the community rezoning policy. Bovat say’s “It was confirmed that morning that long time residents in Williamson County that knew the ‘right people’ had access to knowledge of which subdivisions were ‘safe’ and they would purchase homes in areas that never had problems with rezoning, new residents did not have access to that information.” That morning Bovat mentioned her neighborhood to the school administrator whose advice to her if she wanted her child to only attend 1 elementary school was to move.
Bovat moved to Tennessee in late 2001 and many children in her neighborhood attending 3 different elementary schools. If the proposed rezoning happened those same children would have attending 6 different schools by the time of graduation.
From years of doing relocation work Bovat knew that changing schools and having to make new friends over and over again was emotionally difficult for many children and she decided to stop the proposed rezoning that was going to affect not only her community but also a majority of those working at Nissan North America that moved to Tennessee from California. Bovat led a viral campaign by starting a blog www.wcs-stop-excessive-rezoning.com and sent the website address to community political and business leaders. She got the attention of Nissan leadership and then executives from other companies called Bovat to help, she encouraged them to contact community leaders and request a fair and transparent community school rezoning policy.
Luckily for the “newbie’s” in Tennessee the community responded by putting the rezoning on a year hold and under the leadership Mr. Looney the new superintendant of schools the county is undergoing a transparent process drafted by outside consultants.
Unfortunately for Bovat her name was even more visible to those associated with the Good Ole Boy networks and says“I do not believe I can get a fair trial in this community, due to my reputation for whistle blowing to Carlos Tavares the business leader for the communities largest employer about ‘deep rooted Good Ole Boy network’, one that is strongly connected to members in local government.”
For the full article about Sharyn Bovat’s www.nissanwhistleblower.com.
CoolSprings.com interviewed Bovat after her arrest. For the complete story, visit http://www.coolsprings.com/news/nissan-whistleblower-arrested.
For information on the school rezoning:
http://www.brentwoodhomepage.com/ravenwood-rezoning-vote-delayed-a-year-cms-987
http://www.coolsprings.com/news/ravenwood-rezoning-hd-video/
