Metro Council gets new staff director next week

Jon Cooper, assistant director of the Metro Council staff since 2001, is set to become the staff director next week. A council resolution on Tuesday's meeting agenda will make that official, while current director Don Jones, who officially retired and went to part-time status two years ago, will stay on as special counsel to the council. Jones, a former Metro law director, has been the council staff director since 1986. Cooper and Jones are attorneys. Cooper, 33, writes most of the legislation introduced by council members and advises them on legal points. He is a graduate of Hume-Fogg Academic Magnet High School, Middle Tennessee State University and Nashville School of Law. — MICHAEL CASS (Tennessean)