Former Chief Of Staff To Mayor Berke To Form Own Consulting Business Thursday, May 6, 2021 Kerry Hayes, former chief of staff to Mayor Andy Berke, said he is forming his own consulting business. Mr. Hayes said in a letter to friends: My time as the City of Chattanooga’s Chief of Staff closely paralleled the pandemic. I accepted my promotion from Mayor Berke at the very end of January 2020; within a matter of weeks, the operations of our office were consumed by daily decisions of unprecedented severity and complexity in an attempt to protect people from both a lethal virus and a cratering economy.