September 29, 2005 State Ethics Recommendations

I decided to delay my report on the Commission meeting of 9/22/05 in order to post a joint policy statement that was recently issued by Tennessee Tax Revolt and the Tennessee Center for Policy Research. The policy statement concerns an issue that, in my opinion, is very important to Tennesseans-- ethics. This ethics statement has a direct relation to my focus on accountability, open meetings, open records, and eliminating conflicts of interest.

September 27, 2005

Tennessee Tax Revolt, the State’s largest taxpayer advocacy group, and the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, Tennessee’s free market public policy research institute, joined to co-author an open letter to Governor Bredesen and the Tennessee General Assembly encouraging simple ethics reforms to restore confidence in our State government.

Among the letter’s recommendations are:

1. Recording and posting all House and Senate floor, committee and subcommittee votes on final action for any bill on the General Assembly website within two hours of the vote.

2. Providing that every bill scheduled for a floor vote for final action be made available in fully amended form on the legislative website 72 hours before the vote.

3. Amending both the Open Records Act and Open Meetings Act so they apply to the proceedings of the General Assembly.

4. Offering video streaming and archiving of all Senate and House general sessions and committee sessions.

5. Requiring FULL disclosure on the legislative website of amounts spent by those that employ lobbyists or spend money to influence legislation and completely outlawing contingency lobbying fees.

6. Prohibiting lobbyists from serving on State boards and commissions

“While not every legislator is part of the problem, all legislators must be part of the solution,” said Tennessee Center for Policy Research president Drew Johnson. “There is a crisis of confidence. It is a crisis that can only be resolved through common sense approaches that foster government transparency and encourage citizen involvement in the political process.”

According to Tennessee Tax Revolt spokesman Ben Cunningham, the recommendations promote leveling the playing field between lobbyists and interested citizens. "Easy and complete access to voting records is our birthright as citizens of Tennessee, it is not something reserved for highly paid lobbyists," said Cunningham.

My comment: "Well said."

I would add that conflicts of interest at the state and local level are a serious problem. Too many legislators at the state level as well as county commissioners and city councilmembers at the local level do not abstain from voting on legislation that has a particular economic effect, direct or indirect, on them or their immediate family.

I would also add that access to public records is absolutely vital in promoting accountability at the local and state level.

Knowledge is power. Government officials know that, and that is why some of them seek to keep all the power (documents & information) in their hands. These are the government officials that cause citizens and others to wonder why they are so secretive about the conduct of public business and why they are so difficult to deal with when citizens want public documents.

Thankfully, most elected officials are open and accessible and freely discuss and share information and documents. These are the ones we tend to trust.

The letter is available in its entirety at http://www.tennesseepolicy.org/files/pdf/2005TTR-TCPR%20Ethics%20Letter.pdf