Just read an interesting article by Brad Schrade in the Nashville Tennessean on conflicts of interest at the state level (Tennessee Highway Patrol and Deputy Governor Dave Cooley) and how money buys influence.
If you have read any of my past blogs, you know that conflicts of interest in our local government are a specific concern of mine. What happened/happens on the state level points out how conflicts of interest compromise the public trust and undermine the integrity of state and local departments.
The Tennessean reports that Deputy Gov. Dave Cooley has apparently tried to stay involved in politics and promotions at the Tennessee Highway Patrol even after Gov. Phil Bredesen told him to keep out.
Bredesen told Cooley to keep out of THP matters over a year ago following a scandal in which a THP lieutenant fixed a Cooley speeding ticket. Just recently, Bredesen condemned cronyism at THP and forced out its top three officials.
Cooley, however, apparently doesn't understand what "keep out" means. Cooley contacted Gerald Nicely, interim commissioner at the THP's parent agency, the Safety Department, commented about "the mess" the Safety Dept. was in, and then asked for Nicely's personal home e-mail address.
It appears that Cooley wanted to be able to contact Nicely at home (instead of using state e-mail) with the idea that such communications would not be subject to public-record laws.
The Tennessean reports that Cooley was "kept informed" about THP issues by his wife, Melanie Cooley, who was executive assistant to then-Safety Commissioner Fred Phillips. Melanie Cooley was appointed to the Safety Dept. by Bredesen shortly after his election.
While at the Safety Dept, it appears that Melanie Cooley had influence at the Highway Patrol. In e-mails to her husband, she mentions THP promotion rosters and requests for favors. Her e-mails also discuss hiring and promotion requests from citizens-- well-heeled citizens who donated large amounts to the Governor's 2002 campaign.
(According to the article, Nicely did provide his home e-mail address to Cooley, but Nicely has said that the deputy governor has not contacted him at his home e-mail account.)
Apparently, Cooley was the go-to man if you needed a THP favor. The article states that when a THP captain wanted to get his fiancee's niece hired as a trooper, the captain wrote a letter to Cooley.
The captain, Larry W. Rucker, asked for Cooley's help in a letter dated Sept. 23, 2003, telling him any "consideration you can give to her (his fiancee's niece) would be greatly appreciated." Rucker and his fianceé apparently contributed$6,300 to the Bredesen campaign, and Rucker himself has since been promoted twice by the Bredesen administration.
The Tennessean reports that the niece was hired in January 2004 and then fired from the patrol last fall after a random drug test came back positive for amphetamines. The niece is apparently appealing the firing, saying she was under treatment for narcolepsy at the time. Rucker, now the lieutenant colonel, is acting commander of the Highway Patrol.
Melanie Cooley no longer works at the Safety Dept. She has been transferred to another state agency.
Conflicts of interest and money and influence!
Just like the song lyrics, they go together like "a horse and carriage" or, in the case of Dave and Melanie Cooley, they go together like "love and marriage."
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