Archive for the ‘Ethics’ Category

Sen. Bill Ketron (R-13) proposes gutting Ethics Commission

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

billketron1Murfreesboro’s Republican Sen. Bill Ketron wants to cut funding to the independent body that holds legislators accountable to ethics rules. Even the conservative watchdog group Tennessee Center for Policy Research (quoted below) finds Sen. Ketron’s effort misguided.

The proposal, sponsored by Murfreesboro Sen. Bill Ketron, would rework the state’s independent body that oversees lawmaker ethics three years after it was put in place. Ketron says the change would save money and make both agencies more effective.

Critics say it would do away with the only agency in the state that can ensure lawmakers carry out the ethics reforms passed in 2006 after five legislators were caught taking bribes in the FBI sting known as Tennessee Waltz.

“If the General Assembly wants to save 100, 200 grand, there’s better ways to save it,” said Clint Brewer, director of government accountability for the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, an organization that tracks the state legislature. “There are a lot of other places where you can cut.”

Under Sen. Ketron’s plan, the state will eliminate three of the nine ethics commission staff positions. Sen. Ketron ought to be ashamed of himself, but we’ll settle for a simple explanation.

Why does Sen. Ketron want to cut funds and staff for the very body charged with keeping corruption out of the state legislature? Contact Sen. Ketron and report back here in comments:

Sen. Bill Ketron
13 Legislative Plaza
Nashville, TN 37243-0213
Phone (615) 741-6853
Fax (615) 741-7200
sen.bill.ketron@capitol.tn.gov

Attorney for Rep. Donna Rowland (R-34) seeks to avoid ’sideshow’

Friday, April 17th, 2009

donnarowlandRep. Donna Rowland’s attorney has dropped his subpoenas against a Daily News Journal reporter. The attorney feared state and national attention over First Amendment issues that would arise in a complaint filed against Rep. Rowland in the state legislature. The attention would have also negatively focused on Rep. Rowland’s messy divorce and controversial new boyfriend.

Rep. Rowland finds herself at the center of questions filed in a complaint over whether she actually lives in the district she represents. The question before the state legislature now is whether Rep. Rowland lives at a new home she purchased on Faldo Drive or whether she is a live-in girlfriend at gun manufacturer Ronnie Barrett’s home outside the district.

In a letter to the House Speaker, somebody named Kathy Adams, a voter in Rowland’s district, elaborates. Adams apparently did a little detective work:

I drove by Ms. Rowland’s so-called house on 237 Faldo Dr. I saw uncut grass, lawn strewed [sic] with newspapers of several days, shades of the house drawn, no car in the driveway, etc. It had a look of an unlived dwelling.

But when Adams phoned a reporter and ratted out Rowland, suddenly the lawn was manicured and the old newspapers disappeared. A Rowland campaign yard sign even sprang up in the front yard. “I find this very suspicious,” Adams reports in her letter.

Rep. Rowland contends she does not live with her new boyfriend but occasionally visits his home. Barrett is a major donor to Republicans and currently has a lawsuit against the state claiming they promised to build a road to his gun factory.