Tyrone N. Butts
APE Reporter
3
DeBerry resigns as ethics leader
Photo at link confirms negritude in the first degree.
Facing a storm of criticism for taking $200 in gambling cash from an undercover FBI agent posing as a lobbyist, state Rep. Lois DeBerry resigned yesterday from a committee designed to craft ethics legislation.
"I did not make this decision because I believe I have done anything wrong, or because anyone suggested or requested that I resign from this position," the Memphis Democrat said in a written statement. "I leave the committee because it should be allowed to complete its work without any distractions. This institution deserves such respect, a
nd the people of this state deserve such respect."
DeBerry told a Memphis newspaper on Tuesday that sh
e took the money from an agent of E-Cycle Management --the front company the FBI used in its "Tennessee Waltz" bribery sting --and fed it into nickel slot machines during a trip to the Grand Casino in Tunica, Miss.
The 33-year veteran of the state House of Representatives will keep her job as speaker pro tem, which makes her second-in-command in the House and allows her to sit on every House committee.
The committee that DeBerry is leaving is a joint legislative panel named earlier this year by House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh. Naifeh replaced DeBerry yesterday with Johnny Shaw, D-Bolivar, who also is chairman of the Tennessee Legislative Black Caucus.
Naifeh, DeBerry and Shaw are all Weststate Democrats.
DeBerry's troubles may not be over, though.
Also l
ate
yesterday Rep. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, filed a formal request asking the House Ethics Committee, a separate panel that considers ethics issues for House members, to inves
tigate DeBerry for a possible violation of ethics laws.
Lobbyist law has loophole
It isn't clear what the next step would be. Members of the House Ethics Committee said they would certainly consider Kelsey's letter. DeBerry sits on that committee and would be unlikely to vote on her own investigation.
"Clearly, Rep. DeBerry intended to break the law, in that she intended to take cash from someone she thought employed a lobbyist," Kelsey said.
The General Assembly's top attorney has said that DeBerry has broken no laws.
That's because of an apparent loophole: It's illegal for a lawmaker to accept gifts from a lobbyist or an employer of a lobbyist. But E-Cycle wasn't registered in 2004 or 2005 as having hired a lobbyist, "and thus it would appear the
Speaker
Pro Tem has not violated the (law's) provisions," according to the opinion by attorney Ellen Tewes.
E-Cycle was using the services of lobbyist Charles Love of Chattanooga, who has since been indicted in federal in
vestigators' Tennessee Waltz sting. But he had not filed the required paperwork to disclose the arrangement.
Kelsey said, "The fact that the lobbyist failed to register properly doesn't excuse her actions."
Four sitting lawmakers were indicted, along with one former state senator, Love and a Memphis political operative, in late May in Tennessee Waltz. Three of the indictees --Sens. John Ford and Kathryn Bowers and former Sen. Roscoe Dixon --were Memphis Democrats, like DeBerry. DeBerry has said she accepted the $200 while on a trip with Bowers.
Other Republicans have called for DeBerry to step down from her post as speaker pro tem, including Reps. Glen Casada of Franklin and Donna Rowland of Murfreesboro.
But House
Republican leader Tre' Hargett has not, although Hargett said DeBerry's resignation from the House-Senate ethics committee was the right thing to do.
"I do not condone the behavior in question, and I do believe Speaker Pro Tem DeBerry's resignatio
n was the right thing to do," said Hargett, who is from the Memphis suburb of Bartlett.
DeBerry had co-chaired the bipartisan ethics committee since its creation last month after the Tennessee Waltz arrests. Made up of 12 House and Senate members, it is charged with crafting tough new ethics rules to present to the General Assembly. Naifeh has said he will support the committee's recommendations.
But DeBerry's resignation after an apparent ethical lapse highlights some of the problems this ethics committee could face in the realm of public opinion.
For example:
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Ethics committee member Sen. Jeff Miller, R-Cleveland, took a $1,000 cash campaign contribution from an undercover FBI agen
t involved in
the Tennessee Waltz sting. The contribution was legal, and he said he did nothing wrong by accepting it.
Many, though, began to question the idea of donors' doling out campaign contributions in cash.
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Committee co-chairman Sen. Mike Williams, R-Maynardville, spent campaign mon
ey to buy tickets to NASCAR races at Bristol.
Williams was criticized for the purchase, but Williams said he did not use them for personal gain. He later paid back the ticket price.
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Committee member and House Majority Leader Kim McMillan, D-Clarksville, recently joined a law firm that does lobbying work for health-care companies, the wireless phone industry and other special interests.
McMillan and the firm said they had set up divisions between her job and the lobbyists.
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ And Shaw, the newest member of the committee, faced his own conflict this year. Shaw, who owns two radio stations, proposed changing the law requiring public notices to be advertised in printed publicat
ions, usually new
spapers. The owner of Shaw's Broadcasting Co., Shaw wants to let local governments choose other media, such as radio, television and the Internet, which would bring radio stations an influx of money.
Shaw also was one of several lawmakers who, in the last days of this past legislative session,
met privately --and out of public view --with members of Gov. Phil Bredesen's administration to discuss the state budget. That raised ethical questions at the time, with some people complaining about the secret meeting.
Open meetings and open records are likely to be a topic of the ethics committee on which Shaw now sits. Some critics say the legislature should make the state's public records and "sunshine" laws apply to the legislature itself.
Shaw was attending a funeral yesterday and could not be reached for comment.
The public-relations battle may be uphill.
"I'm getting tired of people talking about ethics and doing nothing,"
; said Bruce Patton,
a Franklin resident in the finance industry who has long followed politics on Capitol Hill. "It's all of them. They don't seem to care. They don't seem to know what people think of them."
What could the legislature do to win the confidence of Tennessee residents such as Patton?
"Set up a real program with teeth," he sai
d. "Censure some of those people, get 'em off some of those committees and then maybe they'll straighten up."
Rep. Bob Briley, D-Nashville, says it can be done if the committee produces a tough ethics plan that Tennesseans can endorse.
"It will be the work product the committee comes up with in the end," Briley said. "Then the public can decide."
Make your voice heard
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Rep. Lois DeBerry, D-Memphis, House speaker pro tem
Mail: 15 Legislative Plaza, Nashville, Tenn. 37243-0191
Phone: 741-3830
E-mail: rep.lois.deberry@legislature.state.tn.us
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Rep
. Jimmy Naifeh, D-Coving
ton, House speaker
Mail: 19 Legislative Plaza, Nashville, Tenn. 37243-0181
Phone: 741-3774
E-mail: speaker.jimmy.naifeh@legislature.state.tn.us
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Rep. Brian Kelsey, R-Memphis, has filed ethics complaint against DeBerry
Mail: 203 War Memorial Building, Nashville, Tenn. 37243-0183
Phone: 741-4415.
E-mail: rep.brian.Kelsey@legislature.state.tn.us
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Re
p. Johnny Shaw, D-Bolivar, replacing DeBerry on joint ethics panel.
Mail: 33 Legislative Plaza, Nashville, Tenn. 37243-0180.
Phone: 741-4538.
E-mail: rep.johnny.shaw@legislature.state.tn.us.
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Rep. Donna Rowland, R-Murfreesboro, has called for DeBerry to step down as speaker pro tem.
Mail: 209 War Memorial Building, Nashville, Tenn. 37243-0134.
Phone: 741-2804.
E-mail: rep.donna.rowland@legislature.state.tn.us.
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Rep. Glen Casada, R-Franklin, has called for DeBerry to step down as speaker pro tem.
Mail: 209 War Memorial Building, Nashville, Tenn. 37243-0163.
Phone: 741-
4389.
E-mail: rep.glen.ca
sada@legislature.state.tn.us.
************
Wake up America!
T.N.B.
DeBerry resigns as ethics leader
Photo at link confirms negritude in the first degree.
Facing a storm of criticism for taking $200 in gambling cash from an undercover FBI agent posing as a lobbyist, state Rep. Lois DeBerry resigned yesterday from a committee designed to craft ethics legislation.
"I did not make this decision because I believe I have done anything wrong, or because anyone suggested or requested that I resign from this position," the Memphis Democrat said in a written statement. "I leave the committee because it should be allowed to complete its work without any distractions. This institution deserves such respect, a
nd the people of this state deserve such respect."
DeBerry told a Memphis newspaper on Tuesday that sh
e took the money from an agent of E-Cycle Management --the front company the FBI used in its "Tennessee Waltz" bribery sting --and fed it into nickel slot machines during a trip to the Grand Casino in Tunica, Miss.
The 33-year veteran of the state House of Representatives will keep her job as speaker pro tem, which makes her second-in-command in the House and allows her to sit on every House committee.
The committee that DeBerry is leaving is a joint legislative panel named earlier this year by House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh. Naifeh replaced DeBerry yesterday with Johnny Shaw, D-Bolivar, who also is chairman of the Tennessee Legislative Black Caucus.
Naifeh, DeBerry and Shaw are all Weststate Democrats.
DeBerry's troubles may not be over, though.
Also l
ate
yesterday Rep. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, filed a formal request asking the House Ethics Committee, a separate panel that considers ethics issues for House members, to inves
tigate DeBerry for a possible violation of ethics laws.
Lobbyist law has loophole
It isn't clear what the next step would be. Members of the House Ethics Committee said they would certainly consider Kelsey's letter. DeBerry sits on that committee and would be unlikely to vote on her own investigation.
"Clearly, Rep. DeBerry intended to break the law, in that she intended to take cash from someone she thought employed a lobbyist," Kelsey said.
The General Assembly's top attorney has said that DeBerry has broken no laws.
That's because of an apparent loophole: It's illegal for a lawmaker to accept gifts from a lobbyist or an employer of a lobbyist. But E-Cycle wasn't registered in 2004 or 2005 as having hired a lobbyist, "and thus it would appear the
Speaker
Pro Tem has not violated the (law's) provisions," according to the opinion by attorney Ellen Tewes.
E-Cycle was using the services of lobbyist Charles Love of Chattanooga, who has since been indicted in federal in
vestigators' Tennessee Waltz sting. But he had not filed the required paperwork to disclose the arrangement.
Kelsey said, "The fact that the lobbyist failed to register properly doesn't excuse her actions."
Four sitting lawmakers were indicted, along with one former state senator, Love and a Memphis political operative, in late May in Tennessee Waltz. Three of the indictees --Sens. John Ford and Kathryn Bowers and former Sen. Roscoe Dixon --were Memphis Democrats, like DeBerry. DeBerry has said she accepted the $200 while on a trip with Bowers.
Other Republicans have called for DeBerry to step down from her post as speaker pro tem, including Reps. Glen Casada of Franklin and Donna Rowland of Murfreesboro.
But House
Republican leader Tre' Hargett has not, although Hargett said DeBerry's resignation from the House-Senate ethics committee was the right thing to do.
"I do not condone the behavior in question, and I do believe Speaker Pro Tem DeBerry's resignatio
n was the right thing to do," said Hargett, who is from the Memphis suburb of Bartlett.
DeBerry had co-chaired the bipartisan ethics committee since its creation last month after the Tennessee Waltz arrests. Made up of 12 House and Senate members, it is charged with crafting tough new ethics rules to present to the General Assembly. Naifeh has said he will support the committee's recommendations.
But DeBerry's resignation after an apparent ethical lapse highlights some of the problems this ethics committee could face in the realm of public opinion.
For example:
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Ethics committee member Sen. Jeff Miller, R-Cleveland, took a $1,000 cash campaign contribution from an undercover FBI agen
t involved in
the Tennessee Waltz sting. The contribution was legal, and he said he did nothing wrong by accepting it.
Many, though, began to question the idea of donors' doling out campaign contributions in cash.
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Committee co-chairman Sen. Mike Williams, R-Maynardville, spent campaign mon
ey to buy tickets to NASCAR races at Bristol.
Williams was criticized for the purchase, but Williams said he did not use them for personal gain. He later paid back the ticket price.
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Committee member and House Majority Leader Kim McMillan, D-Clarksville, recently joined a law firm that does lobbying work for health-care companies, the wireless phone industry and other special interests.
McMillan and the firm said they had set up divisions between her job and the lobbyists.
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ And Shaw, the newest member of the committee, faced his own conflict this year. Shaw, who owns two radio stations, proposed changing the law requiring public notices to be advertised in printed publicat
ions, usually new
spapers. The owner of Shaw's Broadcasting Co., Shaw wants to let local governments choose other media, such as radio, television and the Internet, which would bring radio stations an influx of money.
Shaw also was one of several lawmakers who, in the last days of this past legislative session,
met privately --and out of public view --with members of Gov. Phil Bredesen's administration to discuss the state budget. That raised ethical questions at the time, with some people complaining about the secret meeting.
Open meetings and open records are likely to be a topic of the ethics committee on which Shaw now sits. Some critics say the legislature should make the state's public records and "sunshine" laws apply to the legislature itself.
Shaw was attending a funeral yesterday and could not be reached for comment.
The public-relations battle may be uphill.
"I'm getting tired of people talking about ethics and doing nothing,"
; said Bruce Patton,
a Franklin resident in the finance industry who has long followed politics on Capitol Hill. "It's all of them. They don't seem to care. They don't seem to know what people think of them."
What could the legislature do to win the confidence of Tennessee residents such as Patton?
"Set up a real program with teeth," he sai
d. "Censure some of those people, get 'em off some of those committees and then maybe they'll straighten up."
Rep. Bob Briley, D-Nashville, says it can be done if the committee produces a tough ethics plan that Tennesseans can endorse.
"It will be the work product the committee comes up with in the end," Briley said. "Then the public can decide."
Make your voice heard
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Rep. Lois DeBerry, D-Memphis, House speaker pro tem
Mail: 15 Legislative Plaza, Nashville, Tenn. 37243-0191
Phone: 741-3830
E-mail: rep.lois.deberry@legislature.state.tn.us
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Rep
. Jimmy Naifeh, D-Coving
ton, House speaker
Mail: 19 Legislative Plaza, Nashville, Tenn. 37243-0181
Phone: 741-3774
E-mail: speaker.jimmy.naifeh@legislature.state.tn.us
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Rep. Brian Kelsey, R-Memphis, has filed ethics complaint against DeBerry
Mail: 203 War Memorial Building, Nashville, Tenn. 37243-0183
Phone: 741-4415.
E-mail: rep.brian.Kelsey@legislature.state.tn.us
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Re
p. Johnny Shaw, D-Bolivar, replacing DeBerry on joint ethics panel.
Mail: 33 Legislative Plaza, Nashville, Tenn. 37243-0180.
Phone: 741-4538.
E-mail: rep.johnny.shaw@legislature.state.tn.us.
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Rep. Donna Rowland, R-Murfreesboro, has called for DeBerry to step down as speaker pro tem.
Mail: 209 War Memorial Building, Nashville, Tenn. 37243-0134.
Phone: 741-2804.
E-mail: rep.donna.rowland@legislature.state.tn.us.
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Rep. Glen Casada, R-Franklin, has called for DeBerry to step down as speaker pro tem.
Mail: 209 War Memorial Building, Nashville, Tenn. 37243-0163.
Phone: 741-
4389.
E-mail: rep.glen.ca
sada@legislature.state.tn.us.
************
Wake up America!
T.N.B.
