OPINION: Ethics, Finance Merger Makes Good Sense

Since Sunday, this newspaper has been running a daily series to shine light on issues related to public disclosure by public officeholders, under a law aimed at revealing potential conflicts of interest or ethical dilemmas.

Monday’s segment focused on the debate over eliminating the Tennessee Ethics Commission as a separate agency and merging it with the Registry of Election Finance. Many of the lawmakers who pushed to create the ethics commission in 2006 got behind efforts to merge the two agencies into the Bureau of Ethics and Campaign Finance, which happened a few weeks ago.

We support the merger on several levels, and particularly because it is expected to save as much as $400,000 in staff costs while still meeting the shared mission for the combined agency: to investigate and rule on ethics violations and those involving campaign finances.

The cost savings also is a chief reason Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, R-Blountville, who supported the creation of the ethics commission in 2006, is today equally adamant that a separate entity is no longer needed. Ramsey argues, and we agree, that Tennessee still needs an agency with teeth to monitor and enforce regulations in the arenas of both ethics and campaign finance, which sometimes overlap. Having one agency focusing on both is a solid idea.

But we remind readers that the need for the separate commission arose because of widespread scandal at the state level that necessitated federal intervention. A vote-selling scandal prompted the FBI investigation and resulted in the arrest of several state lawmakers. Members of the Tennessee General Assembly would be glad to put Operation Tennessee Waltz, as the investigation was named, behind them.

But vigilance is necessary to ensure that similar corruption doesn’t have room to grow and if something similar ever does take root, it is investigated and stamped out quickly.

Common Cause Tennessee, which once praised having an independent commission to vigorously enforce Tennessee’s lobbying laws, now says the merger will be good for Tennesseeans. Dick Williams, chairman of Common Cause, said it will bring people with different areas of expertise to work together on cases and that he believes the state’s ethics laws will continue to be aggressively enforced.
We agree on that point as well.

Former state Rep. Nathan Vaughan, who sued the former Ethics Commission over dissatisfaction on its handling of his ethics complaint against two Republican lawmakers, including Rep. Jason Mumpower, R-Bristol, isn’t thrilled about what he might see as cosmetic changes to the agency. By folding the ethics duties into a merged agency, he believes its effectiveness could be further diluted.
His concerns are valid.

Therefore, we urge state lawmakers to remember the embarrassment of Operation Tennessee Waltz, and we insist on vigilance by the new merged agency.

Issues regarding ethical, financial or lobbying violations deserve thorough and swift review so the public retains faith in its leaders and so those who break the law are appropriately punished.