Tennessee Ethics Commission awaits personal finance filings

At least a dozen elected local officials in Hamilton County do not have required personal financial disclosure forms on file with the Tennessee Ethics Commission, an online search found.

“We’re shortly sending out warning notices to those that have not filed,” said Bruce Androphy, executive director of the Ethics Commission. “We’ll be a little more enforcement-oriented this year.”

The forms, which are intended to let the public know if local officials have conflicts of interest, were due Feb. 15.

Of the 97 Hamilton County disclosure forms that are on file, several show no sources of income, investments or loans, such as Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield’s.

Richard Beeland, a spokesman for Mr. Littlefield, said the mayor has no income sources except for his city pay and his retirement.

According to Ethics Commission rules, officials must report their own, their spouse’s and any dependents’ private income, which does not include government compensation. Private income includes capital gains, bank and bond interest, employment income and lecture fees, among other income.

Officials must report private income in excess of $200 and investments that are at least $10,000 or 5 percent of the total capital in a holding. They are not required to report income or investment amounts.

Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey’s filing shows one investment in Tennessee Farmers Mutual Life Insurance, but no income.

Mr. Ramsey said any income he has earned “is insignificant.”

“I’ve got a couple annuities, but they’re small,” he said.

Still, Mr. Ramsey said he would check to see if there were any income sources or investments that warranted reporting.

Earlier this month, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a Nashville-based organization which promotes conservative economic policies, filed complaints against eight local officials who had not filed their reports. Among those officials was Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Beck, who has since turned in his form.

Drew Johnson, president of the Center for Policy Research, said his organization would continue to file complaints against officials who have not filed.

“Right now, getting people to file is our first order of business,” he said.

Mr. Androphy said about 1,000 officials throughout the state do not have forms on file.

But some local officials said they had filed their forms, even though their names did not appear in the search.

Chattanooga City Councilwoman Linda Bennett said she has a receipt for filing her report, which she did online. Her report did not appear on the Ethics Commission’s Web site.

“I wonder if there’s a glitch there,” she said.

Likewise, Hamilton County Board of Education member Rhonda Thurman said she filed her report, even though it did not come up in a search.

“If they don’t have it, they should,” she said.

Mr. Androphy did say about 100 reports filed Jan. 8-9 were missing because of a system problem, but that did not account for all the missing reports.

Ms. Thurman said she filed her report Jan. 8.

The Ethics Commission can impose fines on officials who fail to file. Mr. Androphy said the commission can fine officials $25 per day up to $750, then levy fines of up to $10,000.

This is the second year the forms have been required, Mr. Androphy said. This is the first year officials could file them online, he said.

Penalizing officials whose reports are incomplete is a little more difficult, he said.

“We certainly don’t have the resources here to go through all the forms,” said Mr. Androphy.

He said public complaints would lead the commission to turn to the state attorney general, who would then investigate the case.

Mr. Johnson said his organization would definitely be looking over officials’ reports to look for problems and issue more complaints.

“We’ll just look for what appear to be red flags,” he said.