NASHVILLE -- Republican House Speaker Beth Harwell on Wednesday asked heads of House committees and subcommittees to throw open the doors on their secret "pre-committee" meetings.
"I respectfully request two things: that these meetings be announced, and that you have an open-door policy," Harwell wrote in a memo sent to the chairmen.
The Nashville speaker noted that some committees already are open but noted "concerns have recently been raised, and I would like to ensure the process is open and accessible."
Harwell's directive came a day after the state's four largest newspapers, including the Times Free Press, as well as The Associated Press, collaborated in a joint examination of the practice.
Reporters found at least 10 of the House's 15 standing committees engage in holding unannounced meetings to discuss pending bills prior to their public presentation in committees and subcommittees.
On Monday evening and Tuesday morning, reporters sought entry to four unannounced committee meetings. They were initially refused by one committee chairman and allowed entry by two other chairs. A fourth denied entry, saying the panel was trying to bring together warring commercial interests in a dispute involving Metro Nashville's Airport Authority.
After being turned away Monday by Civil Justice Committee Chairman Jon Lundberg, R-Bristol, reporters asked Harwell about the process. She said she left it up to individual chairmen and noted she didn't hold pre-meetings when she was Commerce Committee chair prior to her election as speaker.
Harwell later intervened with Lundberg and he allowed reporters into the meeting where members were holding an often-free-wheeling discussion of bills that would be coming up soon officially.
"I believe these are two things the public expects and deserves," Harwell said in her Wednesday memo, adding "we always want the citizens of Tennessee to have faith in this process."
Members say the pre-meetings permit free-flowing discussions without the encumbrances of parliamentary procedure restricting that. In observation of the panels earlier this week, members sometimes interrupted each other and appeared less prone to tiptoe around in deference to others' feelings.
The pre-meetings are not held in regular committee rooms, which feature videostreaming. Rather, they're held in far-flung, often-cramped rooms in members' offices located across the sprawling state Capitol complex.
Committee members say their purpose is to vet legislation and that they take no actual votes in their pre-meetings. Some allow lobbyists; some don't. Some don't allow sponsors of bills and several lawmakers say the intent is to create a sort of spin-free zone.
But with the public unaware, excluded or both, no one is there to verify independently whether no votes are taken.
The practice came under criticism from open-government advocates as well as Tea Party groups.
House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick, R-Chattanooga, applauded Harwell's move, calling it a "good idea ... to let everybody see whatwe do."
The Commercial Appeal on Wednesday quoted former Democratic House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh, who disputed comments by House Republican Caucus Chairman Glen Casada on Tuesday that Democrats held far more secret meetings when they ran the House until 2009.
Naifeh said the only "secret" meetings he knew involved the budget committee and occasionally the then-Industrial Impact Subcommittee. It was commonly referred to as the "Sudden Impact Committee" because it was in effect a killing ground for legislation.
"As usual, Mr. Casada doesn't understand what he's talking about. We did have secret budget meetings in my office, but it was always posted on the bulletin board -- 'secret budget meeting in Speaker Naifeh's office, 4 p.m. Tuesday,'" Naifeh argued. "The doors were open. I had it in there because we could all feel like we were closer together than sitting around a conference table.
"Republicans were there. They were not closed."
Naifeh said that in his last two years in the Legislature, the House Budget Committee had "closed secret meetings and Democratic members weren't allowed in. The only other one I can remember when I was speaker was the Industrial Impact Subcommittee that would get together sometimes when they had some very hard issues. I didn't participate but I knew it was going. Each bill was discussed and the [bill] sponsor could come in."
Naifeh, who left the Legislature four years ago, said the practice under Republicans "seems to be" more systemic.
In comments to reporters on Tuesday, Republican Gov. Bill Haslam declined to get involved and said it was up to the Republican-dominated House and Senate to "decide how they conduct business themselves."
John Harris, executive director of the Tennessee Firearms Association, who has often criticized Haslam and GOP leaders for killing firearms legislation, said he believes the standardization of the pre-meetings was really a mechanism for controlling the flow of bills. It often benefits Haslam, he said.
Contact staff writer Andy Sherat asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550.