NASHVILLE -
Bill Haslam's second executive order as governor was a pledge topromote greater transparency in Tennessee government. Almost sixmonths into the Republican's administration, there's little thatshows an enhanced dedication to openness.
Though aides in January touted the transparency order as a majordevelopment, that claim had already been undermined by directive No.1 from Haslam, which scuttled requirements for the governor and histop aides to disclose the amount of their outside income.
"He got off to a rough start with that significant step back,"said Dick Williams of the advocacy group Common Cause. "It kind ofstuck out like a sore thumb."
And Haslam hasn't done much since then - either throughlegislation or action - to deliver improvements in openness in stategovernment over what existed under his Democratic predecessor, PhilBredesen.
For example, when Haslam decided to raise the salaries of 15department heads by at least 11 percent, he didn't inform the publicor lawmakers, who only found out about the change weeks later froman Associated Press analysis of salary records.
Robert O'Connell, executive director of the Tennessee StateEmployees Association, said the raises for Cabinet members came as ashock because other government workers were slated to receive only a1.6 percent bump.
"It's conceivable that they may be necessary," O'Connell said."But the way we had to find out that it was happening? That leftstate employees sort of raw."
Haslam was asked in a recent AP interview about what he's done topromote transparency in government. He said openness has been anoverall theme he's stressed with his top aides.
"I think we've done a good job of putting a lot more governmentopen and available on the Internet," he said. "And we've let all ourcommissioners know that if there's information that people want,whether it's a legislator or media person, it's our responsibilityto get it to them.
"And I think by and large we've done that."
But the governor's legal department has taken several weeks toproduce public records, far longer than was the case under hispredecessor.
For example, it took four weeks to turn around a routine APrequest for correspondence and records regarding Haslam's decisionto overturn Bredesen's decision to close a privately run prison inWhiteville.
The 39 pages of materials ultimately released to the AP did notcontain any details about why the $31 million decision was reached.They consisted mostly of constituent correspondence and planning e-mails for a meeting between the governor and executives withNashville-based Corrections Corporation of America.
The TSEA, which represents workers at state-run prisons, hasnever received a full explanation for why Whiteville's funding wasextended, O'Connell said. The organization is troubled that therewere no official records are available either, he said.
"You would think that somebody somewhere would be responsible forreducing to writing what was discussed or agreed," he said. "But anobvious method to avoid having to turn things over is to not writethem down."
Alexia Poe, Haslam's communications director, said the governor'soffice was surprised by the volume of records requests and that thelegal staff was preoccupied during the legislative session withshepherding an administration bill to cap damages from civillawsuits through the legislature.
Haslam acknowledged that "30 days is a long time," and said hewould look into speeding up the process.
Tennessee law sets a seven-day limit to produce the documents,deny them or explain when they will be available. Haslam's teamroutinely says it must have more time to produce records and whenthey are released, there isn't much in them.
An AP request for records from the Department of Economic andCommunity Development about a controversial arrangement to waiveAmazon.com's requirement to collect sales taxes produced vagueresults.
The online retailer threatened to cancel plans for East Tennesseewarehouses if the legislature reneged on the arrangement. But the 50pages of released documents were largely composed of pressclippings.
The documents do show a conscious effort to refuse to engage thepublic on the Amazon tax question. A report by Andy Sher of theChattanooga Times Free Press about lawmakers' ultimate decision notto force Amazon to collect sales taxes received the followingresponse:
"My guess is you've already read this morning's story in theChattanooga Times Free Press, which makes me think our decisionsimply not to return Andy's phone call was the right one," ECDcommunications chief Mark Drury wrote in an e-mail to CommissionerBill Hagerty and others. "Not sure that any response we could makeat this point would be helpful to the situation."
Haslam, who said during the campaign that he supported "theprinciple of having an open-door policy," was made available to theCapitol Hill Press Corps less often - and for far less time - duringthe legislative session than was the case with Bredesen. Aides oftencited the new governor's packed schedule for the brevity of mediaaccess.
The Haslam administration also didn't take a public position onseveral legislative measures - all ultimately unsuccessful - thatsought to restrict access to public records. Those included effortsto block 911 emergency recordings, impose fees for inspectinggovernment documents, ease public notice rules for foreclosures andallow local governments to make parts of economic development dealsconfidential.
"He pretty much stayed out of a bunch of stuff," said Williams,of Common Cause. "He had some major agenda issues, and he focused onthose."
Erik Schelzig has covered Tennessee politics and government forThe Associated Press since 2005. Contact him at http://twitter.com/schelzigAP.
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Despite new governor's promise to have an open government, littlehas been done to make access easier for media, and there's even beensome stalling by officials.
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