Norris to Work on Cleaning Up State Politics

Collierville Herald, June 2, 2005
By Ed Farrell

"I'm very disturbed and deeply saddened…this is not representative of what the majority of us endeavor to do in Nashville for the citizens of Collierville."

Such was the response of State Senator Mark Norris in an exclusive interview Tuesday with The Herald in the wake of the still unfolding federal investigation that has netted several of Shelby County's top political figures, including State Senator Kathryn Bowers, whose Dist. 33 seat represents most of Collierville, a portion of Germantown and all of southern Shelby County to the Mississippi River.

Since last Thursday, Norris has watched several colleagues don handcuffs and face federal indictments in the now infamous FBI bribery and conspiracy investigation called Tennessee Waltz.

"It's disturbing and disruptive for this to have happened," Norris said. "The majority of us in public office feel we have a higher duty to uphold to those who have entrusted us and it's hard enough to live up to those expectations under the best of circumstances and these, unfortunately, are the worst of circumstances."

Norris said he had no contact in any way with representatives of E-Cycle Management, Inc., the shell organization set up by the FBI in 2003 in response to widespread allegations of ethical problems and fraud in Tennessee.

"I had no contact with them in any way, and received no money from them," Norris said.

He has been a vocal supporter of ethics reform in the State Senate, and a frequent critic of longtime Sen. John Ford, who resigned his seat Saturday in the face of several federal counts of bribery, influence peddling, and witness intimidation.

Norris did confirm that his Senate colleagues were ready to take action to unseat Ford as the result of a series of episodes involving the popular Memphis politician who has been at the forefront of scandals stretching over a period of years.

Then came last Thursday and a blizzard of federal indictments that named Ford, Bowers, former State Senator Roscoe Dixon---who represented Collierville until his resignation from the Senate in January and was replaced by Bowers in a special election in May---and four others from across the state.

Norris had high praise for the FBI for undertaking the operation, but said he was "deeply shaken" that such action was felt necessary at the state Capitol.

"Thank goodness for good law enforcement," Norris said. "I think the FBI is entitled to a lot of credit for coming in and doing their jobs, and I'm grateful for watchdogs like that. What they did is very important for those of us trying to conduct government honestly."

"But it's also very disturbing for those who are working so hard to maintain and restore trust in Tennessee. What has happened here is not representative of what the majority of us endeavor to do in Nashville."

Norris said even pending legislation that would toughen ethics standards in the State Senate would not have addressed the issues involved in the FBI sting: The basic violation of the spirit of the oath of office.

"The ethics bills that drew so much attention this past session wouldn't have stopped this," Norris said, "which is why we need to go back and address the whole issue of ethical behavior in Nashville."

Norris said that prior to the announcement of the federal indictments, the Senate passed a bill to establish a six-member commission to look into how the Senate conducts its business with lobbyists…and that he would make every effort to get himself impaneled on the commission.

"We need to get to the root of this problem…and this isn't a Democrat or Republican issue. The basic question here is restoring the people's trust in their government in Tennessee."

The latest scandal, he said, "has been a nightmare…but it's also the beginning of the end of our nightmare. We need to find a way to show people that we are striving to live up to their expectations.

"And right now, that's a tall order, but we have to do this. And this is a matter where actions are going to have to speak louder than words."