Bredesen hires firm to study THP

Management reform contract could cost up to $200,000

By TRENT SEIBERT, Staff Writer
Tennessean.com

December 14, 2005

Responding to allegations of cronyism, cover-ups and promotions tied to campaign contributions in the Tennessee Highway Patrol, the governor's top staffers have gone outside state government and hired a national consulting firm to help reform the troubled agency.

New York-based Kroll Inc. has played key roles in reforming the Los Angeles and Detroit police departments, and recently helped implement big changes in the Pennsylvania state police after a sex-harassment scandal.

The firm may wind up being paid $100,000-$200,000 in public money, state officials said yesterday.

One of the firm's top officials is Michael Shmerling — a Kroll spokeswoman described him as the firm's "senior person in Nashville," and its Web site calls him "executive vice president."

He also is a five-figure donor to Gov. Phil Bredesen's campaign efforts.

Shmerling and his wife donated $10,000 to Phil Bredesen's 2002 race for governor, records show. He donated another $2,500 to Bredesen in January 2004, according to campaign records.

State Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz said he had no knowledge that Shmerling was still employed with Kroll. Goetz said he made his decision to hire the firm with an eye toward getting experts to assist the new head of the Safety Department as quickly as possible.

Shmerling also serves on the board of directors for Fisk University and the Tennessee Performing Arts Center; he was not available for an interview yesterday evening, Kroll officials said.

A Bredesen spokeswoman did not return a call seeking comment.

An initial letter of agreement worth $5,500, a no-bid contract, was signed Monday by Goetz. Starting tomorrow, Kroll officials will take a look at the management and the chain of command of the Highway Patrol, headquartered in south Nashville.

Depending on what they find, and how long Kroll's team needs to discover what the THP's core problems are, the final cost to taxpayers might grow to as much as $200,000.

But in the wake of Bredesen's bashing the culture of cronyism in the Department of Safety and the Tennessee Highway Patrol in a press conference last week, some say that his lieutenants hiring a firm with ties to their boss looks bad.

"I think it's such a mess, this whole good old boy network," said Pat Vaught, a retired registered nurse who has been watching The Tennessean uncover politics and possible ticket fixing in the Highway Patrol.

"If someone does a favor for you, chances are you will return that favor. It just sends the wrong message."

The top three officials in the Department of Safety were forced out last week — Commissioner Fred Phillips, Deputy Commissioner Tom Moore and THP commander Lynn Pitts.

Bredesen has tapped long-time ally Gerald Nicely, the state's transportation commissioner, to fix the battered agency.

The governor has given Nicely a 60-day deadline to do the job.

The departures of the political appointees at Safety came the same week Bredesen made public a TBI report that showed 58 THP officers and non-commissioned employees had criminal or traffic charges on their records.

Bredesen on Thursday declared the agency rampant with cronyism as he announced a widening probe by the TBI.

"It's become clear to everybody we have some issues in the management of that department," Bredesen said at Thursday news conference at the Capitol.

The governor said then that a consultant would be hired to fix the THP.

The housecleaning at the top of the Safety Department follows a months-long investigation of the Highway Patrol by The Tennessean.

The newspaper's reporting has exposed a THP plagued by a culture of political influence in promotions, favors for campaign donors and insiders, and a pattern of turning a blind eye when its officers get in trouble.

In an interview late yesterday, Goetz and Deputy Personnel Commissioner Nat Johnson described their efforts over the weekend to find a consulting firm in a short time. Some did not have the expertise, others did not have the time, Johnson said.

Both said that Kroll was hired with no thought of politics.

"It's all been about trying to get somebody in there to help Commissioner Nicely from day one who has some knowledge of this particular area," Goetz said. "We needed to move, and we needed somebody with this line of expertise."

Kroll's previous work included serving as an independent monitor of the Pennsylvania State Police after reports surfaced of dozens of cases of sexual misconduct by troopers.

By the time of the firm's final report this past February, the Philadephia Inquirer reported that state police had set up new conduct rules that called for immediate firings of troopers found guilty of sexual misconduct or harassment, domestic violence or drug use. For its work, Kroll was paid $500,000.

Meanwhile, more changes may be coming to the Highway Patrol from the General Assembly.

Yesterday marked the first Senate hearing to consider fixes to a system that Sen. Mark Norris, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, said is in need of reform.

The committee said it would consider legislation banning the state's elected officials from accepting campaign contributions from Tennessee Highway Patrol officers, a practice also banned by several other states' police agencies.

The committee also discussed legislation that would return the THP's troopers to the oversight of the state Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission, which oversees the ethical and professional conduct of most of the other law enforcement officers in Tennessee. The legislature removed the THP from POST's oversight in 1983.