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State's new ethics chief has rocky start Lobbyists, legislators brand him as outsider By SHEILA WISSNER, Tennessean.com "Do you want to staff up so you can initiate your own investigations?" Norris asks. "Neither my self nor my staff sees ourselves as prosecutors," he says. Barely six months on the job, Androphy has become the lightning rod for the new Tennessee Ethics Commission that was set up last fall as part of sweeping ethics legislation prompted by the Operation Tennessee Waltz federal bribery sting that netted several state legislators. Since then, the commission has received just five complaints, only one of which involves an issue over which the commission has jurisdiction. Nevertheless, legislators, lobbyists and others falling under the new law have grumbled about new disclosure forms they must file, higher fees and new restrictions that are changing the way the General Assembly does business. Some slam Androphy, calling him a bureaucratic outsider who doesn't understand Tennessee laws or politics, lacking finesse. Some want him and the commission gone and have proposed to fold their duties into the Registry of Election Finance, which gathers campaign finance re ports from candidates for public office. That was an effort to save money, a sponsor insisted. But legislators did deny the added money for Androphy's budget, although they have said he can ask for it later. Chief relishes a challenge In response to the griping, the 49-year-old former general counsel for the New York Ethics Commission says it comes with the territory. "If you want a job to have lots of friends, this is not one of them," he said during an interview in his office in the SunTrust bank building. "I was aware of that coming in, as were the commissioners. It's a tough position to be in, but I deal pretty well with stress," said Androphy, who practices yoga to relax. "And honestly, I knew there would be challenges." Androphy started Sept. 1 after the new six-member ethics board hired him to head up the new commission at a salary of $132,000. The board wanted someone with experience. Being an outsider wasn't necessarily a negative, said its chairman, Tom Garland, a former state legislator and past chancellor of the Tennessee Board of Regents. "Would it have been easier for the commission if we had just selected someone from Tennessee, someone everybody knew? Yes. Did we go out on a limb getting him? Yes. Did we do the right thing? Yes," Garland said. The Tennessee job put Androphy on the front line, which appealed to him as a challenge, he said. The first weeks were grueling. With no staff, no computer, no office and no real knowledge of the state, he worked to set up the office by a crucial Oct. 1 deadline. Androphy fretted that lobbyists trying to register on the commission's Web site Oct. 1 would be met with a blank screen. "I lost sleep over that in September,'' he said. Bar association upset The launch went relatively smoothly, and his commissioners said they were pleased with his work. Some others weren't as happy. The Tennessee Bar Association took issue with his handling of an advisory opinion the commission was drafting last fall dealing with when attorneys must register as lobbyists. Androphy would not release e-mails from a commissioner who was making suggestions on changes to drafts of the opinion — a decision that some saw as counter to the transparency in government called for after the Tennessee Waltz scandal. Paul Shechtman, who was chairman of the New York Ethics Commission for eight years, said Androphy's reluctance may have stemmed from his post in New York, where commission meetings are exempt from the open meetings law and discussions can be more candid. But the laws are different here. And the attorney group, as well as open-records advocates, were peeved. "I'm not sure he has given the commission good advice either from a legal standpoint or from a public relations standpoint,'' said Allan Ramsaur, executive director of the Tennessee Bar Association. "When they are told they can't see something, people get suspicious." He riles hospital officials Another incident got Memphis hospital officials on edge. Androphy sent a letter to them after reading newspaper accounts of their visit with Gov. Phil Bredesen, telling them they might have to register as lobbyists. The officials wanted Bredesen to fund a new nursing school at the University of Memphis. Some felt Androphy had gone off half-cocked. Gregory Duckett, corporate counsel for Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp., wrote Androphy, saying the officials served on an advisory board to the University of Memphis, a public institution. Their activities would not qualify as lobbying under the law, he wrote. The tale soon reached legislators' ears. "I get the impression that sometimes he is dealing with a lot of perceptions more so than maybe what the law says,'' said Rep. Randy Rinks, D-Savannah, who heard the tale. But Commissioner Ben Purser, a former FBI supervisor, defended Androphy, noting that news articles sometimes spark FBI inquiries. "I think he handled that well and resolved the matter quickly,'' Purser said. "Bruce's job is really not going to make a lot of people happy." Androphy said he wrote the letter because he prefers to let people know they might need to register rather than have them find out if a complaint is filed. Educating and advising those who must comply with ethics laws is an important part of his role, he said. "If we had wanted to be really nasty, we could have issued a civil assessment letter against late lobbyists and late filers. But we sent warning letters out this year. If I were really a bureaucrat to the nth degree, we wouldn't have done that at all.'' |
