Ethics Commission adds attorney as deadline looms

Mandated ethics registration of lobbyists, legislators and others begins Oct. 1

Email | Print By Milt Capps

Anne F. Turner will begin work Monday as counsel to Tennessee Ethics Commission Executive Director Bruce Androphy.

Turner is currently director of licensing for adult day care and child care centers for the state's Department of Human Services, a post she has held nearly six years.

Androphy and Turner told NashvillePost.com this week that the recently chartered Ethics Commission aims to be ready to begin receiving and reviewing financial disclosure statements from government officials and lobbyists, by Oct. 1, in keeping with the mandate assigned the new organization in the Comprehensive Governmental Ethics Reform Act of 2006.

The commission is required by law to provide a website for online registration and reporting, by Oct. 1. The staff will audit an as-yet undetermined percentage of registrants' reports, Androphy said. Authorizing legislation determined the commission will limit its investigations to acts or omissions that occur after Oct. 1, 2006. Androphy said more senior officials are more likely to be audited, more frequently than others.

Among those obliged to register and file with the Ethics Commission are legislators; lobbyists and those who employ or retain lobbyists; and, on a more limited basis, certain legislative staff, executive-branch employees and county officials.

Prior to joining DHS, Turner was assistant general counsel for the Department of Children's Services. She holds a law degree from South Texas College of Law, Texas A&M University, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Houston.

Androphy's own appointment was announced Aug. 28, and he began work earlier this month. He was previously general counsel of the New York State Ethics Commission, based in Albany, N.Y.

Ethics Commission members include:

• Thomas J. Garland, chair, a onetime Tennessee State Senator whose service included 17 years as Senate majority leader;
• R. Larry Brown, a senior vice president and chief personnel officer with FedEx;
• Linda W. Knight, an attorney with Gullett, Sanford, Robinson & Martin;
• Donald J. Hall, a professor at Vanderbilt School of Law;
• Dianne F. Neal, an attorney who was chief counsel to former Gov. Ned McWherter and the then-Tennessee Public Service Commission; and
  
• Benjamin S. Purser Jr., a vice president at America Service Group and retired FBI executive.

Resource: Ethics legislation, click here.