Associated Press Advisory On Bredesen Harassment Records

BC-TN-XGR--Bredesen-Harassment Records, 0600

Gov. Bredesen says he won't seek to close sex harassment records

By ERIK SCHELZIG

Associated Press Writer

02-09-2006 19:26

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) _ Gov. Phil Bredesen said Thursday that he will not try to close records involving sexual harassment complaints by state employees, instead relying on an agreement with news media outlets to keep victims' names private.

Bredesen said he has accepted a proposal by the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government that members of the media use the same discretion with harassment victims as they do in sexual assault cases.

"Let's try to develop a voluntary approach, let's go down the road a few years and see how it works," Bredesen told editors and reporters at The Associated Press-Tennessee Press Association legislative planning session.

The issue erupted in May when The Tennessean newspaper reported that notes taken by a Department of Personnel lawyer were shredded after she investigated a claim of sexual harassment against Robert "Mack" Cooper, formerly Bredesen's top lobbyist. Bredesen publicly demoted Cooper within a week of learning of the incident. At the time, he thought it would be a model case for how to handle such complaints.

Bredesen has since ordered a halt to the practice of shredding harassment investigation documents. In a review last year of 602 workplace harassment case files across all levels of state government, the AP reported last year that documents were shredded only in high-profile cases.

The governor said he had been worried that a policy of making harassment investigation files public could "eliminate the willingness of people to come forward with concerns or allegations."

"I suggested at the time that maybe the answer was that in some narrow areas, personnel records ought to be closed," he said.

Discussions with the open government coalition about voluntarily withholding names of alleged victims, however, led the governor to change his mind. The coalition is a nonprofit and nonpartisan alliance of media, citizen, and professional groups working to educate Tennesseans about their right to know about the affairs of their government.

Frank Gibson, the coalition's executive director, said he wasn't surprised by the governor's decision. "The position that we took was that by closing the information, you create a system which there's room for lots of abuse," he said. "The press has a standing policy of voluntarily not naming victims of rape or other sex crimes, even when the name is known. Closing public records should be a last resort."

The governor's decision was also welcome news to Ellen Leifeld, president and publisher of The Tennessean, which has tussled with the governor's office over getting access to harassment records.

"I appreciate the fact that he trusts us to do the right thing," she said. "It helps us do our jobs better. It helps us seek the truth."

Also Thursday, Bredesen said he would propose establishing an ombudsman to deal with open records appeals at a newly formed ethics commission. Having an ombudsman would "ease access to government by everyone and also ease access to small newspapers and individuals," he said.

The ethics commission will be created as part of a sweeping ethics bill approved by the Legislature Monday. "In our state you can be a member of a news media organization and have lots of lawyers you can get to, to challenge people who don't offer open records," Bredesen said. "But for an ordinary citizen, they're not likely to go spend a few thousand dollars to try to get access of a record."
 

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Please see the story "Governor to leave harassment files open"
By TRENT SEIBERT
Staff Writer, The Tennessean
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060210/NEWS0201/602100407/1010/NEWS02