House and Senate Speakers Name Lawmakers To Joint Study Panel

By ERIK SCHELZIG
Associated Press Writer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) _ House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh says he's been unfairly criticized for waiting until Wednesday to make his appointments to a study committee on state open government laws.

Naifeh, a Covington Democrat, said he was responsible only for two appointees on the 18-member panel, and that he had been waiting to see who the other nominees would be before announcing his own.

Naifeh said his office has been "unduly written about" in newspaper editorials after an Associated Press story quoted House Judiciary Chairman Joe Fowlkes saying it's unlikely the committee will be able to meet its deadlines because of the delayed appointments.  Fowlkes, a Connersville Democrat, is retiring this year.

"I might have been waiting to see who everyone else appointed," Naifeh responded, adding that deadlines have been moved for other study committees, like those working on workers' compensation and redistricting.

Frank Gibson, executive director of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, said if Naifeh wanted to know the names of the other appointees, he should have called. He didn't, Gibson said.

Even if all 14 non-legislative members of the committee had been appointed, they couldn't have met until the senior lawmaker on the panel called them to order.

Naifeh appointed state Reps. Ulysses Jones, D-Memphis, and Steve McDaniel, R-Parkers Crossroads. Senate Speaker John Wilder named Sens. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, and Joe Haynes, D-Goodlettsville.

McNally is the longest-serving member of the four appointed lawmakers.

Under legislation passed in May, the 18-member study committee is tasked with formulating new open government proposals by Dec. 1.

The study committee was the result of a compromise forced by county and city officials who opposed the first significant proposal to change the state's "Sunshine in Government" laws since they were created in 1974 in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal.

Open government advocates had hoped updated open meetings laws would have a better chance of passing in the wake of last year's Tennessee Waltz corruption scandal.
Naifeh also dismissed the results of a recent Mason-Dixon poll that found that 56 percent of those respondents think too much government business is secretive.

"They have been influenced by the press to think that way," Naifeh said.

The survey of 625 likely voters was commissioned by the Chattanooga Times Free Press, The Commercial Appeal in Memphis and MSNBC and had sampling margins of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.