‘No Politics’ Questioned
The Chattanooga Times
February 4, 1995
By Andy Sher
NASHVILLE – While the Sundquist administration contends it’s taking politics out of the state Safety Department, Democrats suspect recent personnel moves point to politics as usual.
“I don’t think we have a clear picture yet, but every indication is that politics is very much alive in these initial decisions,” said House Majority Leader Bill Purcell, a Nashville Democrat, in an interview this week.
Gov. Don Sundquist’s campaign records show several Safety Department appointees contributed to his campaign. For example, newly appointed Tennessee Highway Patrol Colonel Jerry W. Scott, who was promoted from captain, gave $9,850 to Sundquist’s election efforts. Mickey Fletcher, a lieutenant from Memphis who gave $700, was elevated to captain.
Kent Eldridge, who gave $1,000, was promoted to head Safety’s support services division. Safety Commissioner Mike Greene contributed $620.
Eight high-ranking Safety Department officials who rose to their positions under the previous McWherter administration were faced with accepting demotions or retiring since Sundquist, a Republican, took office Jan. 21. Six of the eight were district captains.
Among them was Capt. Ray Whitlock who formerly headed the Chattanooga district office. He was replaced by John Savage, a lieutenant who was elevated to captain. No contributions from Savage are listed in the Sundquist campaign disclosures.
All those forced out of the department held executive service positions unprotected by civil service. In the Highway Patrol, all ranks above lieutenant fall into executive service.
In a new administration, such personnel changes are not unusual in Safety — or any other department for that matter. But on his first working day in office, Sundquist called the Safety Department the “worst place I know for politics.” He pledged to depoliticize the department.
Many here agree the department has been riddled with politics through past Democratic — and Republican — administrations. For example, some former officials relate privately how a high-ranking McWherter administration official personally directed which candidates got into the first patrol training academy class in years.
One Republican lawmaker from another part of the state privately fumed this week. The lawmaker recounted how one of the former captains, not Whitlock, thumped his chest and badge in a recent conversation and said: “Politics got me this badge. And politics will keep it.”
But having set a higher standard, the new Sundquist administration now finds itself on the defensive. “I haven’t talked to Ray Whitlock, but I understand that he was a captain who has been dismissed who was told he was to get to stay,” said Rep. Brenda Turner, D-Chattanooga.
“It does appear there has been a wholesale demotion of captains,” Purcell said.
Anthony Kimbrough, the department’s new spokesman, said that when it comes to “very integral positions” like captain and colonel, “no doubt we look for people who fit our philosophy . . . They (newly promoted) are the kind of people who agree where we want to go in the department and are willing to work with us,” he said.
Kimbrough said Greene was not even aware that Scott had contributed to Sundquist’s campaign. “Certainly, it could not have been part of the commissioner’s decision- making process,” Kimbrough said.
Kimbrough said the decision to promote Scott was “made by Commissioner Greene and the governor. I think that was a decision both the governor and the new commissioner talked about.”
Kimbrough said the six promotions to captain all involved qualified lieutenants for whom the step to captain was natural. Kimbrough said there is indication that politics have played a role in the past for promotions to positions like sergeant and lieutenant.
“From here on in, when people are qualified and can do the job, we’re not going to take into consideration someone who is political,” Kimbrough said.
