Black Rakes in State $$$, Sidesteps Rule 13
WSMV investigative reporter Dagny Stuart details questions raised about state contracts held by a company owned and operated by the spouse of a prominent State senator. (Click here for video. See below for the text of the report.) According to Stuart, Aegis Sciences Corporation, a Nashville-based drug testing company, currently holds over $1.4 million in state contracts to perform “forensic drug tests for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and drug testing of state employees for a few other departments.” President and chief executive officer of Aegis is Dr. David L. Black, the husband of State Senator Diane Black, the recently elected chair of the Senate Republican Caucus. The Sumner County Democratic Party questions the propriety of this relationship. Black tells Stuart that she has done nothing wrong, that she has “never had an opportunity in any committees [she’s] in to actually see his contracts,” and she “does not even know which departments do business with her husband’s firm.” The SCDP says that Black has a responsibility under Senate rules to know exactly which departments have contracts with Aegis and to disclose her interests in those contracts publicly when casting votes that impact those contracts.
Also, sources close to the situation tell Go4Truth that there are several elements to this story that haven’t been fully explored yet.
Although Black claims that none of the Aegis contracts came before a committee on which she served, sources tell Go4Truth that one of these contracts, worth $460,000, is with the Division of Mental Retardation Services. This division’s budget is approved each year by the Senate’s General Welfare Committee. Black served as the vice chair of General Welfare from January 2005 until the Senate was restructured earlier this month. Aegis entered into its contract with the division on January 16, 2006.
“When she voted to approve the budget for Mental Retardation Services, she voted to approve a contract with her husband’s company. She should have declared Rule 13,” Len Assante, vice chair of SCDP, said. “We also think it’s fair to ask if the division knew to whom they were giving the contract. Did they know the CEO of the company is married to the vice chair of the committee that approves their budget?”
Furthermore, a source tells Go4Truth that Black lists Aegis as a “major source of private income” on her Statement of Interests form filed with the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance, which means that she or her spouse makes over $200 annually from this source. She also lists the company as an investment, meaning that she, her spouse, or their minor children hold investments “in excess of $10,000 or five percent of total capital” in the company.
“The Blacks are making a lot of money off this company,” the source, who wished to remain anonymous, said. “How much of it is coming from the State of Tennessee, and how much of that are they getting because of her position?”
For its part, Assante said that SCDP is not accusing the Blacks of breaking any laws. “We’re asking for full disclosure,” he said. “And we’re asking why Sen. Black didn’t follow the Rules of the Senate. We have legitimate questions.”
Assante emphasized that Senate Rule 13 expressly requires members to publicly state when they have “a personal interest” in “a bill, section thereof, or amendment” and that their vote is based solely on their conscience and their “obligation to [their] constituents and the citizens of the State of Tennessee.” As a practice, members fulfill this requirement by simply stating, “I declare Rule 13.”
“To our knowledge, Sen. Black never declared Rule 13 when she voted on a budget that included these contracts,” Assante said. “In fact, she claims she didn’t know they were in any budget, although she should have known they were a part of the overall State budget at the least.”
Also, Article 2, Section 1 of the Senate Code of Ethics, explicitly states, “A Senator has a personal interest which is in conflict with the proper discharge of his duties if he has reason to believe or expect that he will derive a direct monetary gain or any other advantage or suffer a direct monetary loss by reason of his official activity.” And Article 2, Section 2 (a)(1) declares, “A Senator shall not vote on or influence legislation in committee or on the floor of either House, where he has a personal interest (as defined in Section 1) which is in conflict with the proper discharge of his duties, unless the Senator” declares Rule 13. (Click here for the Senate Code of Ethics - found under the “Senate Rules of Order” link.)
“Since Tennessee Waltz, we’ve heard a lot of talk about ethics in the General Assembly, but we have to wonder how seriously some of our elected officials are taking ethical matters when they don’t appear to know their own Code of Ethics,” Assante said. “Also, we have every right as taxpayers to question how our money is being spent. The bottom line here is that a State senator is making money from State contracts. Taxpayers should raise questions about that, and we intend to continue to do so.”
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Democrats Question Ethics of Sen. Diane Black
GALLATIN, Tenn. – Now that Republicans have gained more power at the state capitol, rising stars of that party are already under attack from Democrats. State Senate Republican Diane Black’s ethics are now being debated.
Black was recently elected to a leadership post in the Senate Republican Caucus, but it is her husband’s state contracts that are generating questions from Democrats.
Her husband, Dr. David Black, is chief executive officer of Aegis Sciences Corporation. The firm performs forensic drug tests for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and drug testing of state employees for a few other departments.
The most recent contracts are worth more than $1.4 million.
Diane Black said all of the contracts are competitively bid, and she does not even know which departments do business with her husband’s firm.
“I have never had an opportunity in any committees I’m in to actually see his contracts. Now I’m sure if I were to drill down into the budget, I’d be able to find those. But I don’t have any necessity to do that because, again, they’re all competitively bid,” said Black.
Black has followed state law by disclosing that she gets income from Aegis, but that hasn’t stopped the Sumner County Democratic party from raising questions about her disclosures.
“Rule 13 requires members who have a personal or financial interest in legislation before the Senate to declare that interest and that they will vote their conscience and the will of their constituents,” said Leonard Assante, the Vice Chair of the Sumner County Democratic Party.
Black said since she never voted on any of the contracts, there was no need to do more when she voted on the budget.
“I think it’s all political. It has been checked out, and I’m willing to let it be checked out every time it comes up,” she said.
Black said the state’s new ethics law is making every lawmaker on Capitol Hill more aware of how much information they have to make public.
Assante said he does not think Black actually broke the law, but that does not mean someone from his party will not file an ethics complaint.
State lawmakers worried about these issues when they passed the ethics bill, which was often described as complicated and far-reaching. Many politicians are concerned they will spend most of their time fending off ethics complaints from political opponents.
As part of the new ethics law, the state has an independent ethics commission that now investigates ethics complaints.
By Dagny Stuart
01/26/2007
