Tennessean, May 5, 2008
By Theo Emery

State Sen. Bill Ketron was ready for the first item on Thursday's Senate calendar, the so-called "AT&T bill" he had helped shepherd through the legislature.

Standing alongside other lawmakers, he extolled the bill's benefits for Tennessee, and moments later, cast one of the votes approving the bill 29-0.

What the Murfreesboro Republican didn't mention then was that his wife, Theresa, works for AT&T Mobility, the company's wireless unit, which he had noted on his ethics disclosures this year. Nor did Ketron mention the tie when he earlier acted as an unofficial spokesman for behind-the-scenes wrangling over the bill.

Ketron's relationship to AT&T illustrates the sometimes intertwined interests between lawmakers and legislation, financial entanglements that may not always be obvious to the general public.

Under the state's 2-year-old ethics law, lawmakers and thousands of state and local officials must disclose sources of income and investments. The disclosures are intended to help the public understand what factors may be fueling or obstructing policy.

Bruce Androphy, executive director of the Tennessee Ethics Commission, said requiring financial disclosures enhances openness in government by helping the public determine on whose behalf public officials are acting.

"It's part of the whole transparency and how one creates, I suppose, a greater ethical environment," Androphy said. "The public is free to assess whether there's conflicts, appearances of conflict, or no conflicts."

The disclosures from the 132 lawmakers show a hodgepodge of incomes and investments, from rental properties to e-Bay sales to stocks and retirement funds. Many list their own businesses that they return to after the session. Rep. Mike Kernell, a Memphis Democrat, listed "pre-nuptial contract with wife."

Wife's income reported

On Ketron's disclosures this year, he listed his wife's AT&T Mobility salary as an income source. The previous year, he listed his wife's employer as Cingular Wireless, which AT&T acquired in early 2007.

Under Senate rules, lawmakers must declare when they have personal interests in legislation, known as "Rule 13," but don't need to recuse themselves from voting.

In an interview before Thursday's vote, Ketron said his wife's salary from AT&T Wireless had no bearing on his role in the legislation. By declaring Rule 13, he let the public know "that I have some sort of personal connection to a piece of legislation."

"You can connect every one of us to some form of bill in some point of time. That's why in the House and the Senate we have that ability to declare Rule 13," he said.

Ketron said beforehand that he planned to invoke the rule, and he did, though not from the floor. He declared it after the vote with the Senate clerk's office. Ketron said he forgot to declare Rule 13 earlier amid his excitement over passing the bill.

Senators are allowed to invoke Rule 13 with the Senate clerk's office, where an interested party would have to go to look for the information in the Senate journal.

Dick Williams, chairman of the Tennessee chapter of the government watchdog group Common Cause, said the general practice is for lawmakers to declare Rule 13 on the floor during discussion and before voting.

"I think that's the intent of Rule 13. He may have technically complied with this, but that's the point where the public is most interested in it, where they're debating it and voting on it on the floor," Williams said.

Bob Corney, a spokesman for AT&T, said he was not aware that Ketron's wife worked for AT&T Wireless, and he felt confident that her employment played no role in the process of hammering out the legislation.

"Senator Ketron's an honorable person, and I think that he can speak for himself very easily. In terms of Senator Ketron being a bill sponsor, from the perspective of AT&T, there were many leaders who stepped up and really took an active role in this," he said.

Others have AT&T links

Ketron isn't the only Senate lawmaker with links to AT&T. Two Memphis-area senators, Democrat Jim Kyle and Republican Mark Norris, recused themselves from the vote; Kyle's wife is a director of the regulatory authority that oversees utilities. And Sen. Andy Berke, a Chattanooga Democrat, also declared Rule 13. He owns AT&T stock as well as that of Comcast Corp., which battled the telecom bill before sitting down for talks late last year.

The two companies are among dozens of sources of income that Berke included on his ethics disclosures for this year, ranging from Coca-Cola to pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to Nokia Corp.

Berke also declared Rule 13 with the clerk's office, then went on to vote in favor of the bill. He said he declared Rule 13 because he wanted to make sure "there was not even the appearance of impropriety."

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