THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL
 Date: TUESDAY, January 9, 2001
 Section: Viewpoint
 Page: A7
 Source: Richard Locker
 Dateline: NASHVILLE
 Memo: Commentary On Nashville
 Edition: Final

 When the Tennessee legislature convenes at noon today for
 three days of pomp and organization before the real work
 starts next month, lawmakers will use the spotlight to
 expound on their agendas for the year. More than a few will
 say government needs to be more accountable to the public.

 They will have the opportunity again this year to make it
 so. Several proposed bills would make the General Assembly
 more open and accessible to the citizens who cannot attend
 the endless daily sessions of the Senate and House of
 Representatives and their scores of committees and
 subcommittees.

 That would include most Tennesseans other than the 500
 registered lobbyists and the dozen reporters who actually
 get paid to be there every day.

 Visitors to state government's Web sites might be surprised
 to find that they can read the texts of most bills (if
 their computers are equipped with the right software and
 programs) and keep track of the status of those bills in
 the legislative pipeline.

 But two years after the Tennessee legislature went online,
 you cannot find out on any free Internet site how your
 state senator and representative voted on any bill - not in
 the committees, where most failed legislation is killed, or
 on the floor, where most legislation that arrives is
 passed.

 Of course, you could do that by journeying to the state
 Capitol, paying $10 for a place to park and spending a day
 or two sifting through the legislative journals. But in the
 House, you still would not be able to find most committee
 and subcommittee votes; they are often the result of group
 voice votes in which the votes of individual lawmakers are
 not recorded.

 Then let's say you were interested in trying to see whether
 the votes you find have any link to the positions espoused
 by special-interest groups that finance your legislators'
 campaigns. You could walk three blocks down to the Registry
 of Election Finance and review file cabinets full of
 campaign financial disclosures by political action
 committees and individual legislators.

 The disclosures are on paper for public inspection - after
 you prove your identity and sign a form that is sent to
 each public official whose file you inspected. (The tiny
 three-person staff, which is too overworked to do it
 anyway, is barred by law from telling citizens details of
 the files over the telephone.)

 But the files' value would be limited for your purposes.
 Although some PACs have names that are somewhat indicative
 of their membership - the Tennessee Education Association's
 PAC, for example, is the Tennessee Political Action
 Committee on Education - many have generic names that give
 no clue.

 Worse, individual contributors of more than $100 are listed
 only by their names and addresses - unlike the listing of
 occupations and employers that is required on federal
 disclosure forms for congressional and presidential
 candidates.

 Two packages of legislation are planned that would help
 address the shortcomings.

 Rep. David Davis (R-Johnson City) is sponsoring a bill that
 would require roll call votes to be recorded in all
 committees and subcommittees, all votes to be posted on the
 Internet, all committee and subcommittee meetings to be
 open to the public, and all campaign finance disclosures to
 be posted on the Internet.

 Rep. Tre Hargett (R-Bartlett) has tried before to make
 state officials' campaign finance disclosures available to
 citizens online - as federal officials' disclosures have
 been for several years - but his efforts are repeatedly
 stymied by his colleagues.

 "People should be able to look up a matter of importance to
 them and see how their legislator voted on that issue,"
 Davis said last week. "With electronic posting of votes,
 the media and citizens of Tennessee could simply access
 this information by tapping into the legislative Web site
 from computers in their homes, schools and libraries. This
 is what open government is about."

 In addition, a coalition of good-government groups that
 includes the League of Women Voters, Tennessee Citizen
 Action, the American Association of Retired Persons and
 Common Cause is seeking a "citizen's right to know act"
 that calls for most of those measures, plus inclusion of
 employers and occupations of individual contributors to
 campaigns for state office.

 "Trust in government is at an all-time low, and a lot of
 that has to do with a public perception that politicians
 are bought and sold by the highest bidder," said Citizen
 Action lobbyist Erik Cole. "Citizens, reporters and
 interest groups need to be able to see what money is
 flowing into the political system."

 After announcing that legislative sessions may soon be
 televised live, House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh said Monday he
 will ask two House committees to give Davis's proposals "a
 good look." Naifeh stopped short of endorsing the concept,
 however, saying he wants to see the whole package.

 All of these measures would be modest, affordable steps to
 increase accountability. Let's see if legislative leaders
 are really interested in taking them.

 Richard Locker is Nashville bureau chief for The Commercial
 Appeal. To contact him, call (615) 255-4923 or E-mail
 locker@gomemphis.com