Why Nashville’s Mayoral Candidates Are Disclosing Their Sources Of Income

The Nashville mayoral hopefuls had to turn in a form this week to the state that often gets little attention. The statement of interest, as it’s called, requires elected officials and candidates to list where they get their income.

The disclosure forms mentioned, for example, that Megan Barry’s spouse works for Vanderbilt. Linda Rebrovick has invested at least $10,000 or has a 5 percent ownership stake in 48 companies; Bill Freeman has in 45 companies.

The idea behind the forms is to create transparency in government: The public can hypothetically hold officials accountable if they vote on something in which they have a financial stake. Each Tennessee county or city has its own protocol for determining if an official acted unethically.

But the Tennessee Ethics Commission, which collects about 14,000 statements of interest each year, doesn’t have the authority to audit the reports, says director Drew Rawlins. It can only penalize people if someone else alleges their information is wrong. Rawlins says this happens several times a year, but most of the transgressions are “relatively minor.”

Walter Roche, a former investigative reporter for the Tennessean, sees this process as lacking accountability. Roche’s expertise was tracking government misconduct, often using documents like the statements of interest.

He says he also wishes the forms asked officials for more information — for example, to list exactly how much money they’ve invested in companies.

“There’s a lot of information that they could sort of slip by, not disclose stuff that could be a conflict and ought to be disclosed,” he says.

But despite the statements’ loopholes, Roche notes they’re a useful starting point, as long as the public — and reporters — actually use them.

“The reports just don’t get the attention they deserve,” Roche says.

The deadline for the mayoral candidates to turn in their statements of interest was Monday. As of Tuesday afternoon, only Charles Robert Bone and Howard Gentry hadn’t filed. The ethics commission says it won’t start assessing fines yet. 

• Search for the candidates’ statements of interest disclosures. Access the database here.