Governor says focus on harassment improving the situation

NASHVILLE ? When news organizations asked to see the state’s workplace harassment investigation files, government officials complied ? but grudgingly.

State officials acknowledged the documents were open to public inspection, but they sent a response letter to The Associated Press warning of a “concern about the chilling affect of your public records request.”

Agency heads and lawyers said they did not want to compromise the privacy of victims and witnesses, or create an environment where people would be reluctant to come forward with complaints.

But several months after the state produced the documents for reporters, Gov. Phil Bredesen said he now doesn’t think the request had a “chilling” effect on complaints.

“In fact it appears to have raised awareness of (harassment). And frankly I think that’s a good thing,” Bredesen said. “At least my fear, that it would really dampen and cause people not to (come forward), appears to be unwarranted and that is good.”

Bredesen said he will not push any legislation during the upcoming General Assembly session that would move to restrict harassment records.

The issue started with revelations in May that notes taken by a Department of Personnel lawyer were shredded after she investigated a claim of sexual harassment against Robert “Mack” Cooper, formerly Bredesen’s top lobbyist.

Bredesen publicly demoted Cooper within a week of learning of the incident. At the time, he thought it would be a model case for how to handle such complaints.

“Obviously the fact that somewhere in the middle of that, somebody took a page of notes and decided to toss them out throws the whole thing in question ? which shows no set of good intentions ever goes unpunished,” Bredesen said. “We really tried to do that right.”

It was reported shortly after the Cooper situation that notes from an old, unsubstantiated harassment allegation against Correction Commissioner Quenton White had also been shredded.

In an a review of 602 workplace harassment case files across all levels of state government, the AP found that documents were shredded only in high-profile cases.

Bredesen, who has since ordered a halt to the practice of shredding harassment investigation documents, said he believes only files reviewed by Personnel Department attorney Kae Carpenter were subject to shredding. Carpenter was the person who got called in when high-ranking people were accused of harassment.

“That person’s call about how to handle the records, and so on, is kind of at the core of a lot of this stuff,” Bredesen said.

Bredesen was lauded by some women’s groups for his quick and public action to punish Cooper, while open government groups and news organizations were critical of the decision to shred records and hide a few others because of “attorney-client privilege.”

Bredesen has since launched a new statewide policy for how agencies are to consistently handle harassment investigations, while not backing away from the claim that some records will not be made public under the “attorney-client privilege” exemption to open records laws.

“The whole thing that is somewhat bemusing to me is that up until the Mack Cooper thing, I would have told you we were handling this issue very well,” Bredesen said.

The state Republican Party has take some shots at Bredesen over the issue, but the topic has been lost amid a flurry of ethics laws being discussed in the Legislature after lawmakers turned their focus to the “Tennessee Waltz” bribery scandal.

Five current or former Tennessee lawmakers were arrested earlier this year on bribery and corruption charges.

Bredesen said he doesn’t think the “small scandal” over shredding files is an issue that will cause any political damage.

“Trust me, if someone looks hard enough, they can find something in state government that doesn’t run the way it ought to,” he said.