Tennessee governor repays trip after ethics panel finds a group shouldn't have covered it

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has repaid about $1,900 for a trip to a conference after ethics officials found that he shouldn't have relied on an outside group to cover the travel.

The Tennessee Ethics Commission released the opinion Tuesday, ruling that the payment violated a state law banning officials like the governor from accepting gifts directly or indirectly from a lobbyist or a lobbyist's employer. The Republican governor had requested the commission's opinion after his July trip to Florida drew scrutiny.

As first reported by The Tennessean, Lee traveled to Marco Island, Florida, to be the keynote speaker at a conference by the Alliance Defending Freedom, which covered his trip. The conservative Christian legal advocacy group is a 501(c)3 nonprofit, and it has a partner 501(c)4 organization named ADF Action. ADF Action has a registered lobbyist in Tennessee.

After the ethics opinion's release, Lee spokesperson Elizabeth Lane Johnson said the expenses had been repaid under the new guidance in connection with the travel to the popular resort island off southwest Florida's Gulf Coast.

“We asked the Bureau for clarity around their interpretation of this vague law and appreciate their response,” Johnson said Tuesday.

Lee's office had argued that the Alliance Defending Freedom, which paid for Lee to come to Florida, doesn't employ a lobbyist in Tennessee; ADF Action does. His office argued that the two groups are separate, independent and have “legal and operational differences.”

However, the Ethics Commission determined that the two groups are “closely related and intertwined organizations.” The panel noted that the ADF Action lobbyist is also employed by the Alliance Defending Freedom and that the lobbyist attended the summit at which Lee spoke. Additionally, the groups have a “shared services agreement” in which they agree to share and reimburse services from each other, but they declined to provide the document for the Ethics Commission to review.

The links between the two groups led the commission to determine that the travel expenses were a banned indirect gift from an employer of a lobbyist in the state. They lauded Lee for seeking the opinion and requested he reimburse the money.

If officials were to deem the group's payment for the governor's travel acceptable, it would “provide a gaping hole” in the ethics law on gifts that would let groups that lobby the state to use a related company “ to lavish gifts upon Tennessee officials and rendering the prohibition on indirect gifts meaningless," the opinion states. It added that in turn would undermine public confidence in government.

ADF Action advocates for “public policies supporting religious freedom, freedom of speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life and marriage," according to the ethics opinion.

Democratic Rep. Caleb Hemmer of Nashville applauded the Ethics Commission for “making it clear that the governor isn’t above the law.”

“It’s disappointing that these actions happened at all," Hemmer said. "I hope this advisory opinion will stop lobbyist groups from offering these illegal and unethical trips to influence the Lee Administration.”

Among its priorities in Tennessee, Alliance Defending Freedom supported a bill approved by lawmakers and Lee this year that requires parental consent for a variety of different actions in schools, including nonemergency medical and mental health care.

An Alliance Defending Freedom spokesperson declined to comment on the ethics decision and pointed the AP to the comment from the governor's office.