In my Friday column, I discussed the move by Tennessee House Speaker Kent Williams (I-Elizabethton) to allow some Republican legislators to hire a secretary of their own after many years of Republicans being forced to share secretaries-or legislative assistants, as many House members call them these days-while Democrats in the Tennessee House of Representatives each got their own secretary. House Democrats still each have their own secretary, despite the fact that Democrats are no longer in the majority in the House. The policy of giving Democratic Representatives their own legislative assistant while making the then-minority Republicans almost always share one dates to the days when former Governor Ned Ray McWherter (D-Dresden) was Speaker of the House, and became the general custom under Jimmy Naifeh's (D-Covington) Speakership. Five Republicans were reported as having chosen to have a secretary of their own under the new policy-Reps. Josh Evans of Greenbrier, Chad Faulkner of Luttrell, Ryan Haynes of Knoxville, Tony Shipley of Kingsport, and Mark White of Memphis.
At least one of the aforementioned five responded to this past weekend's question of the weekend by giving their side of the story on the issue of individual legislative assistants to The Examiner. Representative Tony Shipley (R-Kingsport) says he wanted to make it clear that he didn't actually make a request for a secretary of his own. "The initiative to give us individual secretaries resides with the Speaker," Shipley said, "Kent Williams had been telling us in caucus for some time that he was going to authorize more Republican secretaries." Rep. Shipley emphasized that individual members certainly have a say in their choice of legislative assistant, those members do not choose to hire any staff nor are they responsible for hiring. "The Speaker is who signs the paperwork," Shipley told The Examiner, further adding "I didn't ask for my own secretary at all, but it was offered and I am glad to have the extra help in serving constituents." Rep. Shipley said that a law student from the Tri-Cities area who is familiar with the 2nd District which he represents has been hired as his new legislative assistant. "He knows my district, and that is going to work out very well for both of us, and for my constituents."
Representative Frank Niceley (R-Strawberry Plains) said that he personally didn't see the need for an individual secretary of his own-he shares Ruth Adams with Rep. Stacey Campfield (R-Knoxville)-and the veteran legislative assistant Adams also now serves as Secretary/Clerk of the Agriculture General Subcommittee, which Niceley has chaired since last year when Republicans began the 106th General Assembly with a 50-49 majority. However, Frank Niceley pointed out that something had to be done to reverse decades of unfairness to Republican Caucus members and underservice to constituents in Republican districts as a result. "There had to be some fairness here," Niceley said, "either we were going to fire a bunch of Democratic secretaries and make everyone share secretaries, or the Speaker was going to have to hire some more Republican secretaries to try and make things even. The Speaker choose not to fire anyone, so he had to at least give Republicans the option to have a secretary of their own."
If people are concerned about cost in a time of economic depression, Rep. Niceley says that citizens need not worry. "Even with hiring these new secretaries, we are still going to manage a 10% cut in spending on the Legislature itself this year," Niceley stated, "Tennessee spends less on its Legislature than almost any other State in the Union."
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