(a) This part shall be administered and enforced by the ethics commission. To that end, it is the duty of the ethics commission to:

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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 3-6-308

  • Attorney general: means the attorney general and reporter. See Tennessee Code 3-6-301
  • employer: means any person or entity that employs, retains or otherwise arranges for a lobbyist to engage in lobbying on behalf of the person or entity for compensation. See Tennessee Code 3-6-301
  • Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
  • Investigatory audit information: means data obtained pursuant to a finding of probable cause to believe that an employer or lobbyist has violated this part, including information pertaining to the source or amount of employer or lobbyist income, expenditures, receipts, assets, liabilities, net worth, or related financial or proprietary information that is received by, recorded by, prepared by, or collected by or on behalf of the ethics commission during the course of any audit, investigation or other examination undertaken for the purpose of ensuring compliance with, or imposing civil or criminal sanctions for violation of, this part. See Tennessee Code 3-6-301
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Lobbyist: means any person who engages in lobbying for compensation. See Tennessee Code 3-6-301
  • Person: means any individual, partnership, committee, association, corporation, labor organization, or any other organization or group of persons. See Tennessee Code 3-6-301
  • Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
  • Random audit information: means information obtained pursuant to an examination of a lobbyist's employment contract, job description or other documentation in order to determine that no contingency fee arrangement prohibited under §. See Tennessee Code 3-6-301
  • Reporter: Makes a record of court proceedings and prepares a transcript, and also publishes the court's opinions or decisions (in the courts of appeals).
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Year: means a calendar year, unless otherwise expressed. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
(1) Develop, with the advice, assistance and approval of the division of strategic technology solutions, and prescribe electronic forms for registration, registration statements, amendments to registration statements, disclosure reports and other information required to be reported pursuant to this part;
(2) Preserve the registration, registration statements, amendments to registration statements, disclosure reports and other filed information for a period of at least five (5) years, or longer when there is a pending investigation by the commission or any law enforcement agency, or when there is an ongoing administrative or judicial proceeding related to any registration, statements, amendments, reports or information;
(3) Develop a filing, coding and cross-indexing system consonant with the purposes of this part;
(4) Issue and publish, upon proper request from any employer, lobbyist or public official subject to the jurisdiction of the commission, advisory opinions concerning the requirements of this part; however, under no circumstances shall a person performing staff duties as an employee of the commission have the authority to issue an advisory opinion, informal or otherwise, except as provided in § 3-6-117, concerning the authority of a person performing staff duties as the executive director or an attorney to give informal responses in the manner described in § 3-6-117;
(5) Accept the electronic filing of any pertinent information voluntarily supplied that exceeds the requirements of this part;
(6) Review electronic filings submitted pursuant to this part to ensure compliance with the laws administered and enforced by the ethics commission. Filings older than two (2) years shall be deemed to be sufficient, absent a showing of fraud;
(7) Audit each year the registration statements, amendments to registration statements and reports of no more than four percent (4%) of all lobbyists. The attorney general and reporter, or the attorney general’s designee, shall attend the random selection proceeding in order to preserve the integrity of the proceeding. Nothing contained within this subdivision (a)(7) shall be construed to prevent the commission, upon finding probable cause to believe that an employer or a lobbyist has violated this part, from auditing the registration statements, amendments to registration statements and reports of the employer or lobbyist;
(8)

(A) Compile and publish, on the commission’s internet site, the following reports listing:

(i) All registered employers, alphabetically;
(ii) All registered lobbyists, alphabetically; and
(iii) Each subject matter category specified by the ethics commission for purposes of § 3-6-302(b)(2)(C), with each lobbyist listed under the subject matter category who lobbied that subject matter category during the registration year;
(B) The ethics commission may prepare and publish on its website such other reports as are deemed to be appropriate and in the public interest; and
(9) Impose civil penalties and other administrative sanctions in accordance with the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, compiled in title 4, chapter 5.
(b) It is the duty of the attorney general and reporter to render opinions and give counsel to the ethics commission upon request of the executive director.
(c) Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, random audit information and investigatory audit information shall be confidential and shall be maintained as such by the members and employees of the ethics commission and by the officers and employees of the state, in the manner and to the extent that the confidentiality of tax information is maintained by the officers and employees of the department of revenue and the state under title 67, chapter 1, part 17.
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