After Longmeyer Scandal, Senator Aims for Lobbying Transparency

Thursday, February 7, 2019 | 0

After a lobbyist and former deputy attorney general last year were convicted in a bribery scheme that targeted claims management for the state-employee workers' compensation program, a lawmaker has introduced a measure designed to bring more transparency to lobbying.

Sen. Robert Stivers

Senate Bill 6, introduced by Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers, would require disclosure of fees to lobbyists who are paid to influence executive-branch state agencies, just as fees paid to lobbyists at the legislature already are reported.

“I’ve seen a lot of things in my 23 years up here, but these shocked me,” Stivers said of the charges last year that led to the conviction of a lobbyist and a state official on bribery charges, according to local news reports. “... I think it’s time that somebody brought this out to explain how these wagon wheels of conspiracy, laundered money, no transparency had corrupted the system.”

Former deputy state attorney general Tim Longmeyer last year was sentenced to 70 months in prison and he testified against lobbyist James Sullivan. Sullivan was acquitted of bribing Longmeyer, while Longmeyer was Personnel Cabinet secretary, in order to win a lucrative contract for his client, a claims-management company. Sullivan was convicted on other charges of paying bribes on behalf of several law firm clients.

The claims-management firm, Cannon Cochran Management Services Inc., or CCMSI, was allowed to keep its contract with the state workers' compensation program in 2016 even though its bid was $200,000 more than a competitor's, the trial revealed. Longmeyer testified that was because after accepting the bribes, he instructed his staff to continue the CCMSI contract.

SB 6 would require lobbyists to register with the state and file reports disclosing their fees. It also would clarify that executive agency lobbyists cannot be paid on a contingency basis.

The bill has been assigned to the Senate State and Local Governments Committee.

Stivers said an official of CCMSI testified that Sullivan was paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for his representation, and was paid based on his performance. Stivers said Sullivan avoided scrutiny, though, "because he didn’t register as a lobbyist — he just said he was a 'consultant.'”