posted February 17, 2006
Details of meetings undercover FBI agents and lobbyist Charles Love were having with state legislators emerged from a transcript in the William Cotton bribery trial.
The following is a transcript of a conversation in Miami, Fla., from December 2004, between Agt. Joe Carroll (posing as Joe Carson, president of the bogus E-Cycle Management firm) and Love, former County School Board member who was later indicted and entered a guilty plea.
Love went to Miami with his wife, Sandra, and stayed at the Palms Hotel. He had one business meeting on a large yacht with the "businessmen" who turned out to be running the statewide public corruption sting.
The John referred to is FBI Agt. John Mule, who posed as E-Cycle's Chief Financial Officer John Morrow.
Of those mentioned in the tape, Sens. John Ford, Ward Crutchfield and Kathryn Bowers and Rep. Chris Newton, along with Love and Commissioner Cotton were charged. Love and Rep. Newton pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Sens. Crutchfield and Bowers stayed in the Senate and are awaiting trial. Sen. Ford quit the Senate and is awaiting trial. Sen. Miller and Rep. Hargett announced they were leaving the Legislature.
CARSON: And you have this one where Sen. Ford put in about we have to be in business for a year, somewhere in there. Let me get my cheaters here.
LOVE: Right there. Paragraph six -- five.
CARSON: Yes, yes.
LOVE: That's five.
CARSON: Now, we added that. Ford added that for us. Okay. I would like Sen. --- if this is not in the original, before you embarrass yourself and me, too, go look in your original ones and make sure it's not there. But even if it is there and it dropped out, we need to get it back in.
LOVE: Okay.
CARSON: Okay. We paid ---. We've given Sen. Crutchfield what, three or four thousand dollars?
LOVE: Three thousand dollars.
CARSON: Three thousand dollars and other than him saying, yeah, I'll support it, co-sponsor it, he hasn't ----. I would like to see him insert that as opposed to Sen. Ford.
LOVE: Okay.
CARSON: Okay? I don't think that's unreasonable, do you?
LOVE: No.
CARSON: And you can tell him, hey, for some reason it dropped out, if it was there originally. If it wasn't there originally that's one of our four things and you have those bullets that I sent you on why we have the --- so that's it with that.
LOVE: Okay.
CARSON: But if you'll talk to him as soon as you get back in, if he does it, if he agrees to do it and will do it, call me and I'll just call him and wish him a Merry Christmas and thank him for adding that for us. Okay? I want to stay in touch with these guys, which is another thing.
John is a --- an employee and a small investor. He has a small piece of it. If he deals with Jeff Miller and David Fowler, that's fine. Since I have already started a relationship with Chris and Ward, I don't want to run any new people in on either one of them or Joe Armstrong. I don't mind, certainly mind if you run across them and John is there or LC is there, that's fine. But it's just like I wouldn't probably call ---.
LOVE: I think that would cause a little bit of concern between Ulysses and Larry.
CARSON: Well, tell me.
LOVE: When LC had came up and they had met you, then here all of a sudden here comes another guy.
CARSON: Okay. And that's between you and I. That's what I thought too.
LOVE: Like what the h---
CARSON: What's going on?
LOVE: Yeah.
CARSON: And I don't --- I think that's our fault. We were trying to let them see who all is involved in the company. Maybe that was a mistake and, looking back on it, I was talking with John and LC and we said it's just like with John Ford, I know him to see him. I don't even know ---. John is terrible on names anyway.
LOVE: Yeah, he is.
CARSON: He --- he --- he knows my face, but I wouldn't call John and ask him to do anything unless it was an absolute emergency or LC had called him in advance and said, hey, I'm in Singapore, Joe Carson is going to call you about paragraph four, about getting a co-sponsor, then I would call him. I would never call him, only because I think it sends a mixed signal to him and, if you will explain it to LC --- I mean to Ulysses and Larry Miller that, you know, or at the appropriate time if they don't understand, just say, I'm sorry, I'm not ---. I will probably not involve Tim in dealing with them either anymore. Other than, you know, hey, Tim is a great guy. He goes and meets them, he knows them and that's fine. But if it's anything confidential that we need to do, it will be you and me and we'll just leave it at that. Okay. If they need anything, fine. Same thing with Joe Armstrong, too, and Ward and Chris.
Now, let's see how Jeff Miller is when you go up there with John, okay. And if that doesn't work out, after the first of the year I'll probably swing up.
What was I going to ask you? Oh, oh, oh. Okay, you are going to talk to Ward about this and let me know. Chris has got a copy, sent it to Ulysses we think. We are going to give John Ford a copy.
LOVE: Okay.
CARSON: And tell him once you get back to me that Ward Crutchfield is going to add it, or unless Ward says, oh, no, I shouldn't touch it, that should totally be a John Ford deal. Do you think that would make sense? Can't Ward put it on there?
LOVE: Ward can put it on there if I ask him. If I look at the original and it's not in there - - -
CARSON: Look at the original, even if it's in there, if Ford has refiled this one or this is getting ready to go, say, whoa, whoa, you forgot this. Ward, would you put it on there because that's what E-Cycle does.
Okay. Let's talk about, and I don't want to get you off track, but I would be interested since you are in Chattanooga and you are in Hamilton County, and we are all of a sudden. Tim went to Shelby County and got a very positive response from Shelby County about selling us all their excess electronics and Shelby County is big and I know Hamilton County probably isn't as big, but I don't want to do, like I mentioned, I don't want to do eight or 10 people where I have to deal with every commissioner. Remember, we are not bidding to sell the county something, which you get three bids probably in the whole county. This is merely purchase. So I am guessing, and probably school board, too. I am guessing there may be one or two people that would say, yep, I can sign off on this, I'll sell you all of our excess stuff for, you know, a predetermined price, take it off our hands and get rid of it.
So, do you think there is anybody -- I mean --
LOVE: The guy you talked to about technology services.
CARSON: Yeah, McNair, something like that.
LOVE: McNish.
CARSON: McNish.
LOVE: He has asked me a couple of times. I said, well, I'll get back to you.
CARSON: Well, I sent him a letter.
LOVE: I know, but he's asked when do we want to do it.
CARSON: Is he the guy we would deal with? I mean does he have that kind of authority?
LOVE: No, no, no.
CARSON: You are probably going to have to get an elected official or an appointed one, wouldn't you?
LOVE" It's an administrator who makes that decision, Fred Carr who is head of the whole county department but David has a lot of influence on where ---
CARSON: Okay. Now, is this the ---
LOVE: School system.
CARSON: School system?
LOVE: Right.
CARSON: Well, is David a good guy to deal with?
LOVE: Yeah, yeah. Davis is the one who will take it and make the recommendation to his superior. I have been kind of keeping it on hold ---
CARSON: Well, and I didn't want to get --- I don't want anything to interfere with this legislation. But if it's dealing with one or two people and I could come up there and we could take him to lunch or go see him, whatever is appropriate. Is there anything - - - do we have to do anything for him?
LOVE: Not that I know of.
CARSON: Okay. Well, all right, what about ---
LOVE: In dealing with the county, which is a whole different thing. It is sort of similar to what Tim is doing in ---
CARSON: Shelby County.
LOVE: Shelby County. He's probably dealing with the county commissioners.
CARSON: Uh huh.
LOVE: That's the same thing you would be doing.
CARSON: Well, he's dealing with I guess the head, and I don't know the man. I know the name, but he's dealing with a powerful guy on the county. And he's helping us out.
LOVE: He's an administrator probably, not a commissioner.
CARSON: No, he's a commissioner.
LOVE: He's a commissioner?
CARSON: Yes. And he has the power to direct. Shelby County may be a little different than other counties.
LOVE: It may be different because Hamilton County, you would have to have ---. It could be initiated by a commissioner. A commissioner would say, hey, --- they could do an inquiry. How much surplus electronic equipment do we have?
CARSON: Uh huh, uh huh.
LOVE: I have got a company that wants to buy it.
CARSON: Okay. Well, yeah, okay.
LOVE: And I think we ought to do it.
CARSON: Okay.
LOVE: Then from there the administrators take over.
CARSON: Well, now, that's what we are seeing in Shelby County. This commissioner is a powerful commissioner and he has the power to direct the administrator who is not an elected official. She's - I think it's a lady - I think she is an appointed person.
LOVE: Right, probably in purchasing or something like that.
CARSON: Something like that. I know the name, I don't know what it is. But apparently they have either taken Tim in or they have provided a survey or they have taken a survey or something. Anyway, we are kind of moving down the road. We are like, whoa, this just fell in our lap. We don't want to do it because the counties don't have as much as the state. We didn't --- we want to get it rolling so if we come in and buy a bunch of stuff from the state and while we are there, we can stop by and pick up stuff at the county or the school board.
Would be the county person in Hamilton County that we would talk to? Who would you think could make it happen? I don't know if it's the person that we could talk to.
LOVE: One of the commissioners.
CARSON: Is there anybody you have got a relationship with that would be ---
LOVE: I have a pretty good relationship with about two or three of the commissioners. Richard Casavant, William Cotton, JoAnne Favors. JoAnne Favors. JoAnne Favors just got elected to the state legislature.
CARSON: Yes, she took Brenda's ---
LOVE: Right.
CARSON: She still sits on the commission?
LOVE: She hasn't officially resigned.
CARSON: Well, is she a lame duck? I mean ---
LOVE: No.
CARSON: No?
LOVE: Technically she can still serve as a commissioner and still go to the legislature.
CARSON: Is she going to or not?
LOVE: She is not going to do it, but she could. So the county is a little bit more tied to her now than they were before she became a state legislator because the County Commission is an arm of the state legislature.
The administrator is a lady named Jeannine Alday.
CARSON: Jeannine Alday?
LOVE: She is the director of ---
CARSON: She is not a commissioner?
LOVE: No, she is an administrator.
CARSON: Wouldn't a commissioner have to tell her or direct her to talk to us, you know. Well, why don't you sniff it out and see. I am not saying, you know, don't drop everything and do it. This is the more important thing, but if it would be an opportunity ---
LOVE: It would take a whole lot of work.
CARSON: Well, I was going to say, you can feel it out, couldn't you? Who would be the one ---
LOVE: Same thing with the city. The guy who is the director, the guy with the city who would be the person to deal with, he's an administrator, kind of chief of staff of the mayor. His name is Eichenthal.
CARSON: Eichenthal? What's he like?
LOVE: He is a pretty good guy.
CARSON: Is he?
LOVE: The mayor is not running again. The mayoral election is in March of next year.
CARSON: Uh huh. Would it be good to move before then or after then or at least get it on the books?
LOVE: But David can direct the guy who is the director of purchasing.
CARSON: Who is David now?
LOVE: David Eichenthal.
CARSON: Oh, David, okay.
LOVE: He can direct the director of purchasing to do kind of an inquiry ----
CARSON: Can we deal with David? David is a guy we could deal with?
LOVE: Well, yeah. I think the better way to do it, require a lot of less work, get Gene Settles, the director of purchasing, to do kind of a little informal ----. Gene probably has an idea of what they have in terms of surplus equipment. Then Gene will probably say go talk to David and tell him whatever you tell him.
CARSON: I sent you or whatever.
LOVE: Then David will probably refer it back to Gene. David doesn't know that I have already talked to Gene.
CARSON: Uh huh.
LOVE: David will say I will check with Gene and see what we have, yada, yada, yada.
CARSON: Well, you have a relationship with them. I you would ---
LOVE: It wouldn't take much to find out what's going on. . .
Gene is my fraternity brother.
CARSON: Okay.
LOVE: I know how to deal with Gene.
CARSON: We'll do whatever they need. If it's not necessary, I don't want to do it; if it is, we'll do whatever as long as we are discreet about it. That's the main thing.
LOVE: I know.
CARSON: I don't want anybody knocking on my door or your door, but I know in some cases the way business is done.
Who would you use, you would use JoAnne Favors on the council?
LOVE: County Commission.
CARSON: County Commission.
LOVE: I would probably use William Cotton.
CARSON: William Cotton? And he could direct somebody to do a survey for us?
LOVE: He could direct Jeannine.
CARSON: Okay.
LOVE: He could say, Jeannine, I want to see if we have any surplus equipment that we could sell, somebody is looking at purchasing. You don't have to give any names, just inquire and set up an appointment for you to go by and talk to Jeannine and talk specifics.
CARSON: Okay. I'll be glad to do that. That would be fine. Do you want to work behind the scenes or do you want to get involved on that one? Probably behind the scenes.
LOVE: Behind the scenes on that.
CARSON: I think it might be better if you are just a consultant to or a business development guy for E-Cycle.
LOVE: Yeah.
CARSON: And let it go with that.
LOVE: Because I am going to be doing more than legislation.
CARSON: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
LOVE: You see what I'm saying. That fits a little more.
CARSON: Okay. Alright. I was going to say, is there anything else --- I would be interested, at your convenience, if you would do that. Now, start ---
LOVE: Here is my agenda for next week.
CARSON: Yeah.
LOVE: Next week I am going to contact all of our parties, everybody that is involved, Chris, Tre, Joe, Ulysses, Larry.
CARSON: Okay.
LOVE: Hopefully Jeff.
CARSON: Yeah.
LOVE: Just make sure everybody is okay.
CARSON: Le me know in particular about Tre Hargett because he is ---
LOVE: We haven't talked to him.
CARSON: No, and I'm ---
LOVE: I think he is still okay.
CARSON: I am not real comfortable --- how did you get with him originally, I don't remember.
LOVE: Called him.
CARSON: But you knew him.
LOVE: Yeah, yeah.
CARSON: Well, he sure as heck was friendly that day.
LOVE: Yeah, he was.
CARSON: I mean, I thought he was going to be kind of standoffish, particularly when run into John Ford.
LOVE: His persona is that way though, you know, I told you his persona is real kind of standoffish, reserved.
CARSON: Kind of a preppie guy.
LOVE: Yeah.
CARSON: Yeah, I agree.
LOVE: He has got a sweetheart deal with Shelby County.
CARSON: What's that?
LOVE: He has an ambulance service.
CARSON: For the county.
LOVE: Uh huh.
CARSON: He owns an ambulance service?
LOVE: Yeah.
CARSON: I think he did tell us that. So what does he have?
LOVE: He has a huge contract with Shelby County.
CARSON: Ooh.
LOVE: Okay.
CARSON: You know who he is buddies with - that guy Bruce Thompson.
LOVE: Yeah, yeah.
CARSON: Now, Thompson I've met. Thompson is a tennis player and I'm a tennis player.
LOVE: Yeah.
CARSON: And I met him and actually I think we invited, it wasn't a serious invite, but to Thompson, say, if you want to come down, we are putting a group together. So he and Tre are buds.
LOVE: I think Bruce helped Tre get the contract.
CARSON: Probably.
LOVE: Yeah.
CARSON: Tre does okay with that.
LOVE: Yeah. So I need to make --- probably my first call needs to be made to Tre.
CARSON: I want to make sure Tre hasn't got cold feet. I mean we did something for Tre.
LOVE: Right.
CARSON: I want to make sure Tre hasn't forgotten us or maybe Tre --- do you think Tre is looking for something else?
LOVE: I just think we did to touch base --- once Tre tell you something, it's binding.
CARSON: I thought it would be.
LOVE: You just really need to stay in touch with him, you know.
CARSON: Do me a favor, we --- I'll just tell you right, it slipped through the cracks. I didn't get Christmas cards out. It's my fault, nobody else's. Not that it's the end of the world, but we should have done it. So, maybe a call from you and what I would like for you to do is, if it's appropriate, say, hey, I was with Joe Carson, we were down in South Florida, you can fib a little bit, by the way, it was great, but anyway, we want to see you after the first of the year, wish you Merry Christmas, make sure everything is okay, you still on board. We think Chris will be --- I mean, you know him better than I do, Charles. Chris will be carrying, you know, running the bill down for co-sponsorship, just wanted to remind you. Do you have any problems with it, and, by the way, here's the most current copy. Now, that's important. I don't think we can in good conscience ask them to support something that we haven't given them the most current copy of. It also allows you to say, you can call them back, and say have you got any questions. I want to make sure ---
LOVE: What I'll probably do is fax it to his office.
CARSON: Fine.
LOVE: Then call him as a matter of followup.
CARSON: Okay.
LOVE: Say, hey, Tre, I faxed a current copy of the legislation to your office, just wanted to make sure you got it, is it okay? I want you to look at it.
CARSON: Make sure that Chris Newton, because remember he faxed it to him, make sure he doesn't have any problems with changes because then you are going to have to do another change.
LOVE: Yeah, then I'll have to back up.
CARSON: I know, I don't want you doing that. Talk to Chris.
LOVE: Okay.
CARSON: If you would. And say, Chris, are you good with it. Fine. With your permission I am going to send it to Tre or I'm going to call Tre or send it to Tre or maybe Chris will send it to Tre, but I want to call Tre and just ask him if he's comfortable with it. I really appreciate you, we really appreciate you hand-carrying it, you know, getting them to co-sponsor.
I just want Tre to remember us sometime. He's the one that's probably we have less contact with after that first meeting.
Okay. So, go ahead, you are going to do that next week. Anything else? Touch base with all our folks.
LOVE: Right.
CARSON: Okay. Just keep a list if you don't mind, even though we are not going to start til January. I'll pay you at the end of January for January. Okay. I'll tell you what I'll do, because I don't want you working off of your money, if John comes up next week, I'll make a note of that, I'll have him give you the money for January. I trust you, okay? Alright. That way you are not working --- so John would bring a thousand for Jeff Miller, right? Maybe, maybe a thousand for ---
LOVE: David Fowler.
CARSON: David Fowler. How are you going to find out about that?
LOVE: I'll see Fowler tomorrow night. Fowler and Ward will be at this football game. Remember I told you about ---
CARSON: Yeah, yeah.
LOVE: Ward has invited me. He has got two tickets for me to go to this game tomorrow night.
CARSON: I think you ought to go or go see him or something.
LOVE: I'll see Ward tonight. He'll be at the school board meeting.
CARSON: Then call me tomorrow.
LOVE: Okay.
CARSON: I'll be traveling tomorrow. I'll be back tomorrow afternoon I think. Alright. This is for John. Alright. I'll bring them $3,000 for you for January. That way, Charles, if you say, hey, this is too much work or we say, Charles, you know, we ain't getting our money's worth, then you know, no harm, no foul, we are both, you know, part off in the sunset. Then if you get, and I had an agreement with you, if you get Jeff to agree to support it and co-sponsor it, then I'll give you two thousand. That stops in January though. Okay. That's fair because I can't pay you three grand plus two grand for everybody we run across. Because that's what the three thousand is for, for you to just get out there. I am not sure, like I say, if they want to call us and co-sponsor it, that's fine.
LOVE: See, what they want to do, once they start this thing going with this jacket, remember I told you about the jacket, and it has this sheet inside it for people to sign off on it, they'll run it by their caucus. You know, it will go by the sponsors first, the main sponsors. Then they'll run it by, Jeff will run it by his caucus, Tre will run it by his caucus.
CARSON: Okay.
LOVE: And say, hey, man, you want to look at this, you want to sign off on it. The thing about it is, you have got to keep it moving. You can't let it get in somebody's office and sit on their desk for two or three days.
CARSON: How do you do that?
LOVE: Call them.
CARSON: Okay.
LOVE: You call --- say, for example, if it's Chris, say, Charles, I sent it down to Tre's office or I sent it down to Ulysses' office for them to sign off on it.
CARSON: You are going to call Ulysses?
LOVE: I'll call Ulysses and say, hey, man, did you get that bill from Chris? Yeah, I got it. Will you sign off on it? Yeah. Where you going to send it when you sign off.
CARSON: I want you to be like a nagging wife, alright. I'm sorry, you have to do that.
LOVE: He'll say I'll sign off. Where you going to send it. Why don't you send it to Lois?
CARSON: Right. Oh, by the way, I'm glad you mentioned that. I was talking with LC and Katherine ---
LOVE: Bowers.
CARSON: Has agreed to co-sponsor and she had from a long time ago, and my understanding, Lois has also agreed to co-sponsor.
LOVE: Okay. So it will go from Christ, Ulysses to Larry, to Lois, to Katherine.
CARSON: To Tre. Somewhere Tre is involved.
LOVE: Well, let's take it from Chris to Tre.
CARSON: Keep Republican.
LOVE: Then from Tre to Ulysses.
CARSON: And then let it work the Democratic side, okay?
LOVE: Chris may forward it to Ulysses first.
CARSON: I don't know whatever protocol is.
LOVE: They are the two main sponsors.
CARSON: Okay.
LOVE: Then Chris, then Ulysses can send it to Tre.
CARSON: Alright. It's important that you stay on that. Do me a favor, make me --- again, it doesn't have to be a 30-page writeup but just say contacted Chris, agreed to, you know, he is going to send it to Ulysses. Contacted Ulysses, he's going to co-sponsor it, send it to Katherine. Just a trail of what you've done and also where it is. o we can --- if something happens --- I mean, you get sick or something and then where the h--- do I go here, you know, so I need to know, I need a trail of where it is.
LOVE: You can look on it and say, well, the last person he talked to ---
CARSON: Yeah, and also it's just something for me to throw in my file to say, hey, what did you pay this guy, he consulted for us, here's what he did.
Let me ask you the other thing. I was curious. On Ward, he gets a hundred and fifty thousand a year from the school board? You've got to be kidding me. The school board has got that kind of money. Does he have that much work?
LOVE: I'm telling you, man, we spent ---- let me tell you how much we spent on attorneys outside of Ward Crutchfield last year as a school district, about $500,000.
CARSON: Why would you need to go outside of Ward if you are paying him that much?
LOVE: He doesn't have the expertise. For example, if somebody sues the school district, which we have been sued, we get sued every month on something.
CARSON: Oh, I'm sure.
LOVE: So we've got this lawyer that we hire, more of a civil rights kind of attorney, and you get people who are ---
CARSON: Is he a Chattanooga guy, too?
LOVE: Yeah. Special education, we have kids that are special education.
CARSON: Yes, sure.
LOVE: Somebody sue us because the ramp up the steps is not -- you know, or they feel like we should be teaching the kids this or we should teach them that. So you have to hire an attorney, that's anywhere from $150 to $200 an hour.
CARSON: Oh, I'm sure. You already have Ward, but he doesn't do that. I'm not knocking Ward, but Ward has got ---
LOVE: At one point the board is saying, why don't we get rid of this guy?
CARSON: Crutchfield?
LOVE: Yeah. I said why don't you do it? I ain't doing it.
CARSON: I agree with that.
LOVE: Politically suicide. Everybody said, well, political reasons, nobody is saying it but it's implied. It's worth the $150,000 to keep him because he does go to Nashville and he has a direct link to the school board to take to Nashville to tell them Hamilton County needs this, Hamilton County needs that. It's more of a support advocate than an attorney. Now, he will ask for an opinion, attorney general's opinion, maybe every four or five months, ask for an opinion. He's been doing it now for 20 years.
CARSON: You are kidding me? He could make a pretty good living just doing that.
LOVE: He doesn't have to handle the cases really. I mean, he does some other litigation, but Ward Crutchfield is such ---
CARSON: Excuse me. (takes phone call)
LOVE: Ward Crutchfield is the kind of attorney that if he's your attorney and he goes into court, ain't a whole lot of discussion and he usually wins. You know what I'm saying? Ward has gotten guys off for murder, you know what I'm saying? They may get 10 years for first-degree murder because of who he is. He knows all the d---judges, he knows all the people in the courthouse.
CARSON: D---. I guess a hundred fifty thousand buys a lot. But that ---
LOVE: Buying his influence more than you are buying his legal expertise.
CARSON: That's what we are doing basically, isn't it?
LOVE: That's what you are doing.
CARSON: I know.
LOVE: He has been around for a thousand years ---
CARSON: I guess it technically would be a conflict for him to be on a --- a state senator.
LOVE: It is. If somebody pushed it, it would be, but ---
CARSON: And votes on appropriations for the schools.
LOVE: Uh huh
CARSON: I guess they do. Which includes his own salary.
LOVE: Yeah.
CARSON: Geez. You know what, everybody has got their own thing. Good for Ward (laughing).
LOVE: Everybody has got their deal.
CARSON: Okay. Anyway, anything else you can think of that you need --- maybe I haven't covered. You and I have a good relationship, Charles, and I think that ---
LOVE: I think that we are on the same page.
CARSON: Alright. I'll ask John then to bring in the chance that Jeff Miller -- will you find out -- you are going to talk to Jeff?
LOVE: Yes.
CARSON: And make sure he is available Wednesday, Thursday, whatever, because that is getting awful close to Christmas. That's the only problem.
LOVE: Friday is Christmas Eve, isn't it?
CARSON: Yeah, that's the problem.
LOVE: After Wednesday, you are going to have to wait until probably after the first of the year.
CARSON: That's fine. Well, if that's the case, I'll just come up. But maybe you'll have somebody ---
LOVE: After Wednesday, you may be getting ---
CARSON: Get him between Christmas and New Year's.
LOVE: New Year's, yeah.
CARSON: Well, that's fine, too. I could swing up then. Early to mid-week if I did. If not, we'll get John to do it, too. He's just -- I would just as soon do it but I'm just not available next week. Okay. Well, shoot, I think we are in good shape, Charles, unless there is something --- I am really happy that Sandra is probably going to help us on this thing.
LOVE: She'll do you a good job. She is good at that. She knows the same people I do.
CARSON: Well, you know men, we are not good at that anyway.
LOVE: She knows how to do that kind of stuff.
CARSON: I don't want to push our office people in Atlanta who don't know anybody in Nashville. If Sandra Love calls ---
LOVE: I'm assuming that your office will be available to mail out stuff.
CARSON: Sure.
LOVE: Mail the invitations.
CARSON: Yes.
LOVE: Get the mailing list.
CARSON: If Sandra ---
LOVE: Print the labels.
CARSON: Yes, we can do all that. If she can --- with your help, if you can just decide who --- I don't want to get goofy but I want to invite the people we are suppose to invite, all the senators and all the legislators and the cabinet, constitutional officers. If there is anybody else that we should invite, I don't want to not invite somebody and get blackballed because we didn't invite them, even if they don't come.
Alright. Well, good, you can chat with John about that. Now, for some reason John doesn't come up next week, let's you and I talk. Now, if Jeff is not available, you and I can chat.
LOVE: Either way Fowler will probably be available. You probably still need to come up.
CARSON: Well ---
LOVE: My plan was, we schedule a meeting with Jeff, we meet with Fowler early ---
CARSON: Oh, I would like for you to do both. I mean it makes more sense on our case. Jeff has already indicated that he wants some support. You know, I hate to sound like a mercenary but if the guy wants support and we are willing to do it, he is willing to be discreet about it, I feel more comfortable that the guy would be locked into supporting us than if he just, oh, yeah, yeah, I'll support it and we don't have, you know, an informal agreement or something. Just be sure when you talk to Jeff that he understands it's not from us. It is but it isn't.
LOVE: Okay.
CARSON: Alright, Charles.
* * *
Sen. David Fowler said he did nothing improper with lobbyist Charles Love, who has pleaded guilty in the Tennessee Waltz FBI sting.
Sen. Fowler said, "Charles Love was not “working” with me. I was on the Senate Finance Committee at the time he came to see me, and I didn’t think anything of it since it is normal for lobbyists to visit with the members of a committee before which a bill is pending.
"As to what happened, Mr. Love called my law office and said that he was working with a company out of Atlanta that recycled computers. He wanted to introduce me to the company representative and explain the bill. He wanted to schedule the meeting while the representative was in the area to meet with Sen. Miller. I don’t recall the date, but I do recall Mr. Love never showed up and never called.
"Somehow I got his phone number (I think my assistant, Glenda, tracked it down) and I called to find out why he had stood me up. He said he’d decided to stay until the end of a County Commission meeting that was going on that morning. I told him that as a lobbyist he should never schedule a meeting and not have the courtesy to call and tell a legislator he was not coming; as a lobbyist he knew that our schedules were crowded; that it was rude to know you weren’t coming and not even call to advise; and that by setting up a meeting for him I had blocked out time I could have met with others which time was forever lost. He apologized and asked if we could reschedule. I told him we could, but only if he assured me that he would show up.
"On the rescheduled date, Mr. Love showed up at my law office with a man who said he was from Atlanta and worked for E-Cycle. I don’t recall anything else about the person, age or race. They explained the landfill issues surrounding computer disposal and how the bill was an attempt to address that problem. I remember questioning how narrowly it was drawn to permit only one business to qualify for the recycling project and explained that I generally did not favor such legislation. I explained that I didn’t realize that computers were problems for landfills and asked if they could give me some information on the subject to read.
"I remember getting the information (an article from some magazine or journal and maybe some newspaper articles). I don’t remember if he had it with him or if the company representative sent it to me by mail after the meeting. I remember reading it at a later time prior to session. That was my one and only meeting with Mr. Love or any E-Cycle person.
"There was a reception scheduled when session started (last year I believe). I RSVP’d but did not attend because I’d already met with the person and I knew there would not be anyone from Chattanooga there other than Mr. Love.
"There was never any discussion of money or political support for me. The only PAC check I have ever taken was from the Tennessee Conservative Union in 1994. I have taken only two cash contributions in my life to my knowledge: $100 each from Corky and Theresa Coker in 1994 while sitting in Mr. Corker’s office and $100 from Lester Barnett of Red Bank a couple of years ago when I went visited with him in his garden after going to see my dentist, Tom Blockley, whose office is across the street.
"I resent that anyone said they were 'working with me' in any way that would imply anything other than the occurrence of the meeting described above. The actions to which Mr. Love pled guilty are despicable. To offer a bribe or to take one is, to me, tantamount to treason as it subverts justice and the integrity needed for our form of government to work."
| Dining Out | Business | Movies | Focus | About Us |
| Church | Living Well | Memories | Outdoors | Real Estate | Student Scene | Travel |
