ICYMI: Report Says Rep. Shuler Contributed to ‘Appearance’ of Special Treatment

“The inspector general of the Tennessee Valley Authority has forwarded to the House ethics committee a report saying that Rep. Heath Shuler contributed to the appearance of preferential treatment when he was an investor in a development that sought water access from the authority…’The appearance of preferential treatment was exacerbated by Shuler’s representatives dropping Shuler’s name with TVA employees,’ the report stated.”

Report Says Rep. Shuler Contributed to ‘Appearance’ of Special Treatment
CQ Politics
Bennett Roth
June 10, 2009

The inspector general of the Tennessee Valley Authority has forwarded to the House ethics committee a report saying that Rep. Heath Shuler contributed to the appearance of preferential treatment when he was an investor in a development that sought water access from the authority.

The inspector general drew no conclusions, however, about whether Shuler violated House ethics rules.

The report noted that Shuler, D-N.C., was a member of the House subcommittee that directly oversees the TVA at the time that the developers, the Cove at Blackberry Ridge, sought lakefront access near Knoxville, Tenn.

“The appearance of preferential treatment was exacerbated by Shuler’s representatives dropping Shuler’s name with TVA employees,” the report stated.

However, the report also stated it found no evidence that either Shuler or his representatives used his position as a congressman to pressure the TVA to grant the shoreline access to the company, which the report sometimes referred to as Blackberry Cove.

The TVA inspector general, Richard Moore, said he sent a report on the matter to the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, as the ethics panel is formally known.

“The TVA [Office of the Inspector General] has no jurisdiction over the conduct of a United States Congressman, and we make no judgment as to whether Congressman Shuler’s actions connected to the Blackberry Cove matter violate any existing ethical standards,” the report stated.

In a statement issued by his office, Shuler said he was pleased with the inspector general’s review of the issue.

“The Inspector General determined that “there is no evidence that Shuler used his position as a United States Congressman to pressure TVA,” the statement said. “I commend the men and women of the Inspector General’s office for their professionalism and thoroughness during this process.”

The inspector general launched the investigation last August after media reports included complaints that Shuler was exerting influence because of his position on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, which oversees the TVA.

Shuler no longer sits on that subcommittee but is still a member of the full Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and two of its subcommittees.

The investigation was part of a broader examination of a TVA program to grant private shoreline access in exchange for public access in other areas. The TVA inspector general found that the program, known as “maintain and gain,” had been managed “selectively and arbitrarily.” The TVA suspended the program in December.

The Cove at Blackberry Ridge LLP submitted an application for shoreline access under the maintain and gain program at the beginning of 2007, the year Shuler took office after being elected to his first term in November 2006.

Tom Kilgore, the chief executive of the TVA, was scheduled to appear before the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment in February of 2007. Kilgore’s staff briefed him by e-mail about the Cove at Blackberry Ridge’s application and possible questions from Shuler. But according to the report, Shuler did not ask any questions.

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