Monday, January 24, 2011

Majority Leader/Ethics Committee chairman accepts more than $1,200 in lobbyists' gifts in December

Tim Jones, R-Eureka, found a unique way of ascending to the position of House Majority Leader and Ethics Committee chairman.

Documents posted earlier this month on the Missouri Ethics Commission website indicate Jones accepted at least $1,200 in lobbyists' gifts during December. Though the complete listing of Jones' gifts won't be posted until Feb. 1, a search of reports posted by the lobbyists shows Jones received a large number of gifts during the holiday season.

The total includes $577.46 from Charles Simino, lobbyist for the Missouri Cable Telecommunications Association, who provided Jones with $386 worth of refreshments for a reception, two tickets to a University of Missouri basketball game worth $126, and two $32.71 meal, one of which was for his daughter Katy and will not show up on Jones' own disclosure form.

Jones also picked up $392.98 in gifts from Tina Shannon, lobbyist for Ameren UE, including $250 in tickets for the MU-Illinois basketball game and a $142.98 meal.

Jones' total also includes a $24.75 luncheon paid for by Michael Harrold, Express Scripts, $8.83 meal from David Hale, Missouri  Hospital Association, $13.44 and $14.09 meals from Thomas Krewson, Comcast, $37.68, $43.56, and $11.53 meals from Michael Gibbons, Peabody Energy, as well as $3 for cab fare, and $16.17, $49.13, and $9.75 meals from James Harris, the J. Harris Company.

The gifts will increase Jones' total for 2010 to more than $7,200. In the four years he has been in the House, Jones has accepted more than $18,000 worth of gifts.

The December totals continue a tendency chronicled earlier in The Turner Report. As noted last month:

New House Majority Leader and Ethics Committee chairman Timothy Jones, R-Eureka, received $1,463.05 worth of lobbyists' gifts in November, including $1,220 worth of tickets to the MU-KU football game, according to documents posted earlier this month on the Missouri Ethics Commission website.

Jones' total for the month does not include $251.67 worth of gifts to his wife and children, according to the documents.

The football tickets came courtesy of Matthew Forck, lobbyist for Ameren, $280; Craig Felzien, AT&T, $720; and John Kristan Jones, Sprint Nextel, $220.

Forck and Ameren also took care of $360.56 worth of meals and entertainment for Jones and his family on Nov. 13, according to the documents.

Including the gifts to his family, Jones has surpassed the $17,000 mark since he took office four years ago. His earlier gifts were chronicled inthe December 4 Turner Report :


This year, special interests have footed the bill for a dozen golf outings, to the tune of more than $1,500.
His most recent excursion (reports for November will  not be posted online until December 1, came October 4, when David Michael Jackson, the lobbyist for billionaire Rex Sinquefield paid the $375 for Jones to play in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame Tournament.
Other lobbyists joining in on Jones pay to play fun time were Craig Felzien, AT&T; Charles Simino, Missouri Cable Telecommunications Association (Simino also bought a $50 pair of sunglasses and paid for a $10 meal), Jorgen Schlemeier, Missouri Fire Service Alliance; David A. Smith, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield; Terry Briggs, Site Improvement Association; Travis Brown, AT&T; John R. Sondag, AT&T; Heath Clarkston, Affordable Equity Partners; and Brent Hemphill, Brent Hemphill and Associates.
Most of Jones' golf outings were in Missouri, but he also played at the lavish Torrey Pines Golf Course in San Diego while attending a taxpayer-financed junket to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) annual conference.
AT&T lobbyists Travis Brown and John R. Sondag paid for two rounds of golf for the conservative Republican, whose chief claim to fame has been as a plaintiff in the Birther lawsuit against President Barack Obama.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Same old story, talk a big story about cleaning up government and then get all you can get while you are in there. Someone needs to call him out on this. He should lead by example and not take any gifts while he is leading an ethics committee. That will not happen however. Talk the talk but don't walk the walk.

Anonymous said...

What liberal windbag Turner NEVER says is that Jones has done nothing illegal, unethical or immoral. What a cranky, old, hateful person Turner must be. He completely ignores Jones' long record of passing good public policy bills, of working across the aisle and excellent constituent service. Turner meanwhile simply wastes his life, hating away.