Pay hike'skey sponsor redecorates House office
Sunday, April 22, 2007By BOB LOWRY Times Staff Writer bob.lowry@htimes.com
Newton, Black spend about $19,500 of taxpayer money
MONTGOMERY - The lawmaker who sponsored the Alabama Legislature's 62 percent pay raise and a colleague have since March 2 spent more than $19,500 in taxpayer money to redecorate their state House offices with items such as a $455 French urn lamp and a $463 pencil pedestal table.
Rep. Demetrius Newton, D-Birmingham, House speaker pro tem, purchased 82 items for his office, according to records in the House Accounting Office.
The invoices were dated March 3, March 21 and April 2. A third invoice, not yet recorded, was for a wall-mounted 20-inch plasma LCD television set purchased for $278.
The payments were made to B. Barganier Interior Accents in Montgomery.
Some of the more expensive items for Newton's office included six chairs, four of them leather, totaling $2,782; artwork totaling $2,165; three mirrors for $759; a settee for $495; a Manhattan table for $480; and a nickel-plated table for $373.
Other items include a plant with iron urn, $198; oval planter, $198; wood box, $173; porcelain jar, $173; tulip bowl, $123; glass and brass box, $123; a box, $90; magazine holder, $81; tissue box holder, $67; standing Buddha, $33; and two porcelain dog figures, $40.
Newton, who sponsored the March 8 resolution to raise lawmakers' pay to $49,500 a year, said he decided to "do a little redecorating" because his office "was the pits and we have a lot of visitors coming in here."
An attorney for the City of Birmingham, Newton became the first black elected speaker pro tem in 1998. At that time, he became the first speaker pro tem to be assigned a state car and a driver.
The Senate president pro tem, Sen. Hinton Mitchem, D-Union Grove, also has a state car and driver.
Newton said he didn't know the cost of the redecoration of his 360-square-foot office, but he began thinking about redoing his office after Rep. Marcel Black, D-Tuscumbia, began redecorating his office across the hall.
"My secretary asked me if she could try to do something here, and I told her, 'Yes,' and she did the decorating," Newton said. "I wouldn't know what anything cost. I have no idea, but we have to stay within our little budget and that was done. I don't know where the $11,000 figure came from - I doubt it (the amount) very seriously."
The work on Black's office was done by Lisa Franklin, an interior designer for B. Barganier
When Franklin married a short time later and became Lisa Peavey, she worked on Newton's office. At that time she also became the daughter-in-law of House deputy clerk Joy Murphy and Senate public relations director Mike Murphy.
Newton, who has been a House member since 1986, said he didn't know how much money is in his office budget.
"The clerk approves things we need from time to time, and he tells us what we can do and what we can't do," he said. "I'm not in the budgeting process and I don't ever really know what the budgeting process is for us."
Newton said if his office needs something, he simply checks with House Clerk Greg Pappas.
Pappas said Newton and Black, as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, have annual budgets between $25,000 to $30,000.
Other committees with similar funding, which is lumped under the clerk's office, include the Education Appropriations Committee, Government Appropriations Committee and Rules Committee.
The chairmen of those committees, Reps. Richard Lindsey, D-Centre; Rep. John Knight, D-Montgomery; and Rep. Ken Guin, D-Carbon Hill; have not made those type of expenditures, according to the House Budget Office.
"They can't buy coffee or food with it, but they can buy office supplies and furniture," said Pappas.
As to how they spend it, Pappas said, "It's not my call. All I am is the paying authority. I sign the paperwork."
House Speaker Seth Hammett did not return calls from The Times to his office and home in Andalusia seeking comment. Black spent $7,707.25 on 44 items to redecorate his office.
The major expenditures for Black's office included $2,227 for artwork, $463 for a pencil pedestal table, $900 for two armchairs, $608 for two lamps, $463 for a cart wheel, $173 for a tea caddy, $120 for two terra cotta urns and $98 for bookends.
Black, an attorney, said it was the first money he had spent to redecorate his office in the 16 years he has been in the Legislature. Previously, he said, his only purchases were for a copy machine and a fax machine.
"I don't think it (the amount) is unheard of," he said. "I updated it to make it look nice for people."
Black said his secretary worked with the interior designer to refurbish his 312-square-foot office.
"I'd been procrastinating and then I decided some time around the first of the year to go ahead and do it," he said.
Rep. Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, the chairman of the Alabama Republican Party and the House minority leader, said he was "shocked" at the expenditures. I don't think the taxpayers are going to look too kindly on it," he said. "It doesn't give the taxpayers much confidence that the Legislature is spending its money wisely."
Hubbard said all of the furnishings in his office are simple desks and chairs provided by the state for all lawmakers.
"I'm just shocked that taxpayer dollars are used for Jess Brown, a political science professor at Athens State University, said the amount of the expenditures "may not be a big deal," but the public could view it differently because of the pay raise.
"The timing on this is just horrible from the standpoint of the Legislature," he said. "It couldn't be worse timing."
Because of their leadership positions in the House, Brown said, Newton and Black are entitled to "a reasonable, nice and functional office."
But he said many taxpayers will wonder whether the two lawmakers used good judgment in purchasing some of the "very pricey items."
"The voter disgust will be at a very high level. I see voter rage," he said. "This is not a Democratic thing or a Republican thing. This is across the board. It's tough to look at that list and conclude that that's beyond the pale of how public money should be expended."
Brown, a one-time lobbyist for the City of Huntsville and the University of Alabama in Huntsville, said the expenditures by Newton's office average out to roughly $33 per square foot.
"I doubt the typical Alabamian would spend $33,000 to put urns and artwork in half of a 2,000-square-foot house," he said. "Maybe a millionaire would."
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