Amends TCA Title 5, Chapter 14.

This bill revises the County Purchasing Law in regard to conflicts of interest. Under present law, the county purchasing agent, members of the county purchasing commission, members of the county legislative body, and any other officials of the county are prohibited from: (1) Having a financial interest or a personal beneficial interest, direct or indirect, in any contract or purchase order for any supplies, materials, equipment or contractual services used by any department of the county government; and (2) Accepting or receiving, directly or indirectly, any money or anything of value from a person, firm or corporation to which any contract or purchase order may be awarded. A violation of either of the above provisions is a class D felony. The bill rewrites the above provisions to instead prohibit such persons from: (1) Having a direct interest in a contract or purchase order for supplies, materials, equipment, or contractual services used by or furnished to a department or agency of the county government. This bill defines "direct interest" as a contract with such person personally or with a business in which such person is the proprietor, a partner, or the person having the controlling interest in the business; and defines "controlling interest" to include the individual with the ownership or control of the largest number of outstanding shares owned by a single individual or corporation; (2) Having an indirect interest in the purchase of supplies, materials, equipment, or contractual services for the county unless the person publicly acknowledges the interest. A person who is not a member of a governing body and who is required to publicly acknowledge an indirect interest must do so by reporting the interest to the office of the county mayor to be compiled into a list that must be maintained as a public record. As used in this item (2), "indirect interest" means a contract in which a person is interested, but not directly so, and includes contracts where the person is directly interested and is the sole supplier of goods or services in the county; and (3) Accepting or receiving, directly or indirectly, from a person, firm, or corporation to which a contract or purchase order may be awarded, by rebate, gift, or otherwise, money or anything of value whatsoever, or a promise, obligation, or contract for future reward or compensation. Under this bill, if an official subject to the above provisions commits a violation, then the official will forfeit all compensation earned by the official under the contract and will be removed from office. An official removed from office pursuant to this bill will be ineligible for the same or similar position for a period of 10 years following the date of the violation.