Harwell Failed to Report Involvement In Local Firm

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell has repeatedly failed to disclose her involvement in a corporation formed eight years ago.
State corporation records show Harwell and her husband Samuel have been listed as officers in Legacy One, Inc. in annual reports filed with the Tennessee Secretary of State from 2008 to 2015.
Beth Harwell is listed as secretary and Samuel Harwell as president. Both are also listed as directors. The company was incorporated in June of 2007.
Although all eight annual reports for the corporation list both Harwells as officers, the corporation is not listed in any annual financial disclosure reports Speaker Harwell filed with the state Ethics Commission from 2008 to the present. The reports call for the disclosure of sources of income, investments and positions held.
Harwell spokeswoman Kara Owen said that Legacy One was "a dormant corporation through the end of the last reporting period with no liabilities, revenue or expenses and the speaker had no ownership interest" in a similarly named real estate company, Legacy One Partnership
The Tennessee Governmental Ethics Reform Act requires public officials to disclose  "any positions held during the applicable reporting period, including, but not limited to, those of an officer, director, trustee, general partner, proprietor, or representative of any corporation, firm, partnership, or other business enterprise."
Last year Legacy One filed suit in Davidson Chancery Court charging that the man who sold six parcels to the firm  had breached their contracts when $1.25 million in liens were placed against the properties just before deeds were recorded. The suit filed last year was settled in less than a month on May 14.
According to the suit, Keith Barksdale of Santa Fe, NM sold family interests in land at 2111 and 2113 Belcourt Ave., property at 2300 West End Ave. in Nashville and an interest in property at 346 Main St. in Franklin to Legacy One.
Also sold to Legacy were Barksdale's interests in 109 23rd Ave. and 1803-1805 21st Ave. South also in Nashville.
The total sales price for all the parcels was just under $2.3 million. Records show Barksdale was conveying his and his family's interests in Buckhead Investments, the actual property holder.
The deeds were transferred in two separate transaction of $960,000 and $1.3 million. All but one of the properties are located in Nashville with some in Hillsboro Village and some in the West End. Tenants include a bank branch and restaurants.
The speaker was previously listed as an officer with her husband in another company called Big Time Toys, a Nashville firm that imports toys from China and has facilities in Hong Kong, according to the company website.
Big Time Toys and Big Time Hong Kong are listed on Harwell's recent ethics disclosure reports as  interest of her husband's.
In 2009 Harwell sought an opinion from then Attorney General Robert Cooper questioning the legality of a then pending bill which would set restrictions on imported toys containing toxic substances.
She asked if the proposal would violate the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution and if any such state law would be superseded by existing federal law.
Cooper in an  8-page opinion concluded that the state could in fact set its own standards. The bill, however,  never made it out of the legislature.
Big Time previously owned a property at 2820 Columbine in Nashville but it was transferred to Samuel Harwell in 2014 for no consideration.
The Speaker and her husband own a residence at 413 West Tyne in Belle Meade. Purchased for $875,000 in 1999, it is assessed for $1.5 million.
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