NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — An exclusive NewsChannel 5 investigation has uncovered new questions about whether employees in Nashville DA Glenn Funk's office crossed the line, using your tax dollars during last spring's campaign to help get the boss reelected.
That months-long investigation would eventually lead to damaging emails showing campaign work being done using office computers, as well as evidence of an attempt to recreate vacation requests for one employee who was volunteering for Funk's campaign.
This latest twist in the investigation of the DA's office follows questions raised earlier this week about a part-time employee Funk had on the payroll, raking in $75,000 a year with little evidence of what the employee does for the money.
Related story: Nashville DA’s part-time employee pockets $75,000 per year with little evidence of actual work
The questions arose from tips during Funk's campaign for reelection, along with allegations of impropriety that emerged during the lead-up to May's Democratic primary.
Back in December, Funk and his employees hosted a holiday luncheon at the courthouse — his banners hanging throughout — bringing an accusation from opponent Sara Beth Myers that the DA himself was violating a state law known as the Little Hatch Act.
"It's essentially a public-corruption, election law that prevents public officials campaigning for office using government property to display campaign signs," Myers explained.
Those signs, which the DA had used for his campaign, he claimed weren't really campaign signs; they were office signs.
"There is no campaign literature here. There will be no fundraising here. I am not going to even ask for a vote today," Funk told NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
Then, during the campaign, when Funk was engaged in a candidates forum with his opponents, the DA brought in first one of his employees, then a second one was enlisted to help answer the questions. And it happened again and again — all of it from government offices during the middle of the government work day.
Again, Myers accused him of violating the Little Hatch Act, but Funk insisted it wasn't an issue since those employees would be using vacation time.
And as early voting began, NewsChannel 5 Investigates began receiving tips about DA employees being asked to work the polls for the boss - with not a lot of attention paid to making sure they were taking that time off from work.
Under DA Office rules, "all employees shall fill out a PTO Report and have it approved and signed ... at least five (5) days prior to their proposed vacation."
So NewsChannel 5 set up surveillance throughout much of the early voting period, continuing through election day on May 3.
Then, on May 4, we asked for the PTO forms.
Records show that set off a mad scramble inside the DA's office, comparing employee swipe records from the office security system to the PTO forms that had been submitted, pushing employees to submit forms for days they were absent.
Weeks later, they finally produced the records.
We showed the results to retired state auditor Dennis Dycus.
"The policy is not worth the paper it's written on," Dycus responded.
We followed up, "Why is that?"
"They're not complying with it."
Take, for example, April 22, the day we spotted Funk aide Ken Whitehouse working an early voting location in Green Hills, along with the candidate’s wife.
Swipe records show Whitehouse wouldn't show up at the office for days.
And when we got his PTO records, that time off wasn’t actually approved by his supervisor until May 5 — the day after we filed our request
On May 3, we had spotted the office spokesperson, former NewsChannel 5 anchor Steve Hayslip, working for the campaign, but his PTO would not be submitted for almost a month.
Click on image above to view selected PTO forms
Funk's office insisted in a written statement that it's no big deal that people may have been working for the campaign without taking vacation time until after we asked.
"When employees do take personal time off, this office does not split hairs over when they turn in PTO forms, as long as they turn them in," the statement read.
Dycus noted, "That's not what the policy says."
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked, "And if the PTO forms are approved after someone starts asking questions?"
"Well, first of all," he answered, "they haven't complied with their policy because they start being approved after somebody asks the questions."
Then, there's Michael Joyner, a politically connected North Nashville pastor who had been hired by Funk.
We had spotted Joyner working the polls day after day after day — the last time on Election Day.
Funk's office gave us PTO forms documenting Joyner's vacation days when he was working on the campaign, including one showing that May 3 was his last PTO day for the year — again, signed nearly a month after we requested the records.
But through sources in the office, we knew those were not Michael Joyner's original PTO forms. The originals showed he was already running low on vacation days before he started working the polls.
The ones they gave us, someone in the DA's office apparently created them just for us.
Compare original, produced PTO forms below:
So who's idea was that?
We caught up with Joyner as he left work, hoping he could help answer that question.
"I feel kinda like you're pushing me as if I done done something wrong," Joyner told NewsChannel 5 Investigates.
NewsChannel 5 responded, "No, I wondering who above you created this forms."
"Well, you have to find that out on your own," Joyner said, "because I didn't investigate that and I didn't give you those papers. So I don't know what's on those papers."
One of Joyner's original PTO forms show he requested to be off on May 27, after the election when he was supposedly out of days. His calendar shows he was off that day, and payroll records show he got paid.
Security records do not show him swiping into the office at any point that day.
But Funk's office would not give us that form and the other originals until after we warned that, if they were destroying records, that could be a crime.
"This is the first time I've seen two different set of papers," Joyner insisted.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates followed up, "And are these your signatures on both of them?"
"Yes, it is," he agreed.
"So how did that happen?"
"You've got to ask them that."
When the DA's Office refused to respond to our written inquiries, we caught up with Funk as he prepared to enter a meeting of the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference.
We asked, "Whose idea was it to create a second set of PTO forms for Michael Joyner?"
"There's never been two sets of PTO forms," Funk claimed, despite the fact that his own office had provided us with two different sets.
The Nashville DA insisted we weren't really seeing what we thought we were seeing.
"There's always been a situation where people who have a PTO request in, who change their mind about the way they're going to be using their PTO. All that happens is that they fill out a new form," he said.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates reminded him, "Your office went back and backdated a new set of PTO forms."
"We have never backdated anything — never," he again claimed.
But the original PTO form for some of the dates Joyner worked the polls was approved April 18; the new one created by Funk's office was backdated to April 13, a date that just happened to fit the PTO policy.
NewsChannel 5 asked Dennis Dycus, "If you as an auditor were to come across this, you would say?"
"We've got to look at this, yes," he answered. "There's definitely a question here."
What NewsChannel 5 was not able to determine was whether those PTO reports being reworked before being given to us was just an isolated incident or part of a larger pattern where we did not catch the efforts to manipulate the records.
We asked Funk, "Did you personally approve of creating the new set of forms?"
The district attorney did not answer that specific question.
"We never backdate anything, and everything that was ever done by our office has just been under standard operating procedure," he continued.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates also obtained flyers that had been distributed around the DA's Office, urging employees to attend campaign events.
Through a series of public records requests, we would also obtain government emails where office spokesperson Steve Hayslip was passing along so-called "In Community Campaign pictures." Those pics showed the boss visiting a local barber shop where people wore "Re-elect Glenn Funk" T-shirts.
There was another office email about a DA candidate forum, suggesting "it would be great if there were some folks from the office present."
One laid out talking points — like a claimed 95% conviction rate — for campaign materials, as well as one where Hayslip suggested a campaign message called "Safe City" — a version of which would eventually be aired on local television.
The spokesperson also used his government email to discuss the distribution of campaign signs to office employees.
"It's inappropriate," Dycus said. "You're not supposed to have political activity and what-not on a public computer."
No question about it?
"No question about it."
And that, the retired state auditor said, could raise questions about potential violations of state law.
NewsChannel 5 Investigates asked, "This raises questions that someone else should investigate?"
"Absolutely," Dycus agreed.
Under state law, it would be the Tennessee attorney general who would be the one to investigate.
So are these questions on his radar?
Right now, we just don't know.
Do you have information for our investigation? Email us: investigate@newschannel5.com
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