Six Months

Most of the time when it comes to money and government it’s the politicians that get most of the ink. The truth is there are usually a few people behind the scene that do most of the work and the politicians are window dressing.

One such guy is John Cubine. Cubine was until today the Senior Adviser for Policy and Budget at the Lexington Fayette Urban County Government (LFUCG).

From the Herald-Leader:

John Cubine, Mayor Jim Newberry's senior adviser for policy and budget, has resigned. Cubine's last day will be Thursday. During Newberry's budget address Tuesday, he gave a special thank you to Cubine for doing "an outstanding job developing this budget. He is the consummate public finance professional, and his help has been invaluable."

Here is a little of Cubine’s background from the LFUCG web site.

John Cubine is a veteran state employee, with extensive experience in budgeting and financial management. Cubine came from the State Auditor’s Office, where he served as Director of the Division of Financial Audit. He was Deputy Secretary of the Governor’s Executive Cabinet during the Wilkinson administration, served as Deputy Director for Budget Review for the Legislative Research Commission and was Policy and Budget Director in the Cabinet for Human Resources. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Louisville, where he has also done post graduate work in Community Development.

So why is this worth a post?

Cubine started working for LFUCG last fall. The November 7 edition of the employee newsletter announced his joining the merged government.

Now about 6 months later he leaves LFUCG.

From the Executive Branch Ethics Commission:

A current or former officer or elected official is prohibited for six months following termination of employment from accepting employment or compensation from any person or business that does business with, or is regulated by, the state in a matter in which he was directly involved during the last 36 months of his state tenure.

And from the Kentucky Retirement Systems:

Employees who are less than Normal Retirement Age at retirement can return to full-time employment in the same or similar position after being retired 6 calendar months.

Simple, Cubine is in his mid 50’s and I don’t see him packing it in and doing something trivial like running a blog. He will be going somewhere professionally; my guess is somewhere in the Beshear administration or with a company contracting for serious bucks with the administration.

Cubine is a talented guy with a ton of experience, something the Beshear administration needs desperately.