Attorney General Jack Conway has come through for his buddies at Kentucky Retirement Systems (KRS), just this week helping to strip the term limit language out of HB 480.
Jack needs buddies like KRS to help him retire his Senate debt, since there is little interest from the general political donor world to do so. This makes even more sense if some of the campaign debt is owned to Campaign Consultant and Placement Agent Mark Riddle.
Jack has seemed to be able to keep the mainstream press off KRS’s back except for one notable exception.
The Herald Leader was the only newspaper that wrote about the Finance audit in 2009 which proved KRS management lied repeatedly about the land deal. The Herald Leader is also the only newspaper that has reported the Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of the placement agents.
The Herald leader is the only local newspaper to write about stripping out the term limits out of HB 480 the placement agent and term limit bill.
In our earlier post we pointed out that in 2009 the Attorney General’s office, in the days prior to a filing deadline, came up with a tortured and convoluted opinion (OAG9006) that overturned the term limit language in 2008's comprehensive pension reform bill (HB 1) that effected KRS.
In our earlier post we pointed out that in 2009 the Attorney General’s office, in the days prior to a filing deadline, came up with a tortured and convoluted opinion (OAG9006) that overturned the term limit language in 2008's comprehensive pension reform bill (HB 1) that effected KRS.
I’ve marveled before about the coincidences surrounding KRS and the Attorney General like nearly $100,000 in donations to Conway’s Senate campaign received in the months following the AG decision from money managers and attorneys associated with public pensions.
One coincidence was a $4800 donation in 2009 by James Shircliff of River Road Asset Management. In late 2010 River Road was hired to manage $20 million in KRS assets.
Another coincidence was that eight law partners of Barroway Topaz Kessler Meltzer and Check, a leading Philadelphia law firm. Barroway et al is involved in stockholder class action suits involving public person funds gave Jack nearly $30,000 combined. Barroway Topaz gives across the country including $30,000 in New York.
Still another coincidence was $2400 from Myron Cherry, a Chicago attorney. Mr. Cherry is a “Pay for Play” expert. In October 2008, Cherry surfaced as "Individual H" in a Rezko fraud indictment that involves pension investments made by the Teachers' Retirement System of Illinois.
I wonder if the coincidences will continue until the campaign debt is paid.
1 comment:
Owensboro messenger blames Cherry not Jack on stripping term limits
http://charlestondailymail.com/ap/ApTopStories/201102220730
Owensboro (Ky.) Messenger-Inquirer on the state's underfunded retirement system:
Lawmakers have made little progress this session in addressing the underfunded retirement system for Kentucky's public employees.
And that elephant isn't leaving the room until they have the courage to close the existing shortfall and develop a system moving forward that promotes employee contributions and moves away from defined benefits.
They did, however, take a baby step forward, when the House State Government Committee unanimously approved House Bill 480. The bill would ban the state pension fund from paying any fees to placement agents - middlemen who help sell private investments to the public pension system.
These agents often have political connections and use that clout to make significant commissions on the backs of Kentucky's public employees. State Auditor Crit Luallen found last year that since 2004, the Kentucky Retirement System has paid out about $15 million in fees to placement agents.
Admittedly, that's barely a drop in the bucket for a retirement system that is underfunded by billions of dollars. But Kentucky has to start somewhere in getting its retirement system in order, and paying out millions in fees that are more political handouts than necessity is just bad business. ...
While the House committee did the right thing in pushing this legislation forward, it didn't, however, go as far as it should have. Rep. Mike Cherry, the Princeton Democrat who filed the legislation and who chairs the committee, removed a provision that would have set term limits for board members for the retirement system and removed an order to have the state auditor review the system every five years.
Cherry said he did so because he wanted to see what recommendation Luallen - who is reviewing the retirement system - might make. But he removed the provisions after discussions with Mike Burnside, who is executive director of the Kentucky Retirement System.
We have no idea what went on in those discussions, but it certainly raises a red flag when legislators let the director of a state agency influence how that agency will be governed and monitored. ...
Post a Comment