Serving the Pork

Let’s take a minute to look at how politicians pass out the pork.

Here is a press release from the Governor’s office.

Gov. and Mrs. Steve Beshear today launched Kentucky’s Adventure Tourism initiative in Knott County. This plan opens more areas of the state as tourist destinations for biking, hiking, camping, boating, fishing, hunting, off-roading and horseback riding.

“Here in Kentucky we can offer wilderness, with the Daniel Boone National Forest, the Cumberland Mountains, the Red River Gorge and a set of lakes and rivers unmatched by any other state,” said Gov. Beshear.

Kentucky’s Adventure Tourism initiative allows the state to enter into agreements with private property owners for the public use of land for outdoor activities without fear of facing liability issues.

This all sounds good right, more tourism, more money for economically distressed county, good public relations for the Governor and maybe a few bucks for private property owners.

But I’m not sure how this really works. You see, this program looks to be a legacy from the Fletcher administration. The Kentucky Flex-E Grant Program for implementation of the comprehensive Adventure Tourism Plan for economically distressed ARC Counties has been around since fiscal year 2006.

The money is administered by GOLD (Governor’s Office for Local Development) these are the waiters in the pork passing process.

According to the application guidelines the only entities eligible to apply for Kentucky Flex-E Grants are:

• Local units of government (including special districts, area development districts (ADDs), school districts) and post secondary education institutions in or serving distressed Appalachian Kentucky counties.

• Non-profit organizations and citizen groups located in or serving distressed counties which have an on-going mission and an established, administrative organization that supports pursuit of the mission.

I don’t see the local property owners being involved unless they are part of the local political power structure, like say the Knott County Fiscal Court.

I don’t know if the Adventure Tourism Park System, in Knott County, is involved in this little pork passing exercise? But it looks like it could be.

We Make Things Happen Corporation, in partnership with Summit Engineering, Barge Waggoner Sumner & Cannon and Economic Research Associates have been commissioned by Knott County Fiscal Court to assist in developing an Adventure Tourism Park System made up of a series of trails throughout the county.

Now I know it is probably only coincidence that folks that work for Summit Engineering, according to the Registry of Election Finance, have donated $86,800.00 to various political candidates, including Steve Beshear.

And I’m sure that by spending money with one company that as most of it’s’ offices in Tennessee and Alabama and another company with it’s' office in Los Angeles that those bucks will be churning through the economy.

And who could possibly question spending money with a Mom and Pop operation in Bowling Green whose references include Frankfort bureaucrats?

Doesn’t this whole thing just smell a little funny? Talk about a piece of government accounting that looks like it needs a financial audit.

Moral Values and Neurotoxins

Yesterday, I got an email from Jonathan Miller. Well actually I got two emails from Miller’s group the Compassionate Community. I guess the spam software belched, and yes, I did sign up for the group.

The email was hyping Kentucky’s First Lady Jane Beshear and her project of the Green Team and began with this:

Happy Earth Day!

I'm pleased to tell you that in celebration of the holiday, First Lady Jane Beshear just announced her vision to make the Governor's Mansion and all Kentucky homes more energy efficient and environmentally friendly.

The email concludes with a link to a Facebook page:

So, please join us by signing up for the Green Team at greenteam.ky.gov and/or join our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=15267901982.

I know that a lot of the First Ladies have pet projects. The projects allow the First Lady to do “good work” and get good media attention. Usually the projects are more about projecting image that actually accomplishing anything.

I still remember Martha Wilkinson (Wally the Weasel’s wife) poster. Martha, dressed in a 1940’s WAC outfit, was trying to get volunteers for her GED Army.

So a couple of questions:

First, did Miller use this opportunity to touch base with supporters? I don’t understand the use of the Compassionate Community to promote a state government website. Isn’t the standard press release enough? Does the linking of government supported activities and a personal website promoting a book give anyone else heartburn?

Greetings and welcome to The Compassionate Community, where we believe public policy should reflect the fundamental moral value of compassion for others.
On this site, you can:
Order copies of the book (Now in paperback!);

Second, the Facebook page for the Green Team has Jonathan Miller as the creator. Does the Secretary of Finance really have the time to sit around and create a Facebook page? Let’s hope some staffer did the work and just put Miller’s name on the page.

Third, did anyone actually do any research before they put the Green Team web page on the Internet?

One of the tips from the First Lady was to:

Replace regular incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent light bulbs (cfl)

CFLs use 60% less energy than a regular bulb. This simple switch will save about 300 pounds of CO2 a year.

Of course this would be a great idea if there wasn’t that pesky neurotoxin problem:

….the bulbs contain small amounts of mercury, a neurotoxin, and the companies and federal government haven't come up with effective ways to get Americans to recycle them.

I guess the thing that bothers me about this little project isn’t the cause; I’ve been accused of being a liberal tree hugger myself.

What bothers me is the amount of time and effort put forth by Miller and staff on a public relations exercise and the linking of a personal promotion website to a Kentucky government project.

Don’t they have anything else to do?

Doesn’t anyone ever think about how things might look before they do these things?

Ethics and Hacking - Follow-up - Part Deux

A third source has sent me an email regarding the Ethics and Hacking post. Seems the Executive Branch Ethics Commission has been contacted about the issues raised in the post.

….concerned citizen has sent a note to the EBEC about Mr. Rutledge and his various sins….

Along with the Auditor of Public Accounts this makes two agencies that are aware of the issues. Will they do anything, that’s the real question?

I would also like Jack Conway to will quit hyping the Cybersafety legislation and take a look at the potential loss of millions of tax payer dollars. We know he can talk the talk, but can he walk the walk?

Ethics and Hacking - Follow-up

Two different individuals have informed me the post on possible hacking of Commonwealth Office of Technology servers was passed on to upper management at the Auditor of Public Accounts.

Crit Luallen’s administration of this office has been less than inspiring, let’s hope that they will take the ball and run on this issue.

I don’t have much hope for the other possible players.

Jack Conway’s idea of fighting cyber-crime appears to be having retired cops pose as teens to arrest perverts. While he issues press releases and sucks up to the bully from Burkesville.

For Jonathan Miller, I think having Secretary of Finance on his resume will be a lot more fun than actually doing the job.

The entire Executive Branch Ethics Commission was appointed by Ernie Fletcher; I doubt they want to take a hard look at another Fletcher appointee.

I’ll keep watching.

Ethics and Hacking

From an anonymous source in the Commonwealth Office of Technology:

Before Mark Rutledge left, our AD servers were hacked by somebody outside the network. They covered it up and made sure everybody was scared to talk. We also deployed voip to many state offices. That server has also been hacked and depending on who you believe, there have been between $250,000 and $6,000,000 is international calls made. We can't seem to track down who did it.

Lastly, Mark Rutledge went to work for McAfee. That alone should be an ethics violation since he was responsible for their enterprise contract with us. Well, last week he made a sales call to the technology staff over at Education. That should really be a problem.

What does this mean? Let me interpret some of the techno-speak.

First the AD servers are the Active Directory Servers; the over-simplified explanation is that these machines are the master servers for the entire computer network. If you control these servers you control the network. If someone did hack these computers they would have access to all state records, personal information, financial information, email -- everything.

To cover up such a hack would be an act of major misfeasance. The last time Kentucky state government was the victim of such a hack Auditor Ed Hatchett blew the whistle.

Second, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a technology that allows you to make voice calls using a broadband Internet connection instead of a regular (or analog) phone line. The concerns here are not only how much money was lost, possibly up to $6,000,000.00, but what was the nature of the calls?

Even if the financial loss was only $250,000.00, who runs up a quarter million dollar phone bill talking to his girlfriend spending the semester in France? Isn’t this something that crosses state lines and is therefore a federal matter? Wouldn’t the FBI or the Department of Homeland Defense be involved?

Regarding Mark Rutledge, the former Chief Information Officer of the Commonwealth, working for McAfee:

The state contract for McAfee is through Dell Computers, so that may technically mean that McAfee is not doing business with the state. However, the state does buy a lot of McAfee software and if Rutledge has already been making sales calls then it looks like someone is tap dancing around the rules.

The following post employment restrictions are placed on state employees.

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.

There are a number of questions here that could stand a little sunlight.

Let us hope that someone is paying attention.

A number of people and agencies have the authority to look into this: Auditor Crit Luallen , the Executive Branch Ethics Commission, Secretary of Finance Jonathan Miller, or Attorney General Jack Conway.

And one other thing the reason I got an anonymous email from a COT employee is because “Posting on blogs or any other interactive media is strictly prohibited.”

Racial Profiling in State Hiring

Update:


Senior moments are a bitch, so is screwing up and not completely researching a post. Both have happened here.

Inspite of a not so great summary that says nothing about foster and adoptive families, which is what this bill is about, let me do a mea culpa for not doing my homework and putting out a sloppy posting and even an apology to Stan Lee who appears to be one of the good guys here.



I’m sorry but this strikes me as a totally unnecessary addition to the state bureaucracy.

HB 666 (BR 1074) - D. Owens, R. Meeks
AN ACT relating to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Create a new section of KRS Chapter 194A to establish the Office on Racial Disportionality within the cabinet secretary's office; specify duties of the office to include training, targeted recruitment and employment efforts, data collection, and strategic planning; require the department and its contractors to collect and analyze data by race, evaluate and implement a plan to address disportionality; require annual report to the Governor, Interim Joint Committee on Health and Welfare, and the public each year.

Before you start calling me a racist, I don’t care if you are black, brown, yellow, red, white or some combination of the above. I don’t care if you are male, female or transgender. I don’t care if you are Baptist, Catholic, Jew, or following the teachings of Islam. I don’t care if you are straight, gay or bisexual.

When it comes to hiring people to work for the state, I do care if you are competent. I do care if you are ethical, honest and trustworthy. I do care if you are the most qualified person for the job.

This bill seeks to institutionalize hiring based on skin color, not a good criterion for hiring and certainly not a good criterion for establishing another state agency.

Oh, and this thing passed the House 95 to 0, with 5 not voting.

Even Stan Lee voted for this thing. I wonder what his supporters think of this vote?

Didn't Your Mother Teach You Anything?

If Sen. David Williams and Rep. Harry Moberly didn’t have so much power to screw things up then watching them in a pissing contest might be fun.

But given their behavior lately the voters should send both of them home.

A proposed overhaul of Kentucky's ethics laws has plunged two of the state's most powerful lawmakers into a quarrel that could bring havoc to upcoming negotiations over the state budget.

A flare-up between Senate President David Williams and House budget committee chairman Harry Moberly Jr. brought accusations of unethical activity and name-calling on Friday.

Both of these guys need to grow up and get over their over-inflated sense of self importance and actually do the jobs the people of Kentucky expect them to do.

KRS Land Deal - Another Look

One encouraging sign that Governor Steve Beshear is finally living up to some of his promises on ethics in State Government is the reopening of this investigation of Kentucky Retirement Systems (KRS). I understand that auditors in the Finance Cabinet are looking into the bad land deal made by KRS.

As posted in “Texas Doubt Em” even other states have cried foul on the KRS land deal. Then there is the $2.9 million 30% jump in salaries reported in the 2006 financial.

There appears to be discrepancies between the 2006 & 2007 Comprehensive Annual Financial Reports (CAFR) which would directly contradict a form KRS filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

This begs for an investigation.

The recently released, November, 2007 CAFR appears to be trying to sweep under the carpet a number of issues from the 2006 land deal.

The 2007 report barely mentions the 2006 land deal except to say the $700,000 purchase was written down to $136,000 and that the “Management Overide of Internal Controls, was addressed adequately by management.”

The fiduciary insurance claim for the property loss was fully outlined in the 2006 CAFR, but no resolution of the claim is even mentioned in the 2007 CAFR. It is like it never existed. There should at least be a note saying why the claim was rejected in the 2007 CAFR.

The IRS issue from pg. 71 of the 2006 CAFR disappears as well:

“In addition, there was a commingling of funds between the Pension and Insurance Funds to financé the acquisition of the Alternative Investment. This is in violation of the Plan Document and the Internal Revenue Code.”

Again this serious IRS issue is not even worth a mention in the 2007 CAFR or audit.

The actual entity that made the bad land purchase is KRS Perimeter West Inc. KRS Perimeter West Inc. is not even a government entity but a non-profit safe from any state scrutiny. Like all non-profits it files a tax return called a 990.

On the 990, longtime KRS System board members Susan Horne & Bobby Henson are listed as board members of KRS Perimeter West, Inc. and KRS attorney William Thielen is listed as the contact and no one else.

This non-profit off balance sheet subsidiary of KRS in 2006 paid out $85,000 in Janitorial services, $50,000 in management fees, paid out repairs and maintenance $144,000 all to one firm, Summit Realty owned by Bill Crumbaugh. For the year ending 2006, the IRS-990 does not mention the receiving of a $700,000 loan from the KRS Health plan, and there is no mention of even purchasing the Church property for 2006.

This whole land deal is very confusing and contradictory.

From the November 6, 2006 Herald-Leader story and 2006 CAFR let’s take a look at the facts:

The property was for sale since 2000 and KRS had many opportunities to buy it over 5 years.

In December 2005 veterinarian Caroline G. Taylor buys the building from Holly Hill Church of Christ on 2 acres for $450,000.

Two months later in February 2006 the KRS Health Plan loans the non-profit KRS Perimeter West, Inc $700,000.

KRS Perimeter West hires the Summit Realty group to help them buy the property from the Veterinarian for $700,000 in February.

On May 1, 2006, KRS appraisal said it was worth $135,000 and books a loss entirely for the KRS Health Plan of $565,000.

So this means the KRS Health Plan government entity gave a gift of $565,000 to the non-profit a violation of IRS rules.

Let’s get back to the $2.9 million 30% jump in salaries. KRS management must have felt that this did not look good so they just restated them.

On the 2007 financial statements they just restated the 2006 salaries from $13.04 million down to $11.15 million. This is nearly $2 million and there is absolutely no explanation in the CAFR by management or in the actual audit by Carpenter & Mountjoy of why 2006 salaries were restated.

Some questions that need answers:

Why does the KRS real estate consultant who botched the Church deal continue to collect around $275,000 a year in fees from the non-profit?

Given KRS obsession with local real estate why was this never discussed with the board or by the Executive Director from 2000-2005?

Why was there no board approval from both the KRS system board and the board of KRS Perimeter West?

This property has been for sale next to the headquarters for 6 years, and these real estate fanatics did not notice?

Why didn't the appraiser or real estate agent say anything nor do anything about this transaction?

This contradictions between the 2006 and 2007 financial reports and the IRS filings is very disturbing and worthy of a state investigation.

Let's hope the Finance Cabinet will be able to pick up the ball where the State Auditor and Attorney General have dropped it.

Politics Not Ethics

One more comment on the Bluegrass Freedom Fund. The fund had contributors other than gambling interests.

Disregarding this window dressing email from the Bluegrass Freedom Fund:

CONGRATULATIONS, KENTUCKY!

House of Representatives Unanimously Passes Ethics Reform

Bluegrass Freedom Fund Urges State Senate to Join Grassroots Effort

The Bluegrass Freedom Fund congratulates the Kentucky House of Representatives for unanimously (94-0) passing ethics reform on Wednesday, January 30, 2008. We urge the State Senate to join this grassroots effort to pass important anti-corruption legislation this session. Our advocacy on behalf of ethics reform, which began last year, is one big step closer to becoming law.

Call your State Senator today and urge them to support strong ethics reform.

The purpose of the Fund was to put Steve Beshear in the Governor’s Mansion. Ethics reform may be an unintentional by product, but the purpose was political control. The primary drivers (contributors) want Casino Gambling. Other major contributors (labor unions) wanted the Republicans out. Their objective was the same, even if their motivations were different.

This was politics, pure and simple, and had nothing to do with ethics.

Too Much Bling

From the Herald-Leader:

The Bluegrass Freedom Fund, an independent campaign group, raised $3,150,000, of which 70 percent -- more than $2.2 million -- came from gambling and equine interests, according to tax documents filed just before midnight Thursday.

Who knew that a passion for ethical government sprang from the horse and casino interests? I’m only going down to the $50,000 table because, quite frankly I couldn’t stand to do any more.

Please click the links.


HORSE AND CASINO INTERESTS

• $1 million from William Yung, president of Northern Kentucky-based development company Columbia Sussex, which owns several casinos and hotels, including the embattled Tropicana Hotel and Resort in Atlantic City and the Aztar in Evansville, Ind.

• $250,000 from Churchill Downs Inc., the Louisville racetrack's parent, that is looking for a casino.

• $250,000 from Phoenix Capital, a limited liability company formed in August by Keeneland, the Lexington thoroughbred track.

• $250,000 from EP Acquisitions in Louisville, which is owned by Ronald Geary, who bought Ellis Park in Henderson and also is interested in casinos.

• $125,000 from Turfway Park in Florence, which is co-owned by Keeneland and Harrah's.

• $60,000 from Lexington Trots Breeders Association, which owns The Red Mile harness racing track.

• $50,000 from Hideout of Lincoln County, LLC, of Palm Desert, Calif., owned by R.D. Hubbard, who has apparently recently dropped out of the Sprint Racing Partners seeking a quarter horse racetrack in London, Ky.

• $50,000 from Edward Allred, owner of Los Alamitos Race Course in California, who has also dropped out of Sprint.

(Fast Eddie Allred runs the nation's largest privately held chain of abortion clinics. His Family Planning Associates Medical Group generates $70 million in annual revenue and some $5 million in profit.)

• $50,000 from Will Farish of Versailles, who owns Lane's End Farm.

• $50,000 from Tracy Farmer, the Midway horse farm owner who staunchly backed Gov. Steve Beshear.

Air Heads

OK, I give. These guys don’t have a clue about public perception.

Surely, Steve Beshear has a friend, or a friend of a friend, who owns a private plane and would like to spend some quality time with the Governor.

From Mark Hebert:

During his campaign for governor, Steve Beshear said he wouldn't fly to campaign stops in the state airplane. That statement came as Gov. Fletcher was being lambasted for using the state plane for the dual purpose of attending political fundraisers and official functions on the same trip.

Well. on Monday Beshear used the state airplane to make three stops in west Kentucky, two of which could be construed as political stops.......

Vicki Glass says the governor will make a "reasonable" reimbursement to the state based on todays "official and political" activities.

Why not just avoid the problem, don't take the plane to political events.

Enlightened Self Interest

I am in favor of letting universities issue bonds for construction projects. It streamlines the process. It makes sense. But when you are talking about this kind of money it’s always good to know who is really going to make a buck.

From PolWatchers:

The state House, for the fourth year running, passed a measure allowing public universities to sell bonds for constructing campus projects without those moves counting against the state government's total debt.

While the bill -- sponsored by Rep. Bob Damron, D-Nicholasville -- passed the chamber unanimously by a 91-0 vote, it only sailed through after a lengthy debate over the concept of prevailing wage.

Rep. Tim Moore, R-Elizabethtown, said on the floor that he considered attaching an amendment to Damron's university bonding bill that would repeal prevailing wage, which sets a minimum pay rate for construction workers on public projects.

By rolling back prevailing wage, Moore argued, that would save 20 percent at a time when universities are having to cut back over budget concerns.

"Because of the 20 percent premium attached onto every university project, universities in this state this year will lay off faculty, universities this year will raise tuition," Moore said.

He described it as an "unnecessary burden that I think is shameful," which prompted a smattering of applause from mostly Republican lawmakers.

I am not going to talk about prevailing wage. Let’s just say the Tim Moore is an idiot and leave it at that.

However, let’s follow the money.

According to their own claims RossSinclair is the number one Investment Banker in Kentucky advising cities, counties and school districts. Who do you think has the best chance for making millions from University Bond Issues?

Now guess who is one of the leading investment bankers for this firm?

Robert Damron -mailto:rdamron@rsanet.com

Robert (Bob) Damron joined RSA in 1997 with experience in commercial lending and risk analysis. Mr. Damron has extensive knowledge of and experience with cash flow analysis, budget preparation, financial statement analysis and is an expert in matching clients needs with innovative solutions. As Vice President of RSA's South Carolina Division, he maintains daily contact with many RSA clients and provides excellent customer service. Mr. Damron routinely assists RSA clients in their decision-making process to seek financial advisory services. He has served his home state of Kentucky as a State Representative in the Legislature since 1993 and currently serves as Vice-Chair of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee. Mr. Damron brings a unique perspective to local political subdivisions' complex funding problems and has devised many unique solutions. Mr. Damron holds both a B.A. and an M.B.A. from the University of Kentucky, and the National Association of Securities Dealers designations as General Securities Representative (Series 7) and Uniform Securities Agent (Series 63).

Yes the same Bob Damron that has been trying to get this bill passed for four years.

Damron’s "official" focus is the South Carolina market, although Kentucky makes up the bulk of RossSinclair business and I’m sure in the four years he has been working on this he never considered how much money his company was going to make should this bill become law.

I’m sure Bob Damron and RossSinclair will take the ethical route and abstain from being involved with any University Bond Issues.

Sucking Up at Taxpayer Expense

Maybe Steve Beshear is getting a clue. From the Herald-Leader:

"Perception is always the problem with these kinds of things," Beshear said Thursday after the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that the cabinet's approval process for the turn lights near (Transportation Secretary Joe) Prather's Elizabethtown home got started on Dec. 12, the first day Prather and Beshear were on the job.

Let’s break this down.

Was the stop light needed? - No.

The directional arrows went up last week despite an agency review that found they were not necessary.

Did it cost a lot of money? - Not really, in the Transportation Budget this is chump change.

Cabinet spokesman Chuck Wolfe said the turn arrows cost $5,450 and the money came out of the Elizabethtown highway district's traffic operations budget.

Did Prather want the change made? - Yes

Prather told reporters Thursday that he had been talking with Elizabethtown officials for more than a year about the turn arrows because of increased traffic on the road and had asked them to recommend the signals to the state Transportation Cabinet.

So what happened?

Simple, the guys at Transportation fast tracked a questionable expenditure to make the new boss happy. Who is really going to care about a few bucks if it makes Joe happy? Consider this sucking up at taxpayer expense; it happens all the time in Frankfort.

But the real issue isn’t just Prather’s stoplight; it’s an administration wide lack of sensitivity to what they are doing. The voters are sick and tired of corrupt politicians and anything that even smells slightly will raise their anger and media will be happy to capitalize on the slightest screw up.

Prather new about the change and didn’t stop it. Public servants need to understand they are in the public eye.

I don’t believe Joe Prather is corrupt, unlike his predecessor, but he has been out of the game for a while. I hope this hit will jar him back in to shape.

Prather said the ordeal has taught him that he must be mindful of the weight his recommendations carry.

"I have learned from this and I will be more careful as I move ahead," he said.

If he really wants to show some integrity, Prather should pull $5,450 out of his six figure salary from the Transportation Cabinet and put it in the Elizabethtown highway district's traffic operations budget. Even at more than $5,000 it would be a cheap education.

Boys are Back In Town

Guess who just got back today?

Them wild-eyed boys that had been away

Haven't changed, haven't much to say

But man, I still think them cats are crazy

They were asking if you were aroundHow you was, where you could be found

Told them you were living downtownDriving all the old men crazy

Ernie Fletcher and his administration screwing up was the main reason Steve Beshear is governor. If Gatewood Galbraith had been the democratic candidate in the General Election he would be governor now.

So I continue to be amazed at the inability of this administration to understand that perception is as important as reality. In less than six weeks of this administration we already have had:

A move to put the Ethics Commission under the Finance Cabinet,

A bill to lessen the Governor’s responsibility in contracting,

The first act of an efficiency effort is to hire a guy at a salary of at least $73,000 per year,

Hiring Ben Chandler’s wife, I won’t even go into some of the Bozo’s they have hired to work for her. Allow me to translate, Executive Assistant equals political payoff for services rendered.

Killing the Jonathan Miller / Brooke Parker investigation,

Reinstalling all of the good ‘ole boys and girls,

And on the political side, encouraging Bruce Lunsford.

And that doesn't even take into account pimping for the Casinos.

And now this from the Herald Leader:

FRANKFORT --
After Gov. Steve Beshear ran a successful election campaign promising government reforms to "earn the trust" of Kentuckians, one of the administration's first moves was to install non-essential turn arrows at a stoplight in the new Transportation Cabinet secretary's neighborhood.

I had hopes for this administration but I have to agree with Ronnie Ellis:

There was a sense during the campaign that Steve Beshear might bring some fresh new faces to Frankfort, but some of his appointments have a fairly familiar look. While he promised to return competent, ethical leadership to Frankfort, three of his appointments appeared to have conflicts of interest, although they were given qualified clearance by the ethics commission – while another was involved in a personnel board hearing over a hiring question in his previous position.

This boys are back in town but they appear to be as clueless as the bunch that just left.

Late to the Party

The Courier-Journal has picked up the Heather Ryan story from the Associated Press.

She sent an e-mail to friends and used expletives to describe her efforts to confront McConnell at the Paducah cinema.

I’m glad that the Courier finally picked up on this story. I do think they could have done a better job than just running some AP copy.

I know this is a nit-picking thing, but is it really necessary to imbed advertisements in a news story. The web page containing the story is already covered in ads.

Of course McConnell still denies any involvement in having Ryan fired, sounds familiar.

Plausible Deniability

Here is a bill I don’t understand.

HB 112 (BR 83) - R. Damron
AN ACT relating to the purchase of real property by the Commonwealth. Amend KRS 45A.045, regarding the purchase of real property by the Commonwealth, to eliminate the requirement that the Governor approve the purchase of real property from a state employee; retain requirement that the Secretary of the Finance and Administration Cabinet approve such a purchase.

The actual sentence, I use the term loosely, being changed is below. My Senior English teacher Miss Virginia Neptune would have a few caustic comments about the inability to write a coherent sentence, but that is another rant.

Subject to the provisions of this code, real property or any interest therein may be purchased, leased, or otherwise acquired from any officer or employee of any agency of the state upon a finding by the Finance and Administration Cabinet, based upon a written application by the head of the agency requesting the purchase, and approved by the secretary of the Finance and Administration Cabinet[ and the Governor], that the employee has not either himself or herself, or through any other person, influenced or attempted to influence either the agency requesting the acquisition of the property or the Finance and Administration Cabinet in connection with such acquisition.

So, is the problem the Governor is overwhelmed with the number of purchases of property owned by state employees or is this too trivial a matter to the Governor’s attention?

Or maybe, it just provides a governor with the veil of plausible deniability.