Pol Watchers

State settles lawsuit stemming from hiring probe

FRANKFORT — The state has settled a whistleblower lawsuit filed by former Transportation Cabinet worker Sarah Missy McCray for $500,000.

McCray claimed in 2005 that she was retaliated against for cooperating with with former Attorney General Greg Stumbo's investigation of hiring practices in the administration of former Gov. Ernie Fletcher.

McCray will receive a lump-sum payment of $500,000 for damages and be reassigned to the Personnel Cabinet, said cabinet spokesman Chuck Wolfe.

In her lawsuit, McCray named then-Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert as a defendant.   An indictment against Nighbert, which was later dropped after he was pardoned by Fletcher, alleged he told McCray that, if it were 20 years ago, "I probably would have come back there and socked you in the mouth."

Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear said in a statement about the settlement that he was "happy" to reach "an amicable resolution of this matter."

“I appreciate how difficult this has been for Ms. McCray and applaud her pursuit of justice," Beshear said in the statement. "It’s no secret that many state employees were mistreated over the past four years."

“This case is one of the most egregious examples of how many state workers came to work each day fearing for their jobs," he said. "It left us with the task of cleaning up the mess created by the previous administration.”

--Jack Brammer

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Agreement reached on Fletcher's university appointments

By Art Jester
AJESTER@HERALD-LEADER.COM

The administration of Gov. Steve Beshear has apparently resolved a legal dispute it inherited in which Gov. Ernie Fletcher was accused of circumventing state law by appointing too many Republicans to the state universities' governing boards.

Lawyers representing Beshear and Attorney General Jack Conway, both Democrats, have reached an agreement to settle a lawsuit that then-Attorney General Greg Stumbo filed on Sept. 12, 2007.

After Stumbo's term as attorney general expired, Conway replaced Stumbo as plaintiff; Beshear took Fletcher's place as defendant.

Lawyers for the two parties are to appear before Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd on March 7 to discuss their solution and get his approval.

In his order Wednesday for the hearing, Shepherd said that in view of the agreement, there is a question of whether there is still a legal dispute that must be settled in court.

In his lawsuit, Stumbo alleged that Fletcher had put a disproportionate number of Republicans on the universities' boards, violating a state law that requires those appointments to reflect the number of registered voters in the state's two major parties. Democrats account for about 59 percent of voters, Republicans about 36 percent. About 5 percent are registered as other.

Stumbo, a Democrat, asked the court to invalidate 13 of 50 university board appointments by Fletcher, a Republican.

Stumbo contended that Fletcher had appointed 33 Republicans and 17 Democrats, but, to comply with the law, should have named 30 Democrats and 20 Republicans.

Ellen Hesen, Beshear's general counsel, said in an interview that the administration does not seek to undo any of Fletcher's appointments.

Beshear, with each new appointment, wants to begin bringing the ratio of Democrats and Republicans on the boards in line with the legal requirement, Hesen said.

This does not mean that Beshear will appoint only Democrats, she said. He will fill each vacancy on a case-by-case basis while also considering the current Democrats-to-Republicans ratio, she said.

Conway could not be reached for comment.       

House bill would curtail election year road spending

A group of 10 Democrats and one Republican have sponsored a bill that would limit an administration to spending only up to half of the highway construction contingency fund during a year with a governor's race.

The bill, H.B. 446, was introduced Feb. 1 by Rep. Keith Hall, D-Pikeville and has attracted Democratic co-sponsors from Eastern Kentucky as well as Owensboro Democrat Tommy Thompson and Republican Rep. Jim Stewart III of Flat Lick.

This comes after outgoing Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration depleted the fund last summer and fall to just $650,000, which must last through June 30.

- Ryan Alessi

State of the Commonwealth: Remembering Fletcher

As we prepare for Gov. Steve Beshear's State of the Commonwealth address tonight at 7 p.m., we thought it might be interesting to take a trip down memory lane and listen to former Gov. Ernie Fletcher's final State of the Commonwealth speech.

Fletcher's Speech

In the speech, delivered on Feb. 6, 2007, Fletcher urged lawmakers to revise the state's budget to spend more money on a host of building projects and health, education and college financial-aid programs.

He suggested a place to spend every dollar of a projected $401 million surplus.

"This is not a budget year, but our effort to run government effectively has created the opportunity to address some of Kentucky’s pressing needs in this session," Fletcher said. "I know each of you will have priorities as well, and I look forward to working with you."

Lawmakers declined to follow Fletcher's lead.

As it turns out, the state's economy weakened dramatically and the projected $401 million surplus evaporated.

Instead, lawmakers must now find a way to pay for $166 million in greater-than-expected expenses during the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.

We don't know yet what Beshear will say tonight, but we're certain that his assessment of Kentucky's status will be dramatically different than Fletcher's.

You can watch it on KET 1 or online. And we'll have full coverage of the speech tonight on Pol Watchers.

- John Stamper

Stumbo has 'no regrets' as he leaves office

By Jack Brammer
JBRAMMER@HERALD-LEADER.COM

FRANKFORT -- History will remember Greg Stumbo's four-year tenure as state attorney general for the investigation and prosecution that brought down a governor.

Stumbo, who left office Friday as the state's chief law-enforcement official and longs to continue his political career by returning to the state House, says he hopes "history will remember us as being not afraid to enforce the law and that we took this job seriously."

The well-known Democratic politician from Floyd County said in a wide-ranging interview that he has "no regrets" how his office handled the state hiring investigation that led to the indictment of former Gov. Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher and others.

He also said he believes the outcome of the investigation and possibly last year's governor's race, which Fletcher lost to Democrat Steve Beshear, would have been different if Fletcher "had worked with us as he first said he would."

Three misdemeanor charges issued by a special grand jury against the governor were dismissed after Fletcher and Stumbo reached an agreement. Fletcher pardoned others who were indicted and maintained that the investigation was politically motivated.

When news broke about the investigation, Fletcher said he would seek "the unvarnished truth" and would address the situation if any wrongdoing were found.

"I would have wagered my house at that time that the situation would not have turned out as it did," Stumbo said Friday. "If he had worked with us, he still might be governor.

"What transformed him to take a defiant approach towards me and the investigation, I don't know. I'm convinced he was talked into it, but his initial position was the real Ernie Fletcher, in my opinion."

Stumbo said his office did not target Fletcher because he was Kentucky's first Republican governor since 1971.

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Stumbo gets guilty plea in election fraud case

A London road contracting company will pay $250,000 to settle election fraud charges brought against one of its employees, Attorney General Greg Stumbo announced today.

Phillip Dufour, an employee of Elmo Greer & Sons LLC, has also pled guilty to a felony charge of violating election laws and was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.

Dufour and Elmo Greer & Sons have agreed to cooperate with an ongoing investigation by naming all individuals who solicited funds or were given money during the gubernatorial primary election last year.

The investigation was spurred by an article in The Courier-Journal earlier this year that identified suspect donations to candidates for governor.

Dufour pled guilty to charges of funneling money to eight individuals so that they could contribute to the campaigns of former Gov. Ernie Fletcher, Republican Anne Northup and Democrat Steve Henry.

In a settlement with Stumbo's office, the company agreed to pay $250,000 to defray costs of the investigation "as a gesture of good faith." The company denied any liability in the case.

Stumbo said the case produced the largest fine and payment for election fraud in the state's history.

"It should put everyone on notice that this type of activity will not be tolerated," Stumbo said in an interview.

Friday is Stumbo's final day in office.

- John Stamper and Jack Brammer

Bluegrass Freedom Fund resurfaces

A political group that urged changes to Kentucky's ethics laws during the 2007 gubernatorial campaign resurfaced Thursday with a news release calling on Kentuckians to pressure lawmakers for change during the upcoming legislative session.

The Bluegrass Freedom Fund's re-emergence comes days after the Herald-Leader reported that Gov. Steve Beshear may not propose a constitutional amendment limiting a governor's pardoning powers during the session of the General Assembly that begins Tuesday.

Beshear said he still supports such a measure, but may wait until 2009 to push the proposal.

During the gubernatorial campaign, Beshear pledged to lead an effort to pass and put on the ballot a constitutional amendment that would prohibit governors from pardoning individuals who haven't yet been convicted of a crime.

The Bluegrass Freedom Fund ran at least $3 million worth of television ads last fall pounding former Gov. Ernie Fletcher for pardoning members of his administration and invoking his constitutional protection against self-incrimination during an investigation of state hiring practices.

Fletcher issued a blanket pardon for his entire administration, even though no one had been convicted of a crime.

The Bluegrass Freedom Fund's news release called on lawmakers to take six actions:

• "end pardon abuse"
• "protect whistleblowers"
• "reduce delays in releasing government records"
• "increase penalties for elected officials, staff and appointees who abuse the merit system"
• "increase penalties for violating the code of ethics"
• "make the Executive Branch Ethics Commission independent and non-partisan"

Beshear pledged support for most of those proposals during the campaign and plans to push for some of them during the upcoming legislative session.

The Bluegrass Freedom Fund is an independent political organization formed under rule 527 of the Internal Revenue Code.

UPDATE 5:31 p.m.: Achim Bergmann, a consultant for the Bluegrass Freedom Fund, said some of the organization's founders, whom he wouldn't name, haven't yet decided what different approaches the fund would take to continue pushing the reforms during the General Assembly session.

Bergmann said the group isn't disappointed with the Beshear administration's lukewarm enthusiasm for some of the reforms, such as curbing pardon power.

"Gov. Beshear set the right tone during his inaugural address," Bergmann said, referring to Beshear's Dec. 11 pledge that an executive ethics proposal will be among his first suggested bills. "We hope the budget mess doesn’t sideline the ethics reform or any other meaningful legislation."

- John Stamper

State settles key hiring investigation lawsuit

UPDATE 10:00 p.m.: Click here to read the settlement.

The state will pay a $369,200.79 settlement to a Transportation Cabinet employee who was wrongly fired for political reasons during former Gov. Ernie Fletcher's tenure.

The settlement requires Michael Duncan, the cabinet's chief deputy inspector general, to drop a civil lawsuit against Fletcher and other former officials that was pending in federal court.

The state has agreed to drop an appeal of a Personnel Board ruling earlier this year that found Duncan was inappropriately fired for political reasons and ordered him back to work.

The agreement, obtained through state open records laws, was finalized on Dec. 4. The agreement includes a confidentiality clause that requires everyone involved to say "no comment" when questioned by the media.

The payment to Duncan represents $129,200.70 in lost wages and benefits and $240,000 to settle the suit against the cabinet,  former cabinet Secretary Bill Nighbert, former Deputy Secretary Jim Adams and Fletcher.

Duncan was one of several state merit employees on a so-called "hit list" of state employees targeted for negative employment actions. A special grand jury investigated the matter for 16 months and indicted 15 officials, including Fletcher.            

Fletcher pardoned everyone in his administration but himself and later settled the charges against him in an agreement with Attorney General Greg Stumbo.

In the agreement, Fletcher and the other defendants denied any wrongdoing and assert that they acted "properly and lawfully" when they fired Duncan in 2005.

- John Stamper

Fletcher raised $4 million

Former Republican Gov. Ernie Fletcher reported today raising $4.07 million for his failed re-election bid, well below the $7 million raised by Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear.

Fletcher has raised $345,456.19 since Oct. 23, according to his report to the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance.

He spent a total of $3.934 million during the general election, leaving his campaign account with a balance of $136,113.02.

- John Stamper

Pardons without political pattern

By Beth Musgrave And Linda Blackford
bmusgrave@herald-leader.com | lblackford@herald-leader.com

George Moorman was addicted to crack cocaine when he stole a camcorder from Barney Miller's. While in jail, he made a pledge to change his life.

Ten years, two masters degrees, a Ph.D. and a host of awards later, Moorman was one of the 101 people pardoned by Gov. Ernie Fletcher in the last hours of his term.

The pardons and commutations -- the most of any governor in the past 30 years -- covered crimes ranging from murder to minor tax charges and included domestic abuse victims and former judge executives. But the pardons don't appear to follow a political or geographical pattern.

Only two of those pardoned had given money to Fletcher's campaign in the past. Three Republican current and former county officials were pardoned, but so was a secretary in former Democratic Gov. Julian Carroll's administration. Fletcher also commuted the 20-year sentence of a son of a Democratic representative to eight years.

The 11th-hour pardons raised the ire of prosecutors, who yesterday blasted Fletcher for issuing so many pardons without consulting prosecutors or families of victims.

Fletcher already will be remembered as the governor who pardoned a host of colleagues in the midst of a hiring scandal in 2005. But in this case, it's possible, experts and observers say, that Fletcher's troubled tenure and practically extinct political future simply allowed him to use one of the governor's greatest powers to do what he thought was right.

Two former governors gave disparate opinions on the fallout.

"That's the end of him politically," said former Gov. Wendell Ford, calling the large number of pardons excessive.

But Gov. Paul Patton said he regretted not making pardons when he left office. He said he didn't issue pardons in part because of the overwhelming number of applications he received.

"I probably made a mistake," Patton said yesterday. But he added, "there is a political price to pay. That's the reason they do it at the end of their governorship, because that is generally the end of their political career."

Scott Lasley, a political science professor at Western Kentucky University said he thought the pardons won't help or hurt Fletcher's legacy because there are so few overtly political ones.

"I think sometimes you just do things because you think they're the right thing to do," Lasley said. "In Fletcher's situation, any ones that are more politically-related won't do a lot of good for him. The ones that are done because he thinks people were wronged, it humanizes the governor."

Moorman says the pardons might change how some view Fletcher.

"I think he's gained some redemption personally, maybe even politically," said Moorman, now one of Lexington's best-known civic activists. "They can't say he's the guy who pardoned all his friends ... look at the women who suffered from domestic abuse, look at me, a common man with no political ties.

"I didn't tell him I'd repay him. I didn't have anything to offer him but my new life."

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