Fired mining regulator’s personnel file contained no complaints
By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com
Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration recorded no complaints about the performance of Ron Mills, director of the state Division of Mine Permits, until it fired him without explanation last month, according to a review of Mills’ personnel file and internal state correspondence.
“This action is being taken without a determination of cause,” the Energy and Environment Cabinet told Mills in the Nov. 13 letter dismissing him after 16 months in his appointed post.
In recent interviews, Energy and Environment Secretary Len Peters said he fired Mills because of his long-standing dissatisfaction with Mills’ performance as a manager. But Mills has said he never heard any complaints from Peters.
Nothing in Mills’ cabinet personnel file or in correspondence between Peters, Mills and other cabinet managers revealed any complaints, other than talk about the Division of Mine Permits being chronically underfunded and understaffed.
Mills, 54, appealed his dismissal Monday at the state Personnel Board, citing age and political discrimination and his “refusal to issue permits based upon an illegal policy.” He declined to elaborate in a brief interview Tuesday, saying he was uncomfortable with all the attention his case is receiving.
Cabinet spokesman Dick Brown said Peters stands behind his explanation for firing Mills, a political appointee who served at the pleasure of the governor.
“Non-merit employees can be fired without cause. There’s typically very little in their personnel file,” Brown said. “Dr. Peters has stated what happened regarding the firing. Now that Mr. Mills has initiated a personnel action, we’ll work in that process.”
Mills has said he thinks he lost his job because he opposed a controversial mining policy that benefited Alliance Coal of Tulsa, Okla., and tried unsuccessfully to block five mine permits the company sought in Hopkins and Webster counties. Alliance Coal has given hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations, including to Beshear and the Kentucky Democratic Party.
State records obtained by the Herald-Leader show that Raymond “Rusty” Ashcraft, an Alliance Coal executive in Lexington, often consulted with the Beshear administration on issues concerning his company and the coal industry. Records also show that after Mills blocked Alliance Coal’s five permits in Western Kentucky last year, higher-ups in the administration overruled him in order to “accommodate the coal interests,” as officials phrased it in one e-mail.
Mills said he was warned in the months before his firing that Ashcraft and the governor’s office wanted him gone because he opposed the so-called “33 1/3 rule,” which allows coal companies, like Alliance Coal, to mine without showing they have the legal right to enter all the land in its plans. Environmentalists say the policy is illegal and they will sue to block it.
Beshear has denied any role in the firing and Ashcraft has declined to discuss it. But an e-mail that Ashcraft sent Nov. 13, obtained by the Herald-Leader, shows the coal executive informing his colleagues about Mills’ firing within minutes of the event happening.
Prior to Beshear appointing him as mine permits director last year, Mills spent 22 years as a state lawyer representing the natural resources agencies in coal mining litigation, including the 2000 coal slurry spill in Martin County that unleashed several hundred million gallons of sludge into waterways. He supervised an office with 15 lawyers and five other employees.
Filed Under: State Government • Steve Beshear
About the Author: John Stamper is the accountability editor for the Lexington Herald-Leader. A native of Monticello, Ky., he has been with the Herald-Leader in a variety of roles since graduating from Western Kentucky University in 2000. Reach him at jstamper@herald-leader.com
tHESE GUYS CRY WOLF WHEN SOMETHING HAPPENS TO THEM, bUT THEY SURE DIDNT CARE TO RUN MY COMPANY OUT OF BUSINESS FOR NO REASON,i BOLWED THE WHISTLE ON A CROOKED sTATE MINE INSPECTOR, THAT WAS LETTING PEOPLE MINE WITHOUT A PERMIT OR BOND AND TAKING PAYOFFS. oNCE I TOLD ON HIM, THEY QUICKLY HID IT UNDER A RUG, AND STARTED RUNNING ME OUT OF bUSINESS, i HAVE GOT CANCER AND NO WAY OF PAYING FOR GOOD MEDICAL DOCTORS, I HAVE REQUESTED SEVERAL TIMES TO MEEET WITH GOVERNOR BESHEAR, AND KEEP GETTING THE RUN AROUND, The Governor keeps saying the state needs jobs, here is 80 jobs lost because someone in their office sure knows how to abuse their power, I was asking the Governor to do anything wrong, I just wanted to be treated right, and poor mr MILLS, HELPED BREAK MY BUSINESS FOR NO REASON, tHE STATE OWES ME A LOT OF MONEY FOR WHAT THEY HAVE DONE, i HAVENT GOT THE MONEY TO HIRE ABIG TIME ATTORNEY THAT CAN BEAT THEM. but someday i will!!! Anything can happen in frankfort and that is a proven fact!! Cry a river MR MILLS YOU HAD THAT COMMING TO YOU!!!!!! CARL CAMPBELL IS THE BEST MAN THEY HAVE DOWN THERE!!!!
tHE ONLY THING THAT I WANTED FROM gOVERNOR bESHEAR IS THO BE TREATED FAIR!! i NEVER ASK HIM TO DO ANYTHING WRONG!! Just wanted to be treated fair!!! Carl Campbell is the best man they have down there working in the Energy Dept, But you have other people that goes over Carls head to Hank List and crys, and blocks things from happening, this guy needs to go!!! He is breaking the state , People is watching him , and seeing what he is doing, i will tell his name at a later date, when he really gets his self in trouble for abusing his power!!! Mr Mills and this guy worked together being attorneys for the Dept that Mr Mills is crying wolf about!!!!!!!!
What part of “serves at the pleasure of the governor” do these people not understand? If Beshear wanted him fired because he didn’t like the color of his tie, or because he supported some Republican for some office somewhere, that is perfectly acceptable. Whether or not the firing was encouraged or not, it was legal. I hope this is laughed out of the personnel board. They’ve already given merit employee rights to probationary employees. Now it looks like non-merits are seeking them too.
Only two comments and they both show why Kentucky has the third most corrupt government in the nation, why it is last in most ratings showing aspects of a good state and most importantly why it is rated 49th in the happiest states in the union. Ignornace and apathy are the state’s most prolific crop.
Hey kycol1 facts are facts non-merits have no protection rights, none at all, it is not apathy but fact. Non merit employees are typically not hired for stellar performance but connections. I work with merit employees who are a waste of space, we sure do not want that for non merits.
actually several here are wrong. what the democrats pushed for with the fletcher hiring scandal has come home to roost now. yes, non-merits serve at the pleasure; however, even non-merits can not be fired for political reasons (at least be fired and stated for political reasons-a la Mike Duncan). Duncan was merit but on on his 6 month probation-i.e. without status. What the law actually says is that non-merits can be fired WITHOUT reason. If someone tells a non-merit they are fired and gives a political reason then they are the stupid one who messed up. You can not fire a non-merit or merit employee for OVERT political reasons. YOu can simply fire them and not say why-just that your services are no longer needed-and not leave a trail implicating you in the firing for political reasons. In this case, it appears that there may in fact be a trail leading to room 100 of the Capitol which indicates Mills was fired for political reasons.
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