Author Archive for Accountability Editor

For-profit college regulatory bill proceeds to House

By John Cheves — jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — The private, for-profit college industry would stop regulating itself at the state level under a bill that a Kentucky House committee approved Wednesday.

“This is not everything that we probably all would like to see in the bill, but it is doable and it is a start,” said Rep. Carl Rollins, D-Midway, the bill’s sponsor. A stronger bill last year was passed by the House but died in the Senate in the face of aggressive industry lobbying.

House Bill 308, which proceeds to the full House, would abolish the controversial Kentucky Board for Proprietary Education, which licenses scores of for-profit schools offering two-year associate’s degrees, technical certificates and other diplomas in different career fields.

Industry representatives hold six of the board’s 11 seats and frequently serve as chairman. A state audit last year sharply criticized the board, calling it an inattentive watchdog that fails to protect the interests of students. At the same time, student lawsuits and investigations in Kentucky and elsewhere have raised questions about deceptive marketing and the quality of educations sold by the schools.

Beshear accuses Williams of trying to intimidate pro-casino senators

By John Cheves
jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear on Tuesday accused Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, of trying to intimidate Republican senators who support his casino gambling proposal.

“He is using intimidations and threats against fellow senators, including some in his own party,” Beshear said.

Williams later denied Beshear’s claim. He told reporters that he opposes the expansion of gambling in Kentucky, but he is not punishing senators who support it. Nobody is losing their committee chairmanships or other choice assignments because they disagree with him, Williams said.

“The governor has been untruthful about this issue for four years, and he continues to be untruthful,” Williams said.

Specifically, Beshear tied Williams to a story Tuesday in the Lexington Herald-Leader that raised questions about $208,835 in horse industry consulting fees collected by Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, during 2010 and part of 2011.

Senator backing casinos won’t name his clients in horse industry

By John Cheves
jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — State Sen. Damon Thayer, who is expected to file a casino gambling bill in coming days that could bring big bucks to Kentucky’s horse industry, collected at least $208,835 in consulting fees from the industry during 2010 and part of 2011, according to court records.

Thayer, R-Georgetown, runs Thayer Communications and Consulting out of his house. According to his firm’s Web site, Thayer founded it in 2007 to serve “companies in the equine industry” following two decades of executive jobs in horse racing, including a seven-year stint at Turfway Park, a racetrack in Florence.

From his consulting firm, Thayer earned $132,835 in 2010 and $76,000 during the first eight months of 2011, according to an asset disclosure that he signed Sept. 12 in his divorce records. In an interview Monday, Thayer said those income figures “sound in the ballpark.”

By comparison, Thayer said in court that he makes $35,000 a year as a part-time senator.

However, Thayer declined Monday to identify his clients or explain if they would gain financially from casino gambling. His annual financial disclosure statement at the Legislative Ethics Commission does not require him to name his clients, he said.

Ethics Commission levies fines in state worker misconduct cases

By John Cheves — jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — The Executive Branch Ethics Commission levied fines in four state worker misconduct cases Monday, including Danita Fentress-Laird, who worked at the Kentucky Department of Agriculture last year under then-Commissioner Richie Farmer.

Fentress-Laird signed a settlement agreement, acknowledging that she violated the state ethics law and agreeing to pay a $1,500 fine.

As a political appointee under Farmer, who left office in January, Fentress-Laird tried to burrow into the state merit system by creating a merit job for herself and taking actions to ensure that she would get it. By law, merit jobs are supposed to be filled competitively by the best qualified applicant.

New Agriculture Commissioner James Comer fired Fentress-Laird after taking office this month.

Ethics watchdog Richard Beliles has few friends in Kentucky Capitol

By John Cheves
jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Richard Beliles sat in Gov. Steve Beshear’s office foyer on a recent morning, staging his weekly protest of mountaintop-removal coal mining, when Senate President David Williams walked by and suggested that he kill himself.

“He said, ‘Are you occupying the office?’ I said yes. He said, ‘Well, why don’t you set yourself on fire? Why don’t you immolate yourself?’ And then he left,” said Beliles, who is recovering from cancer treatment. “It was a strange thing for David to say. It sort of shook me up.”

Through a spokeswoman, Williams later said he clearly was joking by suggesting the protest would be more effective with Beliles ablaze.

Beliles, who turns 78 on Tuesday, is a soft-spoken, genial man — and one of the more deeply resented figures at the Capitol.

Chandler, Barr both file to run in 6th District congressional race

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — Democratic U.S. Rep. Ben Chandler and Republican challenger Andy Barr took steps Friday that are expected to set up a rematch in this year’s race for U.S. Congress from Central Kentucky’s 6th District.

Chandler, who has represented the district since winning a special election in 2004, defeated Barr in the 2010 race by 647 votes.

Chandler sent a representative Friday morning to file his candidacy papers for this year, while Barr showed up at the Capitol to file his.

Barr then held a news conference to say Chandler is too close to President Barack Obama, who also is seeking re-election this year.

Lawmaker pulls sponsorship of anti-meth bill after integrity questioned

By Jack Brammer
jbrammer@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — State Sen. Tom Jensen, R-London, withdrew Friday as sponsor of a bill that would require prescriptions to obtain some cold medicines used to make meth after questions arose about a potential conflict of interest.

Jensen, during a floor speech in the Senate, said he heard that some media and blog reports were alleging that he, as an attorney, represents Operation UNITE, an anti-drug task force backed by U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Somerset.

Rogers is a strong supporter of Jensen’s bill in the state Senate that is aimed at curbing methamphetamine labs by requiring a prescription for cold and allergy medications that contain pseudoephedrine, an ingredient used in making meth.

Jensen said he does not represent Operation UNITE but did do some legal work for the agency eight or nine years ago. That had nothing to do with his introducing Senate Bill 50, Jensen said.

‘Some movement’ on congressional redistricting

FRANKFORT – The state House and Senate still have not reached a compromise on the redrawing of boundaries for Kentucky’s six congressional districts, but House Speaker Greg Stumbo appeared more optimistic Thursday that the two sides could reach an agreement.

“I think there’s at least some movement,” said Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg.

He said the House has offered another compromise plan to Republican Senate leaders. That plan specifically addressed some concerns of Republican U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, Stumbo said. Rogers’ district includes most of Eastern and Central Kentucky.

The filing deadline for candidates is Jan. 31, but lawmakers could extend the deadline to give the two sides more time to hammer out an agreement.

Stumbo said he met and talked with Senate Majority Leader Robert Stivers about the congressional map on Thursday morning, although no meeting has been set between leaders of the two chambers to produce a new congressional map.

Stivers, R-Manchester, said negotiations are “going slowly.”

HERALD-LEADER FRANKFORT BUREAU

Kentucky Horse Park needs millions from state to balance budget

By Linda B. Blackford and Beth Musgave
lblackford@herald-leader.com

As most state agencies brace for dramatic budget cuts, the Kentucky Horse Park could be getting millions of additional dollars.

In Gov. Steve Beshear’s recommended budget, the Horse Park faces no budget cuts, and instead would receive an additional $3.5 million increase this fiscal year, plus another $1.6 million each year of the next two-year budget.

State officials told lawmakers on Tuesday that the funds are needed to cover operational shortfalls that stem from utility costs for roughly 264,000 square feet of new facilities built at the park in anticipation of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

Lawmakers said they want to hear more before agreeing to increase the park’s funding.

Lexington man calls his arrest in state Capitol ‘an overreaction’

By John Cheves
jcheves@herald-leader.com

The Lexington man arrested Tuesday in a scuffle outside the Kentucky Senate chamber said he never touched Senate President David Williams.

Stephen Rhodes Schwartz, 45, said he joined other people at the Capitol who wanted to protest a political redistricting map that effectively removes state Sen. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, from office at year’s end. Schwartz lives next to Stein on Transylvania Park near the University of Kentucky campus and said he knows her, although she did not ask him to protest in Frankfort.

“It was people responding to something they saw on Facebook,” Schwartz said Wednesday. “It wasn’t something planned. It wasn’t an ambush.”