All Entries in the "Keith Hall" Category

Rep. Keith Hall failed to disclose wife’s state job

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

FRANKFORT — State Rep. Keith Hall, D-Phelps, has failed for seven years to disclose to a state ethics panel that his wife holds a part-time salaried position with the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts.

Stephanie Hall is paid $7,200 a year, according to the AOC. As one of three trial commissioners in Pike District Court, Stephanie Hall is sometimes asked to sign paperwork — such as warrants or protective orders — if one of the two judges cannot easily be reached. She is not a lawyer.

Like all lawmakers, Keith Hall is required every year to list his household’s sources of income with the Legislative Ethics Commission so that ethics officials and the public can be aware of possible conflicts of interest as he acts in the General Assembly.

But Keith Hall has failed to list his wife’s state job on his financial disclosure reports, listing her only as an officer in businesses that he owns. She was hired as a trial commissioner in April 2002 by Judge Kelsey Friend Jr.

The omission was not intentional, Keith Hall said in an interview. Until the Herald-Leader inquired, he said, it did not occur to him to disclose it.

“I just don’t have no answer for that,” he said. “It might have just been an oversight that I need to correct.”

Legislator sows, reaps state money

MORE: Hall lobbied for law to protect two water district board members

By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com

When state Rep. Keith Hall, D-Phelps, steers millions of tax dollars to water and sewer line construction in his Pike County district, the money sometimes ends up in his own wallet.

Since taking office in 2000, Hall has earmarked millions in the state budget for Mountain Water District in Pikeville, including $8.1 million in the current budget, according to his own press release and interviews.

At the same time, the water district has paid Hall’s B.M.M. Inc. nearly $3.2 million to build sewer lines, according to district records.

So far, Hall’s three sewer projects have cost an average of 58 percent more than he originally bid for them, with one still under way. The water district — which a state audit criticized last year for sloppy business practices — adds more work and money for Hall after he wins the initial contract. The final cost of one project doubled to $1.9 million by the time he finished.

Also, Hall’s son works at the private firm, Utility Management Group, that runs the water district on behalf of Pike County.

Jordan Hall, who previously helped oversee his father’s companies, started a year ago as personal assistant to Greg May, UMG’s chief operating officer. Jordan Hall says he doesn’t assist his father from within UMG and avoids handling projects in which his father shows an interest.

“He has never had any insider information to my knowledge, and I’m sure that he would say the same thing,” Jordan Hall said.

In this summer’s special legislative session, Hall supported a little-noticed, last-minute addition to a state budget bill that effectively protected UMG’s $34 million contract with the water district, which had been challenged locally.

The situation strikes some observers as too cozy, with a lawmaker giving and taking public funds at the hometown agency where his son is employed in management.

“I can tell you this, that’s not something that I would do,” said Rep. Leslie Combs, D-Pikeville, another House member from Pike County who assists the water district with funding.