Kentucky transparency headlines
From Sunshine Review
This article is a list of transparency related news from Kentucky.
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| Report It • | The Good • | The Bad • | The Ugly | |
Louisville launches spending transparency site
At this time, the financial information on the site only goes through June 30, the end of the last full city fiscal year. The city will update the information only at the end of each new fiscal year.
By an ordinance passed by the Louisville Metro Council last spring, the website was required to be set up by September 30, 2009.
The city spent about $5,000 to set up the website. Steve Haag, spokesman for the Republican council minority caucus, said the city put the website in the advisory hands of the metro information technology staff.
The money came from the discretionary accounts of council members Ken Fleming, R-7th District, and Hal Heiner, R-19th, the primary sponsors of the ordinance.
Mayor Jerry Abramson's spokesperson, Chad Carlton, criticized the creation of the site on Wednesday. The site was initially proposed and paid for by Republican council members.
He said the administration is developing a separate site that will be linked through the city's official website, to be ready by November. He says the November site will provide financial information to be updated and downloaded automatically at the end of every month.
"We are perplexed why the council is spending funds for a separate website," Carlton said. “We are a little bit surprised and disappointed”
Carlton said the administration believes it can set up the upcoming site for free.
Fleming said the website is not redundant. He said this site's intent is to give the public a look at financial documents from a historical perspective. The administration’s site will be current.
“They are different things,” Fleming said of the two sites.
Former Perry County, Kentucky officials plead not guilty to buying votes
Democrats Circuit Clerk Chester Jones and former Judge-Executive Sherman Neace pleaded not guilty Wednesday.
Last November, Neace, 68, ran for magistrate and Jones, 65, ran for a seat on the county school board. The former officials allegedly directed $7,500, which the state Democratic Party gave Perry County Democrats to improve voter turnout last November, to buy votes for themselves.
The indictment charged Jones with signing 75 $100 checks and leaving the payee information blank. Allegedly, the two then split them and handed out some to buy votes and gave some to others to buy votes for them.
Former circuit clerk and state representative Jones chairs the Perry County Democratic Executive Committee. Former Perry County judge-executive Neace served three terms before losing re-election in 1998.
E-Transparency Bill Passes Council
"The Louisville Metro Council has approved an e-transparency ordinance.
The measure calls for the creation of a website to provide public access to Metro Government financial information."
Press group opposes closing records of legislative probes
"The Kentucky Press Association is opposing provisions in legislation that would exempt records of a proposed investigative arm of the General Assembly from the state open-records law.
"Records addressed in this legislation, in our opinion, should be open to the public," said Ashley Pack, general counsel for the Kentucky Press Association. "In fact, the very nature of this new division highlights the reason why the public should be involved.""
Call ‘911’ — lawmaker stealing access to progress
"State Sen. John Schickel, R-Union, claims he would never restrict the public’s access to records. Yet that’s exactly what he wants to do with his bill to ban the broadcast of “911” calls on TV, radio or the Internet.
Some “911” chatter can embarrass callers and capture highly emotional moments, Schickel said. His pandering to “privacy” advocates also includes a totally unfounded charge that broadcast outlets use replays of these calls to boost ratings. Show me the evidence, Mr. Schickel.
His bill represents nothing more than an end-run around the Kentucky Open Records Act — something a lot of politicians love to do and often justify by playing the “privacy” card. Too many lawmakers are willing to close public business faster than big bank CEOs can cash a bonus check."
Keep public records open
"The legislature should avoid whittling away at the public's access to government records without a very compelling reason.
Senate Bill 30, which would limit public access to 911 emergency tapes, fails that test.
Though well intended, SB 30 is a poorly thought out solution to a mostly non-existent problem."
Ky. bill advances to keep 911 calls off airwaves
"A measure that would prevent 911 calls from being broadcast on TV and radio cleared its first legislative hurdle on Thursday and now heads to the Senate floor for a vote.
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved the measure that is garnering strong support among GOP lawmakers, despite the pleas of broadcasters who say the proposal smacks of censorship.
"It certainly starts us down a very slippery slope," said Nancy Cox, a news anchor with WLEX-TV in Lexington."
State says Arena Authority violated open records laws
"The Louisville Arena Authority “subverted the intent” of Kentucky’s open records laws by not giving a Louisville construction executive timely access to documents he was seeking as part of a lawsuit, according to Attorney General Jack Conway’s office.
The opinion, released last week, also found that the authority violated state law by failing to give a detailed explanation for delays in providing records to William W. Chilton III, who has sued the arena planners after being passed over for a subcontract on the downtown project."
Gobb's strip club companions identified
"The two Blue Grass Airport officials who accompanied former executive director Michael A. Gobb to a Dallas strip club, where they spent thousands of dollars, were identified Friday as operations director John Coon and planning and development director John Slone.
Airport attorney Thomas Halb leib said records show that $5,080 was charged to the Millenium Restaurants Group, which operates the Cabaret Royale club.
Halbleib said that the strip club visit was on Nov. 16, 2004, not in 2003, as he had told the Herald-Leader earlier this week, and the total amount spent was higher than he was initially told."
Airport director Mike Gobb resigns
"Michael Gobb, executive director of Blue Grass Airport for the last decade, resigned Friday morning at a special meeting of the airport board that had been called to discuss whether he should be disciplined or fired. Meanwhile, airport board chairman Bernard Lovely confirmed that new questions about Gobb's expenses have arisen, specifically whether he used other airport officials' credit cards for his own expenditures and whether those expenses were for the airport.
Gobb's resignation is effective immediately."
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