Summary of recent Kentucky newspaper editorials:
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Dec. 15
The Lexington Herald-Leader on opening public records for an aluminum plant:
“Wherever public funds go, the public interest follows.”
It’s a commonsense idea, enshrined in Kentucky’s open-records legacy since 1976, but one neither Gov. Matt Bevin nor Craig Bouchard has bought into.
Bouchard is chairman and CEO of Braidy Industries. Bevin personally negotiated the deal that ended in Kentucky buying a 20 percent share of Braidy for $15 million.
Reasonably enough, public interest has followed, raising many questions about Bouchard, Braidy and the taxpayers’ investment. But they’ve been met with lectures, not answers.
“It’s nonsensical to be asking a private company to tell us who their shareholders are,” Bevin told the Louisville Courier-Journal, which filed an open-records request with the Cabinet for Economic Development (the conduit for the $15 million investment plus about $10 million in incentives), asking for the names of the other shareholders in Braidy.
Bouchard, in a column in Kentucky Today, the online publication of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, said the media should “focus on real problems.” He huffed, “this would never be tolerated in the world of private enterprise.”
Come on, guys, you can’t have it both ways. Public money equals public interest.
The issue isn’t whether Eastern Kentucky would benefit from the promised $1.3-billion aluminum rolling mill in the Ashland area that would mean 1,000 construction jobs and about 500 when it’s operational. Of course, that would be a tremendous and welcome economic boon to the region and the state.
But equally important, and essential to Kentucky’s long-term prosperity, is assuring that public money is spent to benefit the public - not a privileged, private few. That’s the point of open records and meetings laws, to avoid the corruption that breeds in secret.
This is not to say that Bouchard and Bevin are doing anything wrong. But there is no way to know while so much remains in the dark.
That’s why the Economic Development Cabinet’s decision to go to court to challenge an attorney general’s ruling that it must reveal the identities of the shareholders is so disturbing.
Bouchard has named only one other of our fellow-investors, Charles Price of Louisville. Price recently hosted a fund-raiser that netted $68,000 for Bevin’s still-active 2015 campaign fund. What about the other investors, have they helped the governor, too?
And, what do we investors know about Braidy or Bouchard, the man who created it?
He founded Braidy last year just after stepping down as CEO of Real Industry Inc., which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this November, listing $401 million in debt.
A failed 2007 attempt by Esmark, a company operated by Bouchard and his brother, James, to buy a steel mill near Baltimore prompted a breach of contract lawsuit charging they “deliberately concealed” problems with their financing.
How deeply did Commonwealth Seed Capital, the state-owned investment company that actually invested in Braidy, go into the company’s brief background or that of Bouchard? That, too, we don’t know. In fact, although we taxpayers own all of CSC, we don’t even know much about it, either.
Kentucky legislators must pull back this veil of secrecy surrounding the public’s money.
Online: http://www.kentucky.com/
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Dec. 19
The Daily News of Bowling Green on the Kentucky Supreme Court upholding a man’s conviction:
On Nov. 21, 2014, a senseless death occurred in this community that took the life of a young man whose life was full of hope and promise.
We are referring to the death of 32-year-old Jeremy Pryor. He was killed when a vehicle driven by a drunken driver, Michael Hardy, rear-ended Pryor’s vehicle at nearly 90 mph. Pryor was just finishing up a restaurant delivery route for the evening when the tragedy occurred. On that night, a young man’s life was selfishly taken by Hardy, who decided to get behind the wheel while he was extremely intoxicated. Evidence emerged that Hardy’s blood alcohol content shortly after the crash was 0.19 percent, more than twice the legal limit for drivers.
In July 2016, Hardy, now 23, received a 20-year prison sentence after being found guilty of murder, three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment, first-degree criminal mischief and operating a motor vehicle under the influence.
This was the correct sentence for this man, whose actions took a human life. The sentence should send a strong message to people who decide to get behind the wheel after drinking: They, too, will face a long prison sentence if their poor decision results in someone’s death.
The Kentucky Supreme Court supported our opinion, when all seven justices upheld the conviction of Hardy after he appealed his conviction. In his appeal, Hardy claimed he was being selectively prosecuted because the commonwealth did not extend a plea offer to him. The justices said in the order that there is “no constitutional right to plea bargain and it is within the prosecutor’s discretion to decide whether to plea bargain or go to trial.”
Hardy also argued the trial court erred by wrongfully excluding Pryor’s post-mortem toxicology report that showed the presence of cannabinoids and benzodiazepines in Pryor’s blood and urine. Hardy also claimed on appeal that the trial court erred by allowing a portion of his recorded statement to police to be played as rebuttal to his testimony. Hardy asked an officer, “so what’s that mean for me” after learning that Pryor died as a result of the wreck. The trial court ruled this statement relevant to Hardy’s state of mind.
The justices weren’t buying Hardy’s appeal, and rightfully so.
This appeal appeared to be a weak attempt by someone who is guilty of taking the life of an innocent person and is now asking for mercy. Where was the mercy shown for Pryor? Nowhere, because Hardy chose to drink heavily that day, get behind the wheel of a car and drive. In doing so, he took Pryor’s life.
Pryor’s mother, Johnetta Pryor, said not a day passes that she doesn’t think about and miss her son. “This one’s for Jeremy,” Johnetta Pryor said of the Supreme Court’s decision.
Pryor is right on. We can’t imagine the heartache she feels on a daily basis over the loss of her son. While he can’t be brought back, hopefully Johnetta Pryor and her family will take some solace in knowing that this criminal will spend a good many years behind bars where he belongs for taking the life of their loved one.
Online: http://www.bgdailynews.com/
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Dec. 18
The Independent of Ashland on sexual harassment accusations against Kentucky legislators:
Not only did Gov. Matt Bevin wisely choose not to call a special session of the Kentucky General Assembly to deal with pension reform, but the Republican governor must wonder what the Republican-controlled General Assembly will look like when it convenes in January for the start of the 60-day session. While a rash of sexual assault and harassment allegations have swept through statehouses around the country, no place has been impacted quite like Kentucky: a state forced to confront its past salacious behavior in the midst of a historic transition to Republican rule.
House Speaker Jeff Hoover has resigned his leadership position after acknowledging he secretly settled a sexual harassment claim with a woman in his office. Meanwhile, three other Republican lawmakers lost their committee chairmanships for being part of the same settlement, but like Hoover has ignored calls by Bevin that they resign from the House. In addition, a freshman Republican lawmaker who was part of that new political order killed himself Wednesday after facing allegations that he sexually assaulted a teenage girl.
The allegations of sexual misconduct have not been limited to Republicans. In July, a recording surfaced detailing how Julian Carroll, a Democratic state senator from Frankfort, had propositioned a young man for sex and, according to the man, groped him. Carroll denied the allegations and police didn’t file any charges.
Three years ago, taxpayers paid $400,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against three Democratic lawmakers.
Despite the turmoil, only one lawmaker has resigned: Democrat John Arnold stepped down in 2013 when he was accused of inappropriately touching female employees. His lawyer later said he was in the early stages of dementia. Everyone else has stayed, preventing the dark cloud of scandal from dissipating and exposing a rift between the Republican and GOP legislative leaders.
“We have some of the biggest issues ever facing our state from a financial standpoint and this takes our focus away from the job we’re needing to do,” Republican state Rep. Jim Deplessis, R-Elizabethtown, rightly said.
Other statehouses have been rocked by scandal. In California, two Democratic lawmakers have resigned, and another is facing pressure amid allegations of repeated misconduct. Their names came to light after nearly 150 women who work in or around the Legislature wrote an open letter in mid-October outlining pervasive sexual harassment in the Capitol and a culture that protects it. In Ohio, Republican state Rep. Wesley Goodman resigned after acknowledging “inappropriate behavior” with a person in his office.
Republican state Rep. Phil Moffett, R-Louisville, said the allegations in the Kentucky legislature will spur change.
“There isn’t a single person in the private sector that does not know that they cannot have an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate,” he said. “They know that will be their last day on the job when they do that.”
House Republicans hired a law firm to investigate the allegations against Hoover, but the report was inconclusive. Lawmakers met with investigators but did not provide a copy of the settlement. Acting House Speaker David Osborne asked the Legislative Ethics Committee to use its subpoena power to get a copy of the settlement and find out if any part of it was paid for with money from political donors or lobbyists. And Osborne has put together a committee of lawmakers to come up with a formal system for reporting and investigating workplace complaints.
While Hoover has denied sexual harassment, he acknowledged he did send inappropriate but consensual text messages. It’s unclear what the other three Republican lawmakers involved in the settlement are accused of doing.
The scandals in Kentucky are compounded by a budget crisis, with economists projecting a $156 million deficit by June of next year and a public pension system that is at least $44 billion short of the money needed to pay retirement benefits over the next 30 years.
“What we all thought was going to be a really difficult legislative session has just become even more challenging,” said Les Fugate, a veteran lobbyist. “We didn’t think that was possible.”
At a time when the Republican Party has control of both houses of the legislature and the governor’s office for the first time, it should be a time when the GOP can push through its legislative agenda with little help from the Democratic minority, much like the Democratic Party did when it was the dominate party in Frankfort. Instead, sexual allegations that have little to do with the major issues before the General Assembly threaten to limit how the GOP uses its new power.
Online: http://www.dailyindependent.com/
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