Give the money back, Mayor Jim Newberry

News coverage and commentary about the current pension discussion in Frankfort has been pretty lousy, but the idea that city newspapers are going to start drumming up little ditties about how much their town is going to "get" or "save" as a result of HB 1 is false, misleading, ridiculous, stupid, irresponsible, asinine, absurd, and just plain wrong.

In today's "breaking news" feature, the Lexington Herald Leader crows without attribution that Lexington is going to "save" $1.4 million in the passage of House Bill 1. Reporter Michelle Ku must get pretty excited when her credit card issuers offer her the ability to skip a payment because she has been "such a good customer." That is exactly what is happening with this current scheme.

And it sounds good for Mayor Jim Newberry's finance commissioner to say they aren't going to immediately just run out and spend the money. Lexington taxpayers should demand Mayor Newberry take a stand for fiscal responsibility by refusing the loan. He would show leadership by encouraging other mayors and county judge executives to do the same. "Pay me now" is always cheaper than "pay me next year."

Nothing going on here, move on (and go broke!)

I appreciate that the mainstream media wants to better serve its readers through the blogosphere, but this (and this and this) is not the way to do it:



In a time of economic difficulty, the pension scam is a story begging to be told well. Sure, most people's eyes glaze over when you start talking about paying billions of dollars or running out of money in some accounts sometime in the next two decades. But people struggling to meet rising costs in their own lives will certainly understand paying way above market rates with their own tax dollars so government employees can have gold-plated fringe benefits for life.

And the real story is that Frankfort has misappropriated the money we have been sending to them for several years, so they are passing a bill this week to suggest that they do less misappropriating and we do more sending through 2025. That is just a "suggestion" because the state constitution forbids passing a law to obligate future General Assemblies, but the failure to cut overspending on benefits will obligate (and overextend) taxpayers for many years to come nonetheless.

There is more here.

A brief discussion on new media

I will be a guest on the Leland Conway radio show (630 AM or wlap.com) at 9:15 this morning discussing coverage of the Fayette County jail.

Don't be late because I don't anticipate being on there long, but the call-in number to talk with Leland afterward is (859)280-2287.

It's another isolated incident at FCDC

A few funny things about the Lexington Herald Leader's report late Tuesday about the exposed drug ring at the Fayette County Detention Center.

First, how can it be a "breaking news" story when the reporters read it on the internet and waited for a press release?

Second, how great is it that the FCDC staff is going to have to discuss the FBI investigation every time something goes wrong at the jail?

The real story is this: an inmate was shooting up in his cell and got caught. The inmate gave up Houlihan as his dealer and Houlihan was then given the opportunity to resign. He took it.

And if you believe Houlihan is the only person dealing drugs in the Lexington jail, you probably believe Don Leach studied really hard for his doctoral degree. I would be suspicious if there are no more arrests in this matter.

Circling wagons, covering tracks in Lexington

Lexington Commissioner of Public Safety Tim Bennett had separate closed-door meetings today with Fayette County Detention Center Director Ron Bishop and the other assistant directors at the Lexington jail.

Bennett's upcoming deposition could be interesting summer reading.

Deny this, Governor Steve Beshear

If Gov. Steve Beshear has no plans to call a special session to pass tax increases after the November elections, he should quickly and publicly make that clear.

That is one hot rumor making the rounds in Frankfort. And rumors sometime take on a life of their own -- especially for someone who already broke his no tax increase promise once (see clip below).

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the bloggers"

Captain Darin Kelly at the Fayette County Detention Center just told me that he won't give me any information about what is going on at the Lexington jail because, he said, "I spoke to Susan Straub at the Mayor's office and she doesn't consider you a legitimate news organization."

This is an interesting shift in public relations strategy for a government in desperate need of a shift in public relations strategy.

Will the last officer at the jail turn off the lights?

4:30 Update: Houlihan has resigned. Taxpayers are off the hook for this one. As I write this, though, none of the five indicted officers, currently vacationing and awaiting trial, have volunteered to give up their salaries.


Capt. Darin Kelly at the Fayette County Detention Center just refused to divulge any information about an arrest at the facility this morning.

Apparently jail employee Daniel Houlihan was arrested today and charged with promoting contraband first degree. Something about giving methadone to an inmate.

Other than the disturbing silence from the jail, the first question in my mind is will he be placed on administrative leave with pay just like the other troublemakers?

Looks like one more successful initiative, maybe

The Bluegrass Institute's government spending transparency initiative seems to have really gotten the attention of Governor Steve Beshear at last.

This was part of a press release sent out by the state Monday night:

"Task Force Chairman and state Finance Secretary Jonathan Miller unveiled a prototype of the full public access Web site that he hopes will be operational by the end of the year. Miller asked task force members to study other states' fully operational Web sites for ideas on the structure of the Kentucky site."

Given Miller's track record, I'm not exactly holding my breath on this one. If we are to ever change Kentucky's status as a corrupt little backwater of a state, though, sticking to our guns on posting all government spending on the internet is critical.

And that means ALL of the spending. No loopholes, no excuses.

Is the noose tightening?

6:34 Update: Susan Straub called just now and said Newberry "was not questioned by the FBI last week and has not been questioned by the FBI."
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Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry's communications officer Susan Straub said this evening that she did not know whether Newberry was questioned by FBI officials last week.

A city employee source who asked to remain anonymous, however, said he was. His indifference to the alleged cover-up of prisoner abuse was the subject of posts here and here last week and a Lexington Herald Leader story on Sunday.

How fast can they deep-six the jail story?

When I was in college, journalism students got in trouble for writing one-source stories. So seeing the top story on Kentucky.com, The Lexington Herald Leader's website, only get around to interviewing one person today was a little disappointing.

And it was just a defense attorney:

"Defense attorney Brian Butler of Louisville, who is representing Estep, said his client has served in law enforcement and in the military and adamantly denies the charges against him.
“This is a terrible situation for him to serve his country for many, many years then be accused of a crime,” Butler said."

Blah, blah, blah.

Fortunately, the investigation doesn't depend on the story to be told in the newspapers. But I can't help wondering how the coverage might be different in Lexington if the politicians involved represented a different political persuasion. The Herald Leader does little good for its credibility with the way it has handled the jail fiasco.

Joe Prather lawyers up

After calling Transportation Cabinet Secretary Joe Prather on the carpet for failing to show for a Senate Transportation Committee meeting today and then chewing up a couple of unarmed officials and their lawyer, Senate President David Williams gave observers a taste of what his road fund lawsuit against the governor is going to be like.

Think deep fried Beshear-o-crats.

One more

I'll be on WVLK AM 590 in Lexington this afternoon on Kruser's program talking about the Lexington jail fiasco. The call-in number is 859-253-5959.

Meanwhile, a parade of new whistleblowers in the case is expected to file new lawsuits against the city of Lexington very soon.

Don't let Beshear sock you for another $50 million

As some newspaper columnists are trying to get Governor Steve Beshear to jump back on his dead dog of a casino bill, he has worked up a scheme to deal out an immediate $50 million to city and county governments in the pension special session starting today.

And who do you think gets to pick up the tab on that little goody?

We are already in the tank almost $30 billion in the public employee fringe benefits scandal. Now is not a great time to spend good money on helping a politician shore up his low approval rating.

Your barn door is open and your cow is gone

Multiple sources at the Fayette County Detention Center report an effort today to prevent jail staff and inmates from reading some negative publicity in the Lexington Herald Leader.

So, I just have to ask: are you guys going to try to do this with Tuesday's paper too? And the best part for me is hearing that inmates have visitors showing up with paper copies of Kentucky Progress posts.

Gonna be a little tough to hide the truth now, boys.

By Jove, I think she's got it!

Lexington Herald Leader reporter Beth Musgrave writes in this morning's paper:

"Lexington Mayor Jim Newberry issued a statement after the indictments were released, saying the city had made several changes to ensure the safety of the inmates and the officers there since he came into office in January 2007.

But in March -- just three months ago -- Newberry said in a deposition that he had not investigated problems at the jail nor had he asked for any changes to be made there.

Newberry said he knew of no changes to any of the procedures since he took office and had not contacted the FBI and offered the city's assistance -- despite the fact that he knew officers were testifying before a grand jury in Covington. The FBI confirmed that it was investigating allegations of civil rights abuses at the jail in September 2006 after it conducted a search of the Old Frankfort Pike facility.

Newberry, in a statement released to the Herald-Leader Friday, said he has learned more about the situation since his deposition."

There is much, much more coming on this story.

Stop Public Financing of Meth Labs Act of 2009

Rep. Melvin Henley sponsored one of two twin bills to cut welfare benefits for drug abusers in 2008.

He said today he is reworking the bill for 2009. Constitutional issues with the original bill would be addressed by requiring a show of probable cause before attempting to strip away public assistance. Rep. Henley said he wanted to set up a pilot project someplace in the state so policymakers could see what happens.

"There is not enough money to support these people who want to take what we give them and spend it on drugs," Henley said.

Rep. Lonnie Napier, the sponsor of the other twin bill, was not immediately available for comment. Napier's bill had thirty co-sponsors in the House.

Monday Admin meeting at FCDC will be fun

Courthouse sources said Lexington Herald Leader reporter Beth Musgrave was in Nicholasville this past week making copies of documents related to the Lexington jail prisoner abuse scandal at the Fayette County Detention Center.

The whistleblower's civil lawsuit against the city was filed in Jessamine County.

With the first public criminal court hearing on all this insanity coming Monday and the possibility of newspaper story tomorrow, the heat is slowly turning up on all the right people (here and here).

Starting to jump ship like a bunch of rats

There is intense speculation surrounding the Fayette County Detention Center tonight that Administrative Officer Senior Don Leach is trying to work out a deal to avoid losing his pension by flipping on some of his buddies regarding the ongoing inmate abuse scandal and providing critical evidence for an investigation into financial improprieties at the facility.

Don't be surprised to see the next wave of indictments hit Lexington jail employees as soon as this next week. (Memo to staff: if you have anything that might be of value to any kind of investigation out there, time is running out.)

Kentucky has third worst debt ratio in America

Official statistics compiled by a Michigan think tank researcher show Kentucky's state and local government debt gobbling up 22.18% of gross domestic product, worse than every state but Massachusetts and New York.

As revenues and and economic activity are at an all-time high, one might think it is about time to get our spending under control.