MAGISTRATE VOEGELE TRIES FOR AN OSCAR

The Oldham County Airport Board hired ETC, a private company located in Kansas to conduct a survey to determine if the residents of Oldham County wanted a General Aviation airport. On February 3, 2009 the results of that survey were presented to the Oldham County Fiscal Court. Not surprisingly, the results overwhelmingly reflected that the residents of the county do not want an airport.

Many people will attempt to take credit for defeating the airport and the fact is that many people did do a lot to discourage the construction of an airport, especially members of NOA (No Oldham Airport). However, Magistrate David Voegele was not one of those people. Yet he took the opportunity to once again “grandstand” before the court after the presentation of the survey results. He even went so far as to threaten the airport board stating that if the board did not take action to bring an end to the airport, he would do so at the next meeting. Where has David Voegele been for the past year? He has had plenty of opportunities to make a proposal to stop the construction of an airport and has had two opportunities to vote to disband the airport board. Now he wants to threaten them? As an old saying goes, “he could have gone all day without saying what he said.”

While at least two other magistrates had the political courage to attempt to abolish the board after hearing from their constituents and studying the issue, Voegele lacked the political courage to take any action until he was hit in the face with a ten thousand dollar study conducted at taxpayer expense. It is even possible that Voegele would have continued to support the consideration of an airport, in the face of stiff opposition, if his support could have swayed County Judge Murner into funding the demolition of the Buckner Mall, a project Voegele has wanted completed at any cost.

In addition to Magistrates Scott Davis and Bob Leslie I heard at least three other magistrates express less than favorable opinions of the proposed airport. Magistrate Steve Greenwell even went to so far as to state that he was voting against the airport because his constituents were against it. Where was David Voegele? Waiting in the shadows to take a belated stand against the airport after everyone else did the work. While the people on the Fiscal Court who were known supporters of the airport were being gracious losers Magistrate Voegele was being a nasty self-imposed champion of the winners. He did this while none of the most adamant opponents of the airport said a word to the court or the board. Instead, they chose to wait until the following day for the final decision of the board.

As I have stated before, I feel certain that Magistrate Voegele wants to be the next County Judge. To accomplish that he needs to demonstrate leadership instead of sitting back and waiting for other people to do all of the work while he tries to take the credit for their effort.

Another interesting move made by Voegele occurred when Mr. Wade was nominated for a position on the Oldham LaGrange Development Authority. After the nomination was made Voegele came forth with reasons why he could not support Mr. Wade. I know nothing about Mr. Wade so I cannot take issue with the concerns that Magistrate Voegele had. However, knowing that Magistrate Voegele is prone to changing his position at the last moment I always watch to see what his final vote is. In this instance, the Judge, while taking the vote, asked the magistrates to signify if they were in favor of the nomination. To that there appeared to be eight votes of approval, including the Judge. When the Judge stated, “all opposed”, Voegele responded, “No.” Does that mean that he had changed his mind and was not opposed to the nomination? I think that he was against the nomination of Mr. Wade but with Magistrate Voegele one cannot be sure. In any event his vote was of no consequence.