TIDBITS FROM OLDHAM COUNTY

Many issues of interest are taking place in Oldham County. Included are the race for County Judge, the race for PVA, the identity of the Oldham Observer, the apparent change of heart by the Oldham County Chief of Police toward veterans and the politicizing of the Fiscal Court meetings by Rick Rash with his advertisement in court of his political rally.

First, consider the race for Judge. There are two announced candidates and I believe that there will be at least two more. Although Judge Murner claims that he will support Paula Gish, he has not ruled out running for the office again. Now if I were Paula Gish, I would feel as though I were on the proverbial banana peeling. She can’t seriously believe that Murner will willingly allow the judgeship to fall into the hands of David Voegele or Scott Davis should either enter the race and become contenders. Neither Davis nor Voegele would be acceptable to Murner. Further, Murner has not been successful in his term. Sure, he claims to have balanced the budget but everyone knows that he did it with tax increases and not good management practices. Further, he has failed to adequately identify the people who were responsible for the sewer district debacle and the Oldham Reserve situation gets worse every day. In essence, he has been a failure.

Then there is the PVA race. On one hand there is the incumbent Ron Winters who was supported by the developers the last time that he ran. However, after he rebuked them in their attempt to have their assessments reduced it appears that they have a new candidate in the person of Albert Harrison. However, he has never demonstrated that he could handle a tough race. Winters has had tough races and been successful. Also, he recently was found to have acted lawfully when he hired his wife as his Chief Deputy. I will predict now that Winters will win that race going away.

While I have only visited the Oldham Observer web site three times, those visits left me with the impression that the owner of the site was not interested in issues, only attacking people. Even at that he was not very accurate but it was difficult for people to attack him because he was afraid to allow people to know who he was. However, I have been informed that he has now been identified and that his identity has been placed on his site. I would expect that he would now try to be more accurate for fear of being sued. Perhaps he may not even place any more material on his site. What a loss! Of course that is a “tongue in cheek” remark.

Then there is Chief Mike Griffin of the Oldham County Police Department (OCPD) who has been alleged to have discriminated against Bruce Gentry, an applicant for a position with the OCPD, and has been sued by Gentry. He is alleged to have discriminated against him because he had a military commitment. During his appearance before Fiscal Court on Tuesday Griffin appeared to have nothing but praise about the military experience of the latest recruit for the department. If he did discriminate against Gentry, he must have had a sudden change of heart about the military. When a decision in the Gentry case is reached we may know the answer to that question. There was a settlement hearing held in the Gentry case earlier in June. However, I have not heard of any settlement.

Of course some things never change. Rick Rash will take any opportunity to pound his chest. During each of the last two Fiscal Court meetings he has advertised his Town Hall (Political Rally). This certainly detracts from the dignity of the court but dignity has not been Rick Rash’s strong suit. I really believe that Rick Rash will have at least one opponent and I believe that Rick Rash will be defeated. I then expect him to try to get the new judge to give him a job so that he can increase his retirement. One could honestly ask if Rash is a magistrate because he wants to serve the people or if he is there primarily to increase his retirement and other benefits. The voters will decide that.