THIN SKINNED MAGISTRATES ARE OUTED

Are the magistrates of the Oldham County Fiscal Court thin-skinned or do they just not want to communicate with their constituents? Perhaps a little bit of both. During the last Fiscal Court meeting on October 6, 2009, the ordinance relating to the refinancing of the sewer district debt was on the agenda. Magistrate Scott Davis had circulated a flyer to about half of the residences in the county. The flyer advised the people that the ordinance, if passed, could result in additional taxes for all property owners in the county. Although that statement was true as well as the remainder of the flyer, the other magistrates, with the exception of Magistrate Bob Leslie and Magistrate Bob Diebel, were quite disturbed by the flyer.

Some of the magistrates alleged that the flyer was misleading and some alleged that it was untrue. However not one magistrate cited an example of fiction in the flyer. One Magistrate, Iva Davis, said that she was not prepared to answer questions on the issue when contacted by her constituents. What is sad about this is that fact that she had received a full copy of the ordinance at the first reading in early October. Perhaps she had not read the ordinance even though she was going to vote on it. The sad thing is that not being informed would not be a first for many of the magistrates.

As for the flyer being misleading, a person would have to make some assumptions to come to that conclusion. The fact of the matter is that the flyer was accurate. At the time the flyer was circulated there was no payment agreement in place. In fact, there was not one in place until the meeting was almost over. An audit of the sewer district finances was still not completed when the ordinance was passed, even though it has been nearly 10 months since one ordered by the Fiscal Court. Passing the ordinance without an audit being completed was very irresponsible – that cannot be denied although I am sure that those voting for the ordinance would deny it.

Clearly, Magistrate Scott Davis’ flyer caught the magistrates off-guard in answering questions regarding the ordinance. Further, it appeared that they did not like receiving so many inquires. They get paid approximately $2000 per month to do their job. Shame on them for being upset!

It was clear to see that Magistrate Voegele also lost his temper. Many of the people in the audience to whom I spoke thought that he was chastising them for being at the meeting and for challenging his performance, which was lousy at best. He went so far as to chastise the audience for not having run for office and then speaking before and challenging the court. He even invited them to vote him out of office. I would not be surprised to see that happen. If Magistrate Voegele believes he has any chance whatsoever at becoming the next Judge-Executive, he needs to get a much better grip on reality in regards to how he is truly viewed by the Oldham County community.

Then there was Magistrate Rick Rash being his usual self. When he took his turn to pontificate, he decided to tell a religious joke – Jewish at that. Talk about opening your mouth and inserting your foot or “opening your mouth and removing all doubt” about your intelligence. Rash clearly demonstrated that he was a professional at both. If I were running against Rash this next term, I would just make a DVD of his performance and circulate one to every household in his district. The fact is, Fiscal Court is not the place to be telling religious jokes, especially in the midst of a serious discussion concerning a $7 million spending decision.

Even Duane Murner had the audacity to say that the flyer was misleading. Perhaps he better than anyone else would know the definition of the word as he is a master at practicing it. The fact is that Murner continues to be upset that his schemes are being publicized and his legacy is being cemented as one of the worst Judges in this county’s history.

In the end, Oldham County CFO Shawn Boyle made an attempt to outdo everyone by coming to the microphone and telling the court just how hard he works. Since the Fiscal Court is not his boss, I don’t know what his purpose was and he probably doesn’t either. At least he didn’t call me a “jackass” this time as he has in the past. However, he did make some convoluted remarks about Magistrate Scott Davis and me. Mr. Boyle needs to learn his place and stick to performing his job. He has convinced himself that he needs to orchestrate a show of standing up for his boss, Judge-Executive Murner. Doesn’t he realize that very few, if any, of the people in this county care to hear his lousy arguments.

Magistrate Scott Davis responded very well to every remark directed toward him. He was obviously better prepared for the questions and remarks of the other magistrates than they were for their own constituents’ questions. Hopefully his efforts will have forced the sewer district to set the rates high enough to keep the other taxpayers from having to foot this bill through either additional taxes or tax money taken from general fund revenues (our taxes).