REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES FOR COUNTY ATTORNEY DEBATE

On April 22, 2010 a debate was held between the two Republican candidates for the office of the Oldham County Attorney. The participants were Galen Clark and the incumbent, John Fendley.

Several topics were discussed and each candidate was given an opportunity to give closing remarks. Early in the debate Fendley stated that he had spoken in opposition of the smoking ban and the airport. Clark replied that he did not believe that the County Attorney should leave his seat on the Fiscal Court to speak in the “public comment” portion of the Fiscal Court meetings.

Clark accused Fendley of having given “bad advice” to the County Clerk on the petition that was circulated by the Patriot II group regarding the increase in school taxes. Clark said that advice could cost the school board several million dollars as a lawsuit ensued against the school board. Fendley responded that the issue did not involve Fiscal Court. However, Fendley did not say that giving legal advice to the County Clerk was not a part of his job.

Fendley stated that his most important responsibility to the public was to protect their rights and property. Clark alleged that Fendley too often gave probation to repeat offenders. Fendley did not respond to that allegation.

Fendley stated that his office is one of the top offices in the state in pursuing child support offenders. Clark responded that the state gives Fendley’s office $199,000 each year to prosecute child support cases. This money is in addition to the normal funds that a County Attorney’s office receives

Clark said that if he were elected, he would work with the schools to promote programs to prevent juvenile crime. He claimed that Fendley had not been involved with the schools since 1999. Both candidates support the use of school resource officers, however, Fendley claimed that the resource officers were both an enforcement and a training tool. Clark, on the other hand, claimed that he would rely on his office to give instructions to the students more than he would the resource officers.

Additionally, Clark said that he would set up a web site to educate the students and that he would like to get students educated about crime. On the other hand, Fendley said that students were educated by their peers who had come in contact with the law. My comment to that would be, who would you rather have teaching your child which course in life to follow, a professional person or a student who had gained his/her experience only through contact with the law?

In his closing remarks Fendley said the County needs a person with experience instead of someone who sits in an ivory tower and criticizes other people.

Clark said he would not be running for the office if he thought the current administration was doing a good job.

While Clark certainly has some good ideas and a different approach to punishing people who commit crimes he has an uphill battle in his attempt to unseat Fendley. Fendley has been in office for a long time and knows a lot of people. He made a point of letting people know that his family had resided in the county for several generations. I hear several candidates try to take advantage of the fact that their family has been in the county for decades. Considering how the demographics of Oldham County have changed over the past thirty years I am not sure whether that is a positive or negative asset.

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