GISH APPOINTED TO POSITION OF DEPUTY COUNTY JUDGE EXECUTIVE

Judge Duane Murner appointed Paula Gish to the position of Deputy County Judge/Executive on May 24, 2010. She had held the position prior to being defeated in her bid for the Republican nomination for County Judge/Executive. Gish was serving in the position at the time the Office of Special Counsel determined that she was in violation of the Hatch Act. She resigned the position on May 14, 2010.

Murner announced her appointment to the Fiscal Court on June 1, 2010. At the time of his announcement Murner stated that state law allowed him to appoint her without the approval of the Fiscal Court. He also stated that the Fiscal Court was supposed to set her salary. However, the Court did not do that at the June 1st. meeting. Therefore, in my opinion, any salary that she receives will be illegal and she may be required to repay the money to the county should someone take the issue to court.

It is obvious that Murner deliberately skirted the issue. I suspect that he was afraid that there might be a lengthy discussion over the amount of money that she should be paid. Frankly, I do not believe that Gish should receive the same salary that she was receiving prior to her resignation. After all, when her initial salary was set her position description stated that she supervised ten other supervisors. However, Murner subsequently told the Office of Special Counsel that she only supervised three people. If one of those people was the payroll clerk, the Kentucky state auditor had determined that she was not qualified to supervise that position. In view of these issues one would believe that her salary should have been drastically reduced. Perhaps Murner did not want to risk additional embarrassment on top of having recently having his hand picked candidate lose the nomination to be his successor.

Murner’s deliberate side stepping of the salary issue was a deliberate slap in the face of the members of Fiscal Court. Is anyone surprised?