I have spoken with several people around the county today and each person has told me that the roads in their subdivision were clear despite the heavy snowfall that the county received. For this Brian Campbell and the employees of the road department are to be commended.
Yes, they may be doing what they are paid to do. However, I expect that they had to put in more hours than normal to get the roads cleared. Further, there are a lot of people who are paid to do a job, they just don't it well. Thanks to the road department.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Sunday, February 7, 2010
DO YOU WANT TO HAVE AN IMPACT ON THE 2010 LOCAL ELECTIONS
As most of the readers on this blog know I frequently distribute fliers around the county to inform people of a variety of issues that impact the county, including the actions of many politicians.
During the next few months I intend to distribute several fliers to the public to help keep the public informed about the various political races. Primarily I want to ensure that the public is aware of the voting records of the incumbents, from whom they derive their funding, and their positions on issues of interest to the public. Further, I intend to inform the public about the failures of their representatives to keep themselves properly informed about the matters that they vote on and their lack of contributing anything meaningful to the fiscal court.
If you would like to assist me in the distribution of these fliers, please send an email to me at the email address on this site and include in the email contact information. Thank you.
During the next few months I intend to distribute several fliers to the public to help keep the public informed about the various political races. Primarily I want to ensure that the public is aware of the voting records of the incumbents, from whom they derive their funding, and their positions on issues of interest to the public. Further, I intend to inform the public about the failures of their representatives to keep themselves properly informed about the matters that they vote on and their lack of contributing anything meaningful to the fiscal court.
If you would like to assist me in the distribution of these fliers, please send an email to me at the email address on this site and include in the email contact information. Thank you.
JUDGE MURNER THROWS BILL TUCKER UNDER THE TRAIN
While Judge-Executive Duane Murner was throwing Oldham County Maintenance Director Bill Tucker under the train at the February 2, 2010 meeting of the Oldham County Fiscal, other Magistrates were busy defending their vote to approve the contract awarded to Classic Cleaning for cleaning of the Fiscal Court Building. At issue was the awarding of the contract and the subsequent use of jail inmates to do some of the cleaning work within the scope of the contract.
A little background is in order. Modern Maintenance was under contract to clean the Fiscal Court Building and the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) building that houses the District Court and the Oldham Circuit Court. Although the value of the contract for cleaning the AOC building is unknown at this time, the value of the contract to clean the Fiscal Court building was $25,000. As the contract for the cleaning the Fiscal Court building was about to expire, it was put up for bid again. The only two bidders on the contract were Modern Maintenance and Classic Cleaning. It must be noted that Classic Cleaning is owned by Wendi McGohon and Tina Schaaf, who are both employed in the office of County Judge-Executive Duane Murner.
In my opinion employees of the county should not be allowed to bid on county contracts. Nor should companies that are primarily owned by employees of the county be allowed to bid on county contracts.. County Attorney John Fendley said that no conflict of interest was involved at the time the contract was discussed. Further counsel should have been sought. I believe that a poll of the Oldham County residents would reflect that the vast majority of the people would agree that there appeared to be a conflict of interest.
To make matters worse, county jail inmates began assisting with the cleaning of the FC building immediately after Classic Cleaning was awarded the contract to clean the building. By Judge-Executive Murner’s own admission, inmates had never been used for cleaning the inside of either the Fiscal Court or AOC buildings and they are still not being used to assist Modern Maintenance with the cleaning of the AOC building.
The issue of using the inmates to assist Classic Cleaning in the Fiscal Court building was brought up for discussion at the last Fiscal Court meeting by Magistrate Scott Davis. From the onset of the discussion and the intense questioning by Magistrate Scott Davis, Murner immediately said that it was not his idea to allow the inmates to clean the building but rather the idea of Bill Tucker. He reiterated that Bill Tucker made the decision to start using the inmates and he made the decision to stop using the inmates. I wonder if Bill heard the train coming. In other words, if outside authorities come in to question anyone, Murner wanted his hands to be clean - pure and simple. Does he not remember that he is the County Judge-Executive, albeit in name only over the last three years, and as such he is responsible for what happens in the county.
Further, Murner claimed that the cleaning by the inmates was done under the supervision of Bill Tucker. He further stated that the inmates were being used to supplement the cleaning due to the additional salt that was being tracked into the building as a result of the inclement weather. When my wife saw the inmate cleaning Bill Tucker was not in sight and the inmate was not cleaning the floor, as he was cleaning the windows on the door. I can assure you that she is willing to testify to that in court. I wonder how other people’s stories would change if they were asked to raise their right hand and take an oath in a court of law. Murner’s story became more and more unravelled during the ongoing questioning by Magistrate Scott Davis. Toward the end of Davis’ questioning, Murner appeared shaken and unsure with his responses. There is an old saying, the truth is much easier to remember than the lie. Murner might want to take this advice to heart.
Magistrate Iva Davis, in a rare moment, decided to try and offer something to the discussion. She stated that the company having the contract would not have been able to clean the floors at the time that the inmate labor was being used, therefore she saw nothing wrong with the inmates helping. Once again let me reiterate the inmate was cleaning windows when my wife observed him. I feel certain that a poll of the other employees in the building would reflect that the inmate did more than clean the floors when an abnormal amount of dirt was being brought in by pedestrian traffic due to inclement weather.
Iva Davis went on to compare inmates doing other work in the county to the inmates doing work in the Fiscal Court building. She just doesn’t understand the issue, as is normal with her. The other inmates hopefully are not doing work that a contractor is being paid to do.
Even Magistrate Steve Church, who claims to be an affluent and knowledgeable businessman did not understand the issues. He also compared the cleaning of the Fiscal Court building to the inmates working at the recycling center or other places. Once again, hopefully the other inmates were not performing work that contractors were being paid to do.
Obviously feeling uncomfortable with the position he was in, Judge-Executive Murner once again tried to place blame on Bill Tucker. He stated that Tucker had not been happy with the performance of Modern Maintenance. Was he trying to say that was justification for allowing McGohon and Schaaf to have the contract? The problem with that reasoning is that Modern Maintenance is still cleaning the AOC building. If you were unhappy with a contractor, why would you not replace them entirely? I suppose that you could say that McGohon and Schaaf did not want to clean both buildings. Could that have been because they knew that they would not be able to use inmate help in the AOC building? More than one inquiring mind wants to know the answer to that question.
Speaking of security, my wife said that when she entered the Fiscal Court building on January 26, 2010 and saw the jail inmate cleaning, a closet door was open and there was nobody else present. Immediately she thought, “what was there to prevent this inmate from grabbing her and possibly taking her into the closet?” That thought is in no way a reflection on the inmate as my wife said that he was a very clean cut individual. It is just a natural reaction for a lot of women.
Magistrate Bob Leslie suggested that county employees not be allowed to bid on contracts in the future. Murner replied that to not allow county employees to bid on contracts would cost the county a lot of money. To say that he must be insinuating that county employees would do the job for less money. What evidence does he have to prove that? Are there other county employees that are doing work outside of the normal assigned duties and being paid for it? Are there other county employees that have contracts with the county? His statement was nothing more than a feeble attempt to justify his uncomfortable position. It was clear that Murner did not have adequate answers or responses for Magistrate Davis’ questions.
Magistrate Rick Rash offered his thought on the issue and in doing so demonstrated that he did not understand the issue either, by which nobody was really surprised. He stated that he advised the administration to stop using the inmates and that since they had stopped, there was no harm and therefore, no foul. As is the norm for Rash his reasoning is on a different plane than that of most other people.
Let me sum this up for you. The issue here is not the use of inmate labor to save money. The issue is the proper bidding of contracts. The inmate help was not offered to the other company that bid on the contract, as this was clear from Magistrate Scott Davis’ questioning of Murner. Had the use of inmates been offered to the other company, perhaps their bid would have been as low as or lower than the bid of Classic Cleaning. The foul is that both bidders were not on the same field. The Judge can argue all day long that there was no wrongdoing in the bid process, but everything appears to point to the fact that additional help was given to Classic Cleaning in a secretive manner after the awarding of the bid. At what point Classic Cleaning learned that it would receive additional help is unclear.
It all stinks and I am not the only person that smells the aroma.
A little background is in order. Modern Maintenance was under contract to clean the Fiscal Court Building and the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) building that houses the District Court and the Oldham Circuit Court. Although the value of the contract for cleaning the AOC building is unknown at this time, the value of the contract to clean the Fiscal Court building was $25,000. As the contract for the cleaning the Fiscal Court building was about to expire, it was put up for bid again. The only two bidders on the contract were Modern Maintenance and Classic Cleaning. It must be noted that Classic Cleaning is owned by Wendi McGohon and Tina Schaaf, who are both employed in the office of County Judge-Executive Duane Murner.
In my opinion employees of the county should not be allowed to bid on county contracts. Nor should companies that are primarily owned by employees of the county be allowed to bid on county contracts.. County Attorney John Fendley said that no conflict of interest was involved at the time the contract was discussed. Further counsel should have been sought. I believe that a poll of the Oldham County residents would reflect that the vast majority of the people would agree that there appeared to be a conflict of interest.
To make matters worse, county jail inmates began assisting with the cleaning of the FC building immediately after Classic Cleaning was awarded the contract to clean the building. By Judge-Executive Murner’s own admission, inmates had never been used for cleaning the inside of either the Fiscal Court or AOC buildings and they are still not being used to assist Modern Maintenance with the cleaning of the AOC building.
The issue of using the inmates to assist Classic Cleaning in the Fiscal Court building was brought up for discussion at the last Fiscal Court meeting by Magistrate Scott Davis. From the onset of the discussion and the intense questioning by Magistrate Scott Davis, Murner immediately said that it was not his idea to allow the inmates to clean the building but rather the idea of Bill Tucker. He reiterated that Bill Tucker made the decision to start using the inmates and he made the decision to stop using the inmates. I wonder if Bill heard the train coming. In other words, if outside authorities come in to question anyone, Murner wanted his hands to be clean - pure and simple. Does he not remember that he is the County Judge-Executive, albeit in name only over the last three years, and as such he is responsible for what happens in the county.
Further, Murner claimed that the cleaning by the inmates was done under the supervision of Bill Tucker. He further stated that the inmates were being used to supplement the cleaning due to the additional salt that was being tracked into the building as a result of the inclement weather. When my wife saw the inmate cleaning Bill Tucker was not in sight and the inmate was not cleaning the floor, as he was cleaning the windows on the door. I can assure you that she is willing to testify to that in court. I wonder how other people’s stories would change if they were asked to raise their right hand and take an oath in a court of law. Murner’s story became more and more unravelled during the ongoing questioning by Magistrate Scott Davis. Toward the end of Davis’ questioning, Murner appeared shaken and unsure with his responses. There is an old saying, the truth is much easier to remember than the lie. Murner might want to take this advice to heart.
Magistrate Iva Davis, in a rare moment, decided to try and offer something to the discussion. She stated that the company having the contract would not have been able to clean the floors at the time that the inmate labor was being used, therefore she saw nothing wrong with the inmates helping. Once again let me reiterate the inmate was cleaning windows when my wife observed him. I feel certain that a poll of the other employees in the building would reflect that the inmate did more than clean the floors when an abnormal amount of dirt was being brought in by pedestrian traffic due to inclement weather.
Iva Davis went on to compare inmates doing other work in the county to the inmates doing work in the Fiscal Court building. She just doesn’t understand the issue, as is normal with her. The other inmates hopefully are not doing work that a contractor is being paid to do.
Even Magistrate Steve Church, who claims to be an affluent and knowledgeable businessman did not understand the issues. He also compared the cleaning of the Fiscal Court building to the inmates working at the recycling center or other places. Once again, hopefully the other inmates were not performing work that contractors were being paid to do.
Obviously feeling uncomfortable with the position he was in, Judge-Executive Murner once again tried to place blame on Bill Tucker. He stated that Tucker had not been happy with the performance of Modern Maintenance. Was he trying to say that was justification for allowing McGohon and Schaaf to have the contract? The problem with that reasoning is that Modern Maintenance is still cleaning the AOC building. If you were unhappy with a contractor, why would you not replace them entirely? I suppose that you could say that McGohon and Schaaf did not want to clean both buildings. Could that have been because they knew that they would not be able to use inmate help in the AOC building? More than one inquiring mind wants to know the answer to that question.
Speaking of security, my wife said that when she entered the Fiscal Court building on January 26, 2010 and saw the jail inmate cleaning, a closet door was open and there was nobody else present. Immediately she thought, “what was there to prevent this inmate from grabbing her and possibly taking her into the closet?” That thought is in no way a reflection on the inmate as my wife said that he was a very clean cut individual. It is just a natural reaction for a lot of women.
Magistrate Bob Leslie suggested that county employees not be allowed to bid on contracts in the future. Murner replied that to not allow county employees to bid on contracts would cost the county a lot of money. To say that he must be insinuating that county employees would do the job for less money. What evidence does he have to prove that? Are there other county employees that are doing work outside of the normal assigned duties and being paid for it? Are there other county employees that have contracts with the county? His statement was nothing more than a feeble attempt to justify his uncomfortable position. It was clear that Murner did not have adequate answers or responses for Magistrate Davis’ questions.
Magistrate Rick Rash offered his thought on the issue and in doing so demonstrated that he did not understand the issue either, by which nobody was really surprised. He stated that he advised the administration to stop using the inmates and that since they had stopped, there was no harm and therefore, no foul. As is the norm for Rash his reasoning is on a different plane than that of most other people.
Let me sum this up for you. The issue here is not the use of inmate labor to save money. The issue is the proper bidding of contracts. The inmate help was not offered to the other company that bid on the contract, as this was clear from Magistrate Scott Davis’ questioning of Murner. Had the use of inmates been offered to the other company, perhaps their bid would have been as low as or lower than the bid of Classic Cleaning. The foul is that both bidders were not on the same field. The Judge can argue all day long that there was no wrongdoing in the bid process, but everything appears to point to the fact that additional help was given to Classic Cleaning in a secretive manner after the awarding of the bid. At what point Classic Cleaning learned that it would receive additional help is unclear.
It all stinks and I am not the only person that smells the aroma.
Friday, February 5, 2010
SEWER DISTRICT WOES CONTINUE
For the past couple of years the Oldham County Sewer District has often been at the front of the news. Their lack of capacity, inability to operate efficiently, and their financial status issues have been the center of discussions. Meanwhile Judge Murner has continued to promise that an audit of the district was right around the corner. At the last fiscal court meeting once again the subject of their finances was brought up by Magistrate Scott Davis.
State law requires that all districts receiving more than $750,000 per year have an annual audit. Magistrate Scott Davis has been inquiring of Judge Murner about the audit for several months. Murner has always said that the audit will be forthcoming very shortly. However, as of yet, no audit has been performed, and according to Murner the audit may not be done in the near future.
Murner said that the books of the sewer district are in such bad condition that it was necessary for Stan Clark, the county treasurer, to reconstruct the books as far back as 1998. Without question this reflects that the oversight of the sewer district was nil. There is a good likelihood that there were instances of misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance of office by people in charge of the district over the years. However, nobody has chosen to try to bring those people to justice. They have chosen to sweep the dirt under the carpet.If the books have bben improperly maintained since 1998, it possible that an audit has not been conducted since then. What would you think if that were the case?
Knowing that the books of the sewer district were in horrible condition, Murner still asked the fiscal court to assume responsibility of several million dollars of debt. What is worse is that the majority of the members of fiscal court blindly followed his suggestion. I asked the fiscal court to at least wait until an audit was completed before accepting the responsibility of the debt but they refused to do so. The fact is that most of the members are totally irresponsible or stupid and neither bodes well for the citizens of Oldham County.
Magistrate Davis also asked that Murner explain why Magistrate David Voegele was denied access to the meeting of the Oldham LaGrange Development Authority (OLDA) meeting that was being conducted to discuss the contract proposal by Talmadge Hocker for the Oldham Reserve even though Murner was allowed to attend and he is not a member of OLDA. Murner stated he had nothing to do with the decision to keep Voegele out of the meeting and that he was asked to join the meeting because he had worked closely with OLDA during the negotiations. Murner may have worked closely with OLDA but he certainly has not shared his information with the fiscal court even though the court/county is paying for all of the legal bills for the negotiations. Considering that Murner prefers to operate in secrecy it should come as no surprise that he would not keep members of the court informed.
If my memory serves me correctly, I believe that Murner and other members of the Kinser court constantly complained about Mary Ellen Kinser keeping information from them. I challenge any member of that court to prove to me that she was more secretive than Judge Duane Murner. The present fiscal court needs major changes. All the public can hope for is that some of the people challenging incumbents are successful and that they are not willing to endure the secrecy that the present court has endured.
State law requires that all districts receiving more than $750,000 per year have an annual audit. Magistrate Scott Davis has been inquiring of Judge Murner about the audit for several months. Murner has always said that the audit will be forthcoming very shortly. However, as of yet, no audit has been performed, and according to Murner the audit may not be done in the near future.
Murner said that the books of the sewer district are in such bad condition that it was necessary for Stan Clark, the county treasurer, to reconstruct the books as far back as 1998. Without question this reflects that the oversight of the sewer district was nil. There is a good likelihood that there were instances of misfeasance, malfeasance and nonfeasance of office by people in charge of the district over the years. However, nobody has chosen to try to bring those people to justice. They have chosen to sweep the dirt under the carpet.If the books have bben improperly maintained since 1998, it possible that an audit has not been conducted since then. What would you think if that were the case?
Knowing that the books of the sewer district were in horrible condition, Murner still asked the fiscal court to assume responsibility of several million dollars of debt. What is worse is that the majority of the members of fiscal court blindly followed his suggestion. I asked the fiscal court to at least wait until an audit was completed before accepting the responsibility of the debt but they refused to do so. The fact is that most of the members are totally irresponsible or stupid and neither bodes well for the citizens of Oldham County.
Magistrate Davis also asked that Murner explain why Magistrate David Voegele was denied access to the meeting of the Oldham LaGrange Development Authority (OLDA) meeting that was being conducted to discuss the contract proposal by Talmadge Hocker for the Oldham Reserve even though Murner was allowed to attend and he is not a member of OLDA. Murner stated he had nothing to do with the decision to keep Voegele out of the meeting and that he was asked to join the meeting because he had worked closely with OLDA during the negotiations. Murner may have worked closely with OLDA but he certainly has not shared his information with the fiscal court even though the court/county is paying for all of the legal bills for the negotiations. Considering that Murner prefers to operate in secrecy it should come as no surprise that he would not keep members of the court informed.
If my memory serves me correctly, I believe that Murner and other members of the Kinser court constantly complained about Mary Ellen Kinser keeping information from them. I challenge any member of that court to prove to me that she was more secretive than Judge Duane Murner. The present fiscal court needs major changes. All the public can hope for is that some of the people challenging incumbents are successful and that they are not willing to endure the secrecy that the present court has endured.
Monday, February 1, 2010
ARE CRIMINAL CHARGES IN OLDHAM COUNTY'S FUTURE
Recently, the Oldham County Fiscal Court awarded a contract to clean the Oldham County Fiscal Court Building to a company called Classic Cleaning. At the time I thought that it was a conflict of interest as Classic Cleaning is owned by Wendi McGohon and Tina Schaaf, both of whom are employed in the office of Oldham County Judge-Executive Duane Murner. Further, there was another company that sought the contract through a bid.
Approximately one month ago I received an anonymous letter advising me that Oldham County Jail inmates were cleaning the Fiscal Court Building and that McGohon and Schaaf were not actually performing the work. On January 26, 2010 my wife personally witnessed an inmate cleaning the Fiscal Building. Additionally, I have been informed by at least three other people that inmates were being used to clean the building.
Upon receiving the anonymous letter, the first question that I asked myself was “Did the bid request for proposals make the inmate help available to the other bidder involved in the process?” I doubt that it was, and have heard that it was not. When was the decision made to allow the contractors to use inmates to clean the building? Frankly, this smells like “bid-rigging”.
I intend to do more investigating of this matter. I believe that there is enough information and witnesses available at this point to take the matter to authorities outside the county. I have been told that the county has stopped allowing the inmates to clean the Fiscal Court Building due to complaints, including those made by individuals working in the Fiscal Court Building. However, the toothpaste is already out of the tube and if you have tried to put toothpaste back in a tube, you know that it is almost impossible. The fact is that any other bidder on the contract should have a basis to file suit against the county unless something is done to make the losing bidder(s) “whole”.
It is a shame that a county which has enjoyed the reputation that Oldham County enjoyed just a few years ago now seems be under a cloud all the time. If this trend continues Oldham residents will be looking for “vanity” license plates that don’t reflect their home county.
As I say, stay tuned. Certainly more will follow on this issue.
Approximately one month ago I received an anonymous letter advising me that Oldham County Jail inmates were cleaning the Fiscal Court Building and that McGohon and Schaaf were not actually performing the work. On January 26, 2010 my wife personally witnessed an inmate cleaning the Fiscal Building. Additionally, I have been informed by at least three other people that inmates were being used to clean the building.
Upon receiving the anonymous letter, the first question that I asked myself was “Did the bid request for proposals make the inmate help available to the other bidder involved in the process?” I doubt that it was, and have heard that it was not. When was the decision made to allow the contractors to use inmates to clean the building? Frankly, this smells like “bid-rigging”.
I intend to do more investigating of this matter. I believe that there is enough information and witnesses available at this point to take the matter to authorities outside the county. I have been told that the county has stopped allowing the inmates to clean the Fiscal Court Building due to complaints, including those made by individuals working in the Fiscal Court Building. However, the toothpaste is already out of the tube and if you have tried to put toothpaste back in a tube, you know that it is almost impossible. The fact is that any other bidder on the contract should have a basis to file suit against the county unless something is done to make the losing bidder(s) “whole”.
It is a shame that a county which has enjoyed the reputation that Oldham County enjoyed just a few years ago now seems be under a cloud all the time. If this trend continues Oldham residents will be looking for “vanity” license plates that don’t reflect their home county.
As I say, stay tuned. Certainly more will follow on this issue.
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