Aide saw LINK as asset for re-election (Exhibits bust KY gov's team)

[Rose Siding]

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- A top Fletcher administration official said in February that Gov. Ernie Fletcher's state outreach offices needed to serve as a "political field operation" to help re-elect the governor in 2007.

In a Feb. 3 e-mail, Keith Hall said the network of eight offices that Fletcher calls Local Initiatives for a New Kentucky, "is an undervalued asset for its two main clients, the Governor and his political field operation."
....
The e-mail was one of 31 exhibits the attorney general's office filed in Franklin Circuit Court to justify a search warrant issued Friday to seize the computer server for Fletcher's office.

An investigator said in the affidavit that the exhibits are evidence of politics being used illegally in decisions to hire and fire employees within the state civil service program known as the merit system.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050823/NEWS0104/508230447/1008/NEWS01

Filing alleges hires were pre-selected

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- Dick Murgatroyd allegedly helped find jobs for the nephew of a top adviser to Gov. Ernie Fletcher and a woman recommended by U.S. Rep. Ron Lewis, R-Ky., according to court records filed yesterday.

Those are examples of hiring decisions that Attorney General Greg Stumbo said support 19 misdemeanor charges against Murgatroyd, who is Fletcher's deputy chief of staff and former deputy transportation secretary.

Murgatroyd is one of nine current and former Fletcher administration officials indicted on charges of breaking state hiring laws by improperly considering politics, not qualifications, in filling jobs.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050823/NEWS0104/508230446/1008/NEWS01

Ethics panel, Stumbo clash over subpoena

FRANKFORT, Ky. -- The Executive Branch Ethics Commission went to court yesterday to block a subpoena from the attorney general's office in the state hiring investigation.
....
The commission contends it is bound by law to maintain confidentiality in its preliminary investigations.

"The attorney general is, in essence, attempting to compel the commission to violate the very statute that it is bound to enforce," commission general counsel John Steffen wrote in a motion to quash the subpoena.

Whites said, however, that the commission's confidentiality law has an exception that allows it to give information about criminal activity to the attorney general.

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050823/NEWS0104/508230448/1008/NEWS01

[mom cat]

1. Cleaning up Kentucky and Ohio would be good for a start!

[Roland99]

2. We need to boot our useless Repuke US Senators, too.

[davsand]

3. It goes on everywhere--not just Kentucky.

This stuff is going on every place you have elected officials. I really can't take a lot of joy in seeing it because I know that if you look hard enough there are any number of places in BOTH parties were it is a matter of course to hire based on political affiliation or how hard they worked on somebody's campaign.

Remember--I am from Illinois--probably one of the more corrupt political scenes anywhere around.



Laura