Lexington Herald Leader Editorial: Untimely Insult From [Kentucky] Legislature.

Untimely insult from legislature

How they voted

Voting against the increase were:

■ Senate Minority Whip Joey Pendleton, D-Hopkinsville

■ House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green

■House Speaker Pro Tem Larry Clark, D-Louisville

■ House Majority Leader Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook

■ House Majority Caucus Chairman Charlie Hoffman, D-Georgetown

Voting for the increase were:

■Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville

■ House Majority Whip Rob Wilkey, D-Scottsville

■ Senate President Pro Tem Katie Kratz Stine, R-Fort Thomas

■ Senate Majority Leader Dan Kelly, R-Springfield

■ Senate Majority Whip Carroll Gibson, R-Leitchfield

■ Senate Majority Caucus Chair Dan Seum, R-Louisville

■ Senate Minority Leader Ed Worley, D-Richmond

■ Senate Minority Caucus Chair Johnny Ray Turner, D-Drift

■ House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover, R-Jamestown

■ House Minority Whip Stan Lee, R-Lexington

■ House Minority Caucus Chair Bob DeWeese, R-Louisville

There are a lot of ways to assess Legislative Research Commission Director Bobby Sherman's 47 percent, $62,160 pay raise.

It can be interpreted as an insult to the multitude of state workers and public-school teachers who'll get a one percent pay hike this year, or to the University of Kentucky employees who'll get zero.

Social workers and public advocates struggling with unmanageable case loads could take it as a slap in the face. Families struggling to pay their bills in a hostile economy might see it as another sign that government is out of touch.

More than anything, though, it signals the dreary combination of incompetence and arrogance that has come to mark legislative leadership.

Sherman serves at the pleasure of the legislative leaders who hired him. It was they who, in an 11 to 5 vote Tuesday after 28 minutes of secret deliberation, voted his extraordinary raise.

He'll be making $195,000 a year, retroactive to the first of this month.

Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, defended the move. Saying Sherman's service had been "exemplary" and that he's "an indispensable person at this particular juncture in the institution," the raise was essential to keep Sherman from leaving and taking $9,000 a month in retirement pay.

Arrogance: So what's the message to all the other state workers, teachers, professors who are doing exemplary work with little or no pay raises? Work for the legislature and we'll reward you; deliver services to citizens and you get (fill in the blank.)

Incompetence: If his job is so important, why is there no succession plan? Anyone who could count certainly knew Sherman was close to a comfortable retirement, so why did our elected leaders allow themselves (and the taxpayers) to get backed into this compensation corner?

Senate Democratic leader Ed Worley said a search for a new director could take as long as two years. The current presidential campaign aside, who's ever heard of a two-year search?

Is there no one among the LRC's 205 full-time employees who might be groomed for the top spot? What if Sherman fell ill or died?

House Speaker Jody Richards, who voted against the raise, said Thursday he prefiled a bill to rescind it in the next session. Locked in a battle to keep his leadership job, Richards' motives are open to question.

Even if a legislature harassed by an outraged public does pull Sherman's raise, it won't solve the underlying problem.

Sherman's elected bosses, charged with steering state government, have done a lousy job managing their own staff and have insulted tens of thousands of hardworking public employees.

That's the problem.