Lexington Herald Leader Editorial: Questionable Arrangements By [Kentucky] Senators.

Questionable arrangements by senators

In Kentucky, politics is sport.

That's OK as long as we spectators don't feel cheated by the players.

But this past week, stories in this newspaper and The (Louisville) Courier-Journal, revealed a bipartisan pair of state senators who are playing too close to the line.

Herald-Leader reporter John Cheves detailed the land dealings of Sen. Ed Worley, D-Richmond, a developer, who has neatly landed a $410,000-a-year state tenant for a property he had speculated on in downtown Richmond.

Sen. Julie Denton, R-Louisville, we learned has snagged a job recommended to her by a lobbyist. Denton, who heads a committee that oversees Medicaid, will work for a company that recently won a $20 million annual contract to handle dental services for the group that runs Medicaid for the state in the Louisville area.

Each of these arrangements is apparently legal under the ethics codes that govern legislators. (Although, if Worley were leasing to an executive branch agency rather than one from the judicial branch, it would be a class D felony. Go figure.)

But that's not the point. These two arrangements may meet the legal test, but they don't pass the smell test.

The advantage of a part-time citizen legislature is that the members are like us. They're people who struggle to earn a living while, hopefully, forming public policy with the idea of serving others in the same boat.

The disadvantage is that they are like us. While both Denton and Worley assured reporters that their private lives would not influence their decisions as public servants, common sense tells most of us that's just not possible.

Where and how we make a living affects the way we look at the world.

Can Worley really examine the judicial budget without a nagging reminder somewhere in the back of his mind that a severe cut might mean losing a tenant or at least a tough negotiation next time the lease is renewed?

Can Denton forget her employer's interests and put the commonwealth first when she's forming Medicaid policy? Will her employer let her forget?

That's why we have ethics laws. Human nature being what it is, it matters who picks up the tab for drinks, who pays for tickets to the game, who lets you catch a free ride on his private jet. Certainly it matters who provides you with your livelihood.

Both these stories also cast an uneasy light on the way public officeholders can benefit from relationships that ordinary citizens might not enjoy.

Consider that it was a lobbyist for Passport, which holds the largest Medicaid contract awarded by the state, who told Denton about the job. Coincidence? Just idle chat in the halls of the Capitol? Will every concerned citizen have the same access to Denton's ear as that lobbyist in the future?

Worley's deal, while the subject of an open bidding process, was facilitated by his good friend and political ally, Madison County Judge-Executive Kent Clark.

Worley's development company spent more than $765,000 buying property on a block in downtown Richmond and demolished the 19th century buildings on it, but struck out with the first three parties it approached to lease space in the office building planned for the site.

Clark then advertised for space for the family court, and Worley's company was the only one that met the requirements.

While part-time legislators must be able to earn a living elsewhere, citizens have every reason to feel uneasy about Denton's job and Worley's deal.

Kentucky has been a leader in state ethics laws, but clearly there are loopholes the General Assembly should address to avoid smelly plays like these in the future.