The CESSPOOL Claims A Victim As Joe Prather Resigns Transportation Cabinet Chief Post.

Prather resigns as transportation chief
By Stephenie Steitzer

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Transportation Cabinet Secretary Joe Prather announced his resignation Tuesday, effective Sept. 30.

State Highway Engineer Mike Hancock will serve as interim secretary, Gov. Steve Beshear announced at a press conference.

Beshear praised Prather, saying he knew the 70-year-old veteran of state government never planned to serve the entire term.

“It is a day I had hoped would not arrive,” the governor said.

Prather said he plans to spend more time with his family and at a second home at a fishing lake in Florida.

Beshear said Prather led a massive cleanup in a cabinet known for its rampant corruption over the years.

He referred to the federal criminal charges facing former Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert, who served under former Gov. Ernie Fletcher, and road contractor Leonard Lawson.

“Soon after I took this job, I referred to the Transportation Cabinet as a cesspool of cronyism and inefficiency,” Beshear said.

Prather said he was honored to serve under a governor who “had the political courage to protect my back.”

He later declined to give specific examples of that, saying he expects to be called as a prosecution witness in the Lawson-Nighbert bid-rigging trial.

Prather's tenure has not been free of controversy.

In a February opinion in a lawsuit, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd criticized the cabinet's plans to spend $20 million on a two-mile extension of a road in Hardin County, near where Prather owns property.

Beshear spokesman Jay Blanton said the suit had nothing to do with Prather's resignation. "Secretary Prather has always acted in a transparent and ethical fashion," he said.