Louisville Courier Journal Editorial: "Quick Reform" Needed At Kentucky League Of Cities (KLC) And Kentucky Association Of Counties (KACO). I AGREE.
Quick reform
The closest thing to a slam-dunk for quick and certain approval in the General Assembly should be legislation to provide more oversight and more openness in the business and the meetings of the Kentucky League of Cities and the Kentucky Association of Counties.
The Lexington Herald-Leader's reporting last year on both groups revealed profligate spending by the groups' staffs. It also revealed that the boards that were supposed to oversee and put the brakes on such extravagance were asleep at the wheel while the spending sprees were going on.
Let's recap the excesses uncovered by the newspaper's stories and also by state Auditor Crit Luallen's reviews of the groups' business dealings and practices:
KLC's top staff members spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on excessive or questionable expenses in recent years. Its former executive director was paid $331,000-plus in salary last year, and the group paid more than $1 million in legal services to a law firm in which her husband was a partner, and spent almost $30,000 at a restaurant in which he was part-owner.
KACo was no slouch in the excessive-expenses department, either, with $1.4 million of the almost $2 million charged to KACo credit cards in a three-year period found to be excessive, without adequate documentation or without an established business purpose.
All this, for two organizations that get most of their funding from tax dollars and should be accountable to the taxpayers.
Since those devastating reports, it is true that the boards have snapped to it a little more and have worked up some measures to clean up their agencies' acts. But legislators should resist any pleas to go easy on the legislation in favor of what the boards have done only since the scandal made headlines.
Too little, too late.
Forced and enforced culture change is needed — as is renewed public trust in the groups, for they do important work in providing insurance and services to local Kentucky governments — and that is what legislation will begin to provide.
Proposed legislation in the House would strengthen oversight, toughen standards and practices on procurement and bidding, and make the groups subject to the state's open records and meetings laws while allowing some protection of proprietary information.
Incredibly, after the reports and fallout of last year (the executive directors of both groups resigned), theHerald-Leader reported that the KLC's executive board recently voted to continue to close its meetings to the public.
Incredible. And enough.
As Ms. Luallen told the newspaper, “The key here is to remember that these are organizations that are funded with public dollars and are led by officials who are elected leaders. The majority of their boards are elected leaders representing the public. As such, they are subject to public scrutiny.”
Amen to that.
The closest thing to a slam-dunk for quick and certain approval in the General Assembly should be legislation to provide more oversight and more openness in the business and the meetings of the Kentucky League of Cities and the Kentucky Association of Counties.
The Lexington Herald-Leader's reporting last year on both groups revealed profligate spending by the groups' staffs. It also revealed that the boards that were supposed to oversee and put the brakes on such extravagance were asleep at the wheel while the spending sprees were going on.
Let's recap the excesses uncovered by the newspaper's stories and also by state Auditor Crit Luallen's reviews of the groups' business dealings and practices:
KLC's top staff members spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on excessive or questionable expenses in recent years. Its former executive director was paid $331,000-plus in salary last year, and the group paid more than $1 million in legal services to a law firm in which her husband was a partner, and spent almost $30,000 at a restaurant in which he was part-owner.
KACo was no slouch in the excessive-expenses department, either, with $1.4 million of the almost $2 million charged to KACo credit cards in a three-year period found to be excessive, without adequate documentation or without an established business purpose.
All this, for two organizations that get most of their funding from tax dollars and should be accountable to the taxpayers.
Since those devastating reports, it is true that the boards have snapped to it a little more and have worked up some measures to clean up their agencies' acts. But legislators should resist any pleas to go easy on the legislation in favor of what the boards have done only since the scandal made headlines.
Too little, too late.
Forced and enforced culture change is needed — as is renewed public trust in the groups, for they do important work in providing insurance and services to local Kentucky governments — and that is what legislation will begin to provide.
Proposed legislation in the House would strengthen oversight, toughen standards and practices on procurement and bidding, and make the groups subject to the state's open records and meetings laws while allowing some protection of proprietary information.
Incredibly, after the reports and fallout of last year (the executive directors of both groups resigned), theHerald-Leader reported that the KLC's executive board recently voted to continue to close its meetings to the public.
Incredible. And enough.
As Ms. Luallen told the newspaper, “The key here is to remember that these are organizations that are funded with public dollars and are led by officials who are elected leaders. The majority of their boards are elected leaders representing the public. As such, they are subject to public scrutiny.”
Amen to that.
Labels: News reporting
posted by KYJurisDoctor at 11:40 AM
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