The Carpetbagger Can't Stop Criming

You almost get the impression he has no more respect for Kentucky laws and Kentucky courts than he does for Kentucky voters.

From the AP:

Gov. Matt Bevin's office was ordered Monday to pay Planned Parenthood for its expenses after the Republican's representatives were a no-show for a deposition in an abortion case.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Dave Whalin told Bevin's office to reimburse Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky for travel and legal expenses incurred for the deposition that had been scheduled Aug. 18.

Planned Parenthood's legal team wanted to question someone from Bevin's office about his administration's denial of a license to the organization to provide abortions in Louisville.

The deposition was rescheduled ahead of a trial held in September in the abortion case. Another federal judge has not yet ruled on the abortion licensing dispute.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/latest-news/article181768156.html#storylink=cp Gov. Matt Bevin’s office violated Kentucky’s Open Records Act when it refused to provide an Arizona attorney with some of the emails it exchanged with the White House, according to a new ruling by Attorney General Andy Beshear’s office.
Spencer Scharff, a civil rights attorney in Phoenix who previously served as voter protection director of the Arizona Democratic Party, said in a telephone interview Monday that he has been seeking similar information from other governors and state officeholders across the country “in the name of transparency and to help journalism.”
Amanda Stamper, a spokeswoman for Bevin, accused Beshear of abusing his power for political gain.
“Just last year, a long-time employee in his office accused Attorney General Beshear of politicizing open records decisions,” Stamper said Monday. “Simply put, we will not be a part of Attorney General Beshear’s abuse of the Open Records Act.”

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article181721956.html#storylink=cpy

Jack Brammer at the Herald:

Gov. Matt Bevin’s office violated Kentucky’s Open Records Act when it refused to provide an Arizona attorney with some of the emails it exchanged with the White House, according to a new ruling by Attorney General Andy Beshear’s office.

Spencer Scharff, a civil rights attorney in Phoenix who previously served as voter protection director of the Arizona Democratic Party, said in a telephone interview Monday that he has been seeking similar information from other governors and state officeholders across the country “in the name of transparency and to help journalism.” 

Amanda Stamper, a spokeswoman for Bevin, accused Beshear of abusing his power for political gain.

“Just last year, a long-time employee in his office accused Attorney General Beshear of politicizing open records decisions,” Stamper said Monday. “Simply put, we will not be a part of Attorney General Beshear’s abuse of the Open Records Act.”

Another non-denial denial from Governor Smirky.  They don't deny they violated the law; they just attack the elected official for doing his job.

But who cares about Kentucky? To Governor I Got Mine Fuck You, Kentucky's just a bunch of unsophisticated rubes and rednecks barely sufficient to serve as a political stepping stone to the White House. 

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article181721956.html#storylink=cpy

KY Papers win Open Records Precedent on Child Deaths

Wonder what local newspapers are for?  Fighting for years to force state government to make public how it handles child abuse cases that lead to deaths.

Holding the people's government accountable to the people, goddammit, that's what for.

Bill Estep at the Herald:

The state will pay a $250,000 penalty to Kentucky’s two largest newspapers to settle a lawsuit that requires public disclosure of documents about children who die or are severely injured from abuse or neglect.

The newspapers had fought the legal battle for years as they attempted to assess state efforts to protect vulnerable children.

The Cabinet for Health and Family Services, which investigates cases in which children might have died as a result of abuse or neglect, also agreed to pay attorney fees of $110,000 to the Lexington Herald-Leader and $339,000 to The (Louisville) Courier-Journal.


The $250,000 is a penalty for violating the state’s open records law.

Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip J. Shepherd ordered a much higher penalty, $756,000, in 2013, ruling that the cabinet had willfully refused to release documents as required by state law in response to the newspapers’ requests.

The cabinet acted as if the law was “an obstacle to be circumvented rather than a law mandating compliance,” Shepherd wrote.

A panel of the state Court of Appeals upheld that ruling this year, saying public agencies must permit inspection of public records as required by the law “or risk meaningful punishment for noncompliance.”

“Rigid adherence to this stark principle is the lifeblood of a law which rightly favors disclosure, fosters transparency and secures the public trust,” Judge Irv Maze wrote in the majority opinion.

The newspapers agreed to the lower penalty amount, and the state agreed to drop its request for the state Supreme Court to review the case. Each paper will receive $125,000.

Rufus Friday, president and publisher of the Herald-Leader, said the newspaper was evaluating options for using the penalty to serve the community and promote transparency, with an emphasis on child welfare, families and social services.

The real goal of fighting for access to the records was to promote greater openness in child welfare, Friday said.

“This resolution leaves no doubt that these records related to state government’s role in protecting its most vulnerable citizens are open for public scrutiny. That has been our goal from the beginning,” Friday said.

SNIP

The path to the settlement made public Monday started with a gruesome tragedy in May 2009, when Kayden Daniels, a 20-month-old Wayne County boy, died after accidentally drinking caustic drain cleaner that had been used to make methamphetamine at a trailer where his teenage parents had been staying.

The Herald-Leader asked the state for records detailing its involvement with Kayden and his mother.

However, the agency had a longstanding policy against publicly releasing files on children who died or were badly injured in such cases, and it denied the newspaper’s request for documents.

That was the genesis for a court fight in which the Herald-Leader and The Courier-Journal ultimately sued the cabinet for access to files on 140 children killed or badly hurt in 2009 and 2010.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/watchdog/article72496592.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/watchdog/article72496592.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/watchdog/article72496592.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/watchdog/article72496592.html#storylink=cpy

Silly Citizens: Open Records Are Only for the Rich

Fucking public, thinking that state agencies can be held accountable to the rabble.

John Cheves at the Herald:

Government agencies could charge hundreds of dollars for public records that are currently free or cost little under a bill that would rewrite the Kentucky Open Records Act.

"It looks like this innocuous little bill, but it's really a dagger through the heart of the Open Records Act and, as a result, government transparency," said Jon Fleischaker, a First Amendment lawyer in Louisville.

State Rep. Derrick Graham, D-Frankfort, this week filed House Bill 548, although after he was questioned about it Thursday, he said he does not plan to seek a vote on it.

Shame on you, Derrick Graham.  I know the agencies are crying poverty, but that's the fault of the austerity budgets the lege and the governor have forced on them.

Don't balance the state budget on the backs of citizens who have already paid through their taxes for the documents state agencies produce.

Bill to Make Agency Heads Pay Open Records Fines Misses the Mark

Extend it to city and county officials and increase the fines by an order of magnitude, and you've got something.

Jack Brammer at the Herald:

A bill was filed Monday that would make state officials personally responsible when a court determines that the agencies they oversee have withheld state records willfully.

Senate Bill 130, sponsored by Sen. Julie Denton, R-Louisville, would force the agency leaders to pay court awards and attorney fees out of their own pockets.

SNIP

Denton said her bill was in response to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services being fined $756,000 in December after a judge said it made "a mockery" of the state's Open Records Acts for repeatedly withholding information in its files about abused and neglected children.

SNIP

Denton said her bill would keep taxpayers' money from going to newspaper companies.

BZZZZZZZT! Oh, sorry, Julie - you were so close! But thanks for playing!

"Newspaper companies," public interest groups, citizen activists and others who file open records requests and take recalcitrant agencies to court receive those fines to cover the extensive costs of forcing public servants to do their fucking jobs and obey the fucking law. They have earned that money and deserve to get it, no matter how you may personally feel about the "newspaper companies" in your hometown that regularly expose the stupidity of you and your repug colleagues.

HT Deal with Corrupt Contractors: Exempt Them From State Law

It's the logical next step after outsourcing public services to private contractors who charge twice as much to do a half-assed job: let them escape any accountability to the public whose money they steal.

And it's just so embarrassing when some legislator's idiot nephew with a state contract is exposed as the lying, thieving little weasel he is.

John Cheves at the Herald:

Some targets of critical news stories and state audits from recent years could avoid scrutiny under changes that lawmakers are proposing to the Kentucky Open Records Act.

Presently, any organization that gets at least 25 percent of its revenue from local or state government must share most of its records under the act, which is meant to bring transparency to public spending.

But House Bill 496, set to be heard next week in committee, would change the act to exempt from disclosure any money awarded by a government “for goods or services that are provided by a contract obtained through a public procurement process.” While a government entity still would have to share its records upon request, a private organization that is awarded state business, and taxpayer money, would not.

Among those asking questions about the bill are state Auditor Adam Edelen and the Kentucky Press Association.

“The government’s business is the public’s business, and the public has a right to know what’s going on with its money at all levels,” said David Thompson, KPA executive director. “Some of these entities might not consider themselves public. But that portion of their revenues that comes from government should be open for inspection.”

The bill potentially would shield private contractors, such as Utility Management Group, which is paid more than $11.6 million a year to manage Pike County’s water and sewer systems. Attorney General Jack Conway’s office ruled in September that UMG is a public entity under the Open Records Act and must disclose spending information requested by local citizens. UMG is appealing in Pike Circuit Court.

UMG and its public employer, Mountain Water District, have been at the center of several controversies in recent years, including no-bid contracts that led to an ethics sanction of state Rep. Keith Hall, D-Phelps, who owns a company that digs sewer lines. UMG also refused to share its financial data with the state auditor’s office.

Rep. Johnny Bell, the sponsor of HB 496, said he respects the public’s right to know. Bell said his bill is a response to a flurry of Open Records Act requests filed in the last five months against private companies in construction, highway building, engineering and architecture, who do much of their business with government. The companies are complaining about wasted time and legal fees, Bell said.

Read the whole thing.

Why Attending Boring City Council Meetings Is Never a Waste of Time

Do you know how many of your tax dollars are going to your local government officials, their corrupt friends, their idiot nephews and all the other hogs feeding at your local public trough?

If not, you can stop laughing at the ripped-off citizens of poor Bell, California. Because if you aren't attending meetings and reading budgets and asking questions and demanding answers, then you're just as vulnerable as Bell's taxpayers.

Robert Cruickshank at Calitics has a good local take:

So there's been a LOT of discussion in Southern California over the last week or so about the situation in the small city of Bell, one of the hundreds dozens of incorporated cities in Los Angeles County, where top city officials were making truly stunning salaries, nearing $800,000 in one case.

The story is being pushed hard by the right, which sees an opportunity to undermine both government and public employee unions - although these salaries weren't the product of a union contract, conservatives are ignoring that detail to imply that Bell is symptomatic of a bigger problem of "overpaid" public workers, so that we should simply impoverish everyone instead of making the relatively minor fixes to address the occasional abuse of the system.

But another story in the region has gone relatively underreported. Maywood, which borders Bell to the north, has laid off its entire police force and contracted with the LA County Sheriffs Department to police their city. In the SF Bay Area, San Carlos is considering a similar move. Here in Monterey, the Peninsula cities have been considering integrating their fire services, and already Pacific Grove has contracted with Monterey to oversee its fire services.

The real issues aren't that government is incompetent or that public workers are greedy, as the right-wingers would have us believe. Instead the truth is that California's city governments are in need of some fundamental reforms - including city consolidation - and that we need to do a better job of ensuring residents are fully engaged in the process of local government.

For more great details on how racism and segregation play a major part in the latest California clusterfuck, read the whole thing.

But right now I'd like to concentrate on the fact that you, personally, are responsible for the conduct of your local government officials.

First, you vote them in, whether by voting for them or by failing to rally your neighbors in support of their opponents, or by abdicating your citizenship by not voting at all.

Second, if you don't attend every council/fiscal court meeting, "work session," committee meeting and hearing, then when they cheat the taxpayers, it's your fault.

I cannot tell you what a difference it makes when actual voters show up at local government meetings. As a reporter, I attended far too many local government meetings at which I was the only non-official there. What that meant was that council members felt free to bar me from secret deliberations, demand I put public discussions "off the record," and refuse to let me see public documents.

But when actual voters were in attendance, it was much more difficult for them to justify such illegal behavior, and they usually didn't try.

Today, most newspapers can't afford to send reporters to every boring committee meeting - and believe me, they should bottle them as cures for insomnia - which means the elected and appointed officials on those committees are free to rip off the taxpayers - whether through extra payments to themselves, giving no-show jobs to friends and idiot nephews, or handing no-bid contracts to campaign contributors.

If you don't show up at those meetings to hold them accountable, then their corruption is your fault.

Show up at every single meeting. Get copies of your state's Open Records and Open Meetings laws, and carry them ostentatiously into the meetings. Challenge every attempt to make you leave or refuse to give you copies of the documents they are reviewing. Trust me - 999 times out of a thousand, their attempts at secrecy are illegal. Stand your ground, no matter what their corrupt "attorney" claims or threatens.

Have no doubt that YOU are the one with the power in that room. Every single elected and appointed official in your city or county works for you.

Don't ever let the fuckers forget it.

Cross-posted at They Gave Us A Republic ....

KY legislators Defy State Law

Looks like Speaker of the Kentucky House Greg Stumbo needs another reminder:

Public service is a sacrifice, not a package of perks.

And one of those sacrifices is that your public duties are a matter of public record, all details subject to the state Open Records law. especially when you're spending big taxpayer bucks.

Kentucky lawmakers say it’s important they spend this week in Philadelphia at the National Conference of State Legislatures summit — but they won’t say how many of them are there or what it’s expected to cost the taxpayers.

Last summer, about 50 of the state’s 138 lawmakers went to the NCSL summit in New Orleans. House and Senate leadership brought Kentucky State Police with them as personal protection, as is their custom.

But on Tuesday, House Speaker Greg Stumbo and Senate President David Williams‘ offices refused to say how many House and Senate members asked for permission to travel to Philadelphia this week, while the state government — and the nation — grapple with a serious recession.

Stumbo and Williams are there, as are about 25 legislative staffers. But the identities of other lawmakers in attendance, the overall number and the estimated cost of sending them remains a mystery to the public.

“We’re not releasing any information right now,” said Stumbo spokesman Brian Wilkerson.

Wrong. You don't get to say that, Wilkerson. You release that information right this fucking instant, or you haul your filthy lawbreaking ass directly to jail.

Kentucky's Open Records Act is more than 30 years old. Stripped of details, it's pretty damn simple and straightforward:

Anything and everything done in the name of the people of the Commonwealth, by the representatives of the people of the Commonwealth, paid for with the money of the people of the Commonwealth, is the property of the people of the Commonwealth, to be shown to them at their request.

I expect crap like this from Senate president David Williams, who's a typical dictatorial repug, but Stumbo's endangering his man of the people reputation. I'm open to supporting Stumbo for Governor in 2011, but not if he keeps acting as if he's above the law.

Read the whole thing.