Another Shoe Has Dropped!

Well…surprise, surprise…the other shoe – or perhaps better – ANOTHER shoe has dropped in Kentucky’s ongoing “Year of the Scandal.” This time, it’s the Kentucky Association of Counties, and the Lexington Herald-Leader is to be thanked for yet another expose. This should be a “Pulitzer” year for the paper.

So…five top executives managed to do away with almost $600,000 in just two years. Everything from barrels of liquor to the girlie clubs to fancy and expensive “working luncheons” at “selected” bistros to exotic trips here and yon to just keep abreast of the latest (gasp) happenings in the care and feeding of counties. Not only are these charlatans way, way overpaid in the first place, but they ought to start right now coughing up hard cash for the perks they STOLE on the taxpayers’ dime.

Imagine! – nearly $200,000 for meals in two years – almost $275 per day. Do these people ever eat at home? Nearly $17,000 for game tickets, golf and souvenirs! Are these parasites so underpaid in their six-figure salaries that they can’t even pay their way into a ballgame? In one month, more than $7,200 was dropped at one restaurant in Lexington – but, hey, these guys are located in Frankfort. They also ran up thousands in meals in other restaurants in Lexington and Louisville. These guys have offices, but they do their business (with the aid of plenty of alcohol) in lavish working lunches, apparently.

Three of the four airport honchos saw the light and resigned post-haste earlier this year. They managed to squander $600,000 in three years, but the five KACO operators wasted nearly $600,000 in just two years. The airport thieves are probably still waiting to see if criminality is in the wind. The same should be true for KACO leeches, and they ought to resign or be fired before the sun goes down…no ifs, ands, or buts.

Complicit in these raids on public funds are the boards that are supposed to know what’s going on. Instead, at least some of their members enter into the game themselves…go on the trips, take spouses, etc. Indeed, the Kentucky League of Cities honchos had the RIGHT to take their spouses along on the jaunts. Three officials managed to spend $300,000 on meals, travel, etc., in just three years. Indeed, some $20,000 in meals was dropped at the restaurant owned by the League director’s husband. Talk about graft! The lady who was/is the head of that board didn’t even know the amount of the director’s salary, which had just been jacked up to way over $300,000 a year. The League director oughtta be outta there right now.

Okay…a relatively small amount of these essentially rip-off numbers was bona fide. The Library honcho and her staff managed to get in on the goodies, too, and it seems that the going thing in all these enterprises is to give out credit cards like dealing pinochle hands, with the added advantage of almost no accounting. It’s crazy but these pilferers understand that the public is collectively as dumb as a gourd and deserves to be ripped-off.

The boards that are supposed to oversee these shenanigans might as well not exist. They’re put into place through the grand Kentucky modus operandi known as cronyism, pure and simple. They understand their jobs to involve…well, nothing. They’re not paid, after all, so why should they put any effort toward control or even knowledge of what is connected to their positions? Just join in the fun! Don’t rock the boat! It’s disgusting, and these paid-official-leeches should be gone, rules put into place, and board members informed that with the privilege of the position comes the responsibility – love it or leave it!

And so it goes.

Jim Clark