Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Kentucky Republican Mafia - Some people are "made" others are not.
Records show Democrats rejected for jobs
LISTS MENTION DONATIONS, BUMPER STICKERS
By John Cheves
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
FRANKFORT - Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration investigated some applicants for merit jobs to determine their political loyalty, then acted against Democrats, according to internal rec-ords filed in court Friday.
In one case, an applicant had Democratic bumper stickers, which was noted next to his name on a list of job seekers. In another, Fletcher aides dropped the recommended candidate for a job when they uncovered his donations to the campaigns of Democratic Gov. Paul Patton and Ben Chandler, the Democrat who lost to Fletcher in 2003.
"From the very beginning of this administration, they have used party loyalty and campaign donations as criteria for state employment, and unfortunately, this is simply more evidence," said Charles Wells, executive director of the Kentucky Association of State Employees.
Attorney General Greg Stumbo is investigating reports that the Fletcher administration makes decisions about whom to hire for merit jobs based on politics rather than qualifications, which would be illegal.
Fletcher, who has denied any wrongdoing by his administration, is the first Republican governor in more than 30 years, which brought out large numbers of Republicans to apply for positions.
So far, Stumbo has secured misdemeanor indictments against three Fletcher officials, charged with illegally firing Mike Duncan, deputy inspector general at the Transportation Cabinet, because he is a Demo-crat and backed Chandler.
One of those indicted officials -- Dan Druen, the cabinet's administrative services commissioner -- is a central figure in internal records Stumbo filed in court Friday.
The records, seized during Stumbo's earlier searches of state offices, mostly are lists of existing state employees and job seekers, as well as correspondence between Druen and other Fletcher aides.
Demands for employment
The aides wrote about facing Republican demands for employment and discussed purging 4,000 political jobs of Democratic "holdovers" from the Patton administration, which is legal. But they also raised the question of political loyalty when filling some of 32,000 merit jobs.
At the Highway Department, a Muhlenberg County applicant for superintendent -- who apparently did not get hired -- had "Dems stickers on trucks," according to a note under his name.
That document was a handwritten list of job applicants identifying those with Republican ties. At the top of the sheet was the name of Fletcher adviser J. Marshall Hughes, a Bowling Green lawyer and member of the Kentucky Republican Party Central Executive Committee. It was unclear whether he was the author or recipient of the list.
It also carried the name and fax number of Mark Honeycutt, the Personnel Cabinet's attorney.
Hughes and Honeycutt did not return telephone calls seeking comment about the note. Hughes appeared last week before the grand jury convened by Stumbo to investigate Fletcher's merit hiring.
In another case, Harold Witt was originally recommended for a promotion to highway superintendent in Montgomery County, based on merit qualifications, according to the records. But the mother of a competitor, Harold Faulkner, wrote an angry letter to Fletcher declaring that her family is Republican, and yet "we cannot get a job."
Gladys Faulkner's complaint was forwarded to Basil Turbyfill, the governor's executive director of personnel and efficiency, who passed it to Druen. Druen then checked Witt's campaign donations and found he gave $100 to Patton in 1999 and $1,000 to Chandler in 2003.
Druen attached a list of Witt's donations from the Web site of the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance when he fired off a reply to Turbyfill.
"After vetting the situation, we find Mr. Witt supported Chandler and Patton while the Faulkner family clearly supported Gov. Fletcher," Druen wrote. "I returned the paperwork and asked Amos to re-interview Witt and Faulkner, and gave Faulkner a high recommendation." It is unclear from the record who Amos is.
Adviser's nephew got job
In the end, Witt and Faulkner both were passed over for the Montgomery County supervisor position in favor of another politically connected candidate -- the nephew of Fletcher's volunteer political adviser, Dave Disponett.
Transportation Cabinet spokesman Doug Hogan said he had not had the opportunity Friday to study the records filed by Stumbo. Speaking generally, Hogan said, "a few ideas shared in an e-mail exchange" should not be taken as official administration hiring policy.
But Jerry Lundergan, chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party, said a pattern of merit-system abuse clearly is emerging from Stumbo's investigation.
"There is a bunch of inexperienced advisers to the governor who have decided to run the merit system their way, not the right way, not the legal way," Lundergan said. "They have taken the protection out of the system so badly that they can punish people based on who has the wrong bumper stickers."
"They need to just admit what they've done, take responsibility for it, fix it so it doesn't happen again and move on with the business of state government," he said.
LISTS MENTION DONATIONS, BUMPER STICKERS
By John Cheves
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
FRANKFORT - Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration investigated some applicants for merit jobs to determine their political loyalty, then acted against Democrats, according to internal rec-ords filed in court Friday.
In one case, an applicant had Democratic bumper stickers, which was noted next to his name on a list of job seekers. In another, Fletcher aides dropped the recommended candidate for a job when they uncovered his donations to the campaigns of Democratic Gov. Paul Patton and Ben Chandler, the Democrat who lost to Fletcher in 2003.
"From the very beginning of this administration, they have used party loyalty and campaign donations as criteria for state employment, and unfortunately, this is simply more evidence," said Charles Wells, executive director of the Kentucky Association of State Employees.
Attorney General Greg Stumbo is investigating reports that the Fletcher administration makes decisions about whom to hire for merit jobs based on politics rather than qualifications, which would be illegal.
Fletcher, who has denied any wrongdoing by his administration, is the first Republican governor in more than 30 years, which brought out large numbers of Republicans to apply for positions.
So far, Stumbo has secured misdemeanor indictments against three Fletcher officials, charged with illegally firing Mike Duncan, deputy inspector general at the Transportation Cabinet, because he is a Demo-crat and backed Chandler.
One of those indicted officials -- Dan Druen, the cabinet's administrative services commissioner -- is a central figure in internal records Stumbo filed in court Friday.
The records, seized during Stumbo's earlier searches of state offices, mostly are lists of existing state employees and job seekers, as well as correspondence between Druen and other Fletcher aides.
Demands for employment
The aides wrote about facing Republican demands for employment and discussed purging 4,000 political jobs of Democratic "holdovers" from the Patton administration, which is legal. But they also raised the question of political loyalty when filling some of 32,000 merit jobs.
At the Highway Department, a Muhlenberg County applicant for superintendent -- who apparently did not get hired -- had "Dems stickers on trucks," according to a note under his name.
That document was a handwritten list of job applicants identifying those with Republican ties. At the top of the sheet was the name of Fletcher adviser J. Marshall Hughes, a Bowling Green lawyer and member of the Kentucky Republican Party Central Executive Committee. It was unclear whether he was the author or recipient of the list.
It also carried the name and fax number of Mark Honeycutt, the Personnel Cabinet's attorney.
Hughes and Honeycutt did not return telephone calls seeking comment about the note. Hughes appeared last week before the grand jury convened by Stumbo to investigate Fletcher's merit hiring.
In another case, Harold Witt was originally recommended for a promotion to highway superintendent in Montgomery County, based on merit qualifications, according to the records. But the mother of a competitor, Harold Faulkner, wrote an angry letter to Fletcher declaring that her family is Republican, and yet "we cannot get a job."
Gladys Faulkner's complaint was forwarded to Basil Turbyfill, the governor's executive director of personnel and efficiency, who passed it to Druen. Druen then checked Witt's campaign donations and found he gave $100 to Patton in 1999 and $1,000 to Chandler in 2003.
Druen attached a list of Witt's donations from the Web site of the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance when he fired off a reply to Turbyfill.
"After vetting the situation, we find Mr. Witt supported Chandler and Patton while the Faulkner family clearly supported Gov. Fletcher," Druen wrote. "I returned the paperwork and asked Amos to re-interview Witt and Faulkner, and gave Faulkner a high recommendation." It is unclear from the record who Amos is.
Adviser's nephew got job
In the end, Witt and Faulkner both were passed over for the Montgomery County supervisor position in favor of another politically connected candidate -- the nephew of Fletcher's volunteer political adviser, Dave Disponett.
Transportation Cabinet spokesman Doug Hogan said he had not had the opportunity Friday to study the records filed by Stumbo. Speaking generally, Hogan said, "a few ideas shared in an e-mail exchange" should not be taken as official administration hiring policy.
But Jerry Lundergan, chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party, said a pattern of merit-system abuse clearly is emerging from Stumbo's investigation.
"There is a bunch of inexperienced advisers to the governor who have decided to run the merit system their way, not the right way, not the legal way," Lundergan said. "They have taken the protection out of the system so badly that they can punish people based on who has the wrong bumper stickers."
"They need to just admit what they've done, take responsibility for it, fix it so it doesn't happen again and move on with the business of state government," he said.
# posted by The Punisher @ Wednesday, June 29, 2005 
