Restoring Government Integrity

During the 2003 campaign, Ernie Fletcher promised to clean up Frankfort and put an end to waste, fraud and abuse. Yet from almost Day One, the Governor and his Administration have been plagued by allegations of scandal and corruption. About a year after taking office, the Attorney General began investigating whether jobs were being filled based on political affiliations or on merit. Shortly afterward, 28 members of the Fletcher Administration – and the Governor himself – were indicted on charges of conspiracy, official misconduct and violating the Merit System law. What was Fletcher’s response to these serious charges? He pardoned his entire administration and pleaded the Fifth Amendment when he faced a grand jury, refusing to tell them the truth under oath. In order to avoid prosecution he signed a sworn statement admitting that the investigation was proper – and now he disowns his own admissions. Now, the Governor stands accused of having selected transportation projects based on whether local lawmakers supported his policies and ideas.

Kentucky deserves better than this. We deserve a leader in Frankfort who keeps his word – not one who disowns and dishonors it. We need leadership.

Kentucky cannot prosper if it continues to be seen as a backwater state where you have to pay off the Governor to get any business. Now more than ever, Kentucky needs a leader who can reach across party lines and unite parties from each side to advance key issues like economic development, health care and education. I have the experience, maturity and toughness to get the job done and lead Kentucky toward a brighter, more prosperous tomorrow.

It is no coincidence that Kentucky’s economy and educational system have gone nowhere under Ernie Fletcher while his Administration has been plagued with corruption, cronyism and incompetence: Kentucky will not move forward until we put Ernie Fletcher’s government – with its indictments and cover-ups – behind us. That’s why it’s time we take these necessary steps toward ethics reform in Frankfort:

• Respecting the Merit System. It is critical that the Merit System be protected. When someone is suspected of violating the Merit System law, the Governor should instruct his Administration to cooperate with investigators and not hinder or obstruct their investigation. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case today. Suspicions of cronyism and allegations of avoidance by members of the current Administration are the norm. When I am Governor, I will restore accountability to the Governor’s Office and Kentucky state government and consider increasing penalties for anyone who abuses the Merit System.

• Proposing Legislation to Change the Way Members of the Executive Branch Ethics Commission are Appointed. The Governor currently has the authority to appoint members of the five-member Executive Branch Ethics Commission to serve four-year terms. Yet decisions made by the Commission recently, including the dismissal of alleged hiring practices by the Governor, lead many to question the ability of a five-member panel – four members of whom were appointed by the Governor – to be impartial and fair in its decision-making power when investigating allegations directly related to the Governor who appointed them. For Kentucky to have an Ethics Commission that ensures that the Code of Ethics is upheld by all members of the Executive Branch, the Governor should not have sole discretion as to who is appointed to the Board. As Governor, I will restore accountability and integrity to state government by backing legislation proposed by the Ethics Commission itself, to try to overcome the recent implications of its own conflicts-of-interest, that would require appointments to the Commission to be drawn by the Governor from a pool of names submitted by the Attorney General or the Auditor in addition to the Governor himself; authority to draw up this pool of names would rotate among these three officials. This proposal passed the House this year but was blocked in the Republican-controlled Senate.

• Enforcing the Code of Ethics and Obeying the Law. Kentucky already has some of the toughest, most stringent ethics laws of all states. We have one of the strictest gift ban laws of any state in the country. We have a revolving door provision that requires former legislators to wait two years – the longest period required by states – before becoming a lobbyist and we have a tough “pay-to-play” restriction. We are one of the few states to prohibit lobbyists from making campaign contributions, and we have strict reporting requirements. And our financial disclosure laws are on par with leading states in this area. So what is needed? To enforce the code of ethics and ensure that laws are respected and protected by the leader of this state – an important piece of restoring integrity that’s currently overlooked. A Governor who thinks he’s above the law – who won’t tell the truth to a grand jury and pardons everyone in his Administration for crimes they may have committed – cannot provide the leadership needed to enforce these laws.

• Reforming the Governor’s Pardoning Power. Kentuckians deserve a government that maintains the highest ethical standards – an honest government, an open government, a government the people can trust. Kentuckians deserve a government that holds itself accountable. Government makes the laws, spends the people's money, and should be accountable for each and every action it takes. When our leaders break the law and abuse the public trust, they should be held accountable – just like regular citizens.

• Ernie Fletcher has placed his political appointees above the law by abusing his constitutional power to pardon – a power that was never meant to allow a governor to hide criminal acts by his political friends from the public. Ernie Fletcher not only pardoned his cronies who had been indicted by a grand jury, he also issued blanket pardons to any of his friends who may have violated the law even before they were indicted.

• It is time to limit the pardoning power of future governors, so that this type of abuse never happens again. As Governor, I will lead the General Assembly in an effort to pass and place on the ballot a constitutional amendment to limit this power. The Governor should have the power to pardon someone only after they have been convicted of a crime. By placing such a limit on this power, all the facts surrounding an offense would be known and made public before any pardon was issued, and thus the Governor would be more accountable to the people.

• Disclosing Legal Defense Fund Contributors. Legal defense funds are funds set up to defray the costs of legal proceedings that involve ethic violations, civil and criminal matters. These funds cry out for strict laws to forbid lobbyists and special interests from using them as backdoor ways to circumvent ethics and sunshine laws by seeking to gain monetarily or politically in return for contributions to these funds. In Kentucky, the Executive Branch Ethics Committee will allow constitutional officeholders and candidates for re-election to establish a legal defense fund with their permission. Once permission is granted and the fund is set up, all donations to these funds are considered “gifts” under the state ethics code and therefore are required to be reported to the Executive Branch Ethics Commission. However, the Commission has ruled that individuals and businesses can contribute to the fund, so long as the government official who benefits from the fund is not directly and personally involved in overseeing the agency before which the contributor has an issue – and this has been held not to apply to the Governor. Further, even though the state bans contributions from corporations to political campaigns, the Commission’s latest ruling permits them to contribute to the Governor’s legal defense fund. This is simply wrong, and helps promote the sorts of ethical clouds that have hung over the Fletcher Administration. In addition, currently, if a fund is started the same year in which a candidate sought re-election, gifts do not need to be reported until February the following year – after both the primary and general elections are held. As Governor, I will close these loopholes that the Fletcher Administration has exploited, by prohibiting contributions to public officials’ legal defense funds by any individual or business that lobbies, or has business before, any state entity – and requiring quarterly reporting of all contributions to legal defense funds of any candidate or public official.

• Making All Government Deals with Private Interests Public. Once any economic deal is made between state government and a private interest – an individual or a business – the information should be made public. As Governor, I will make sure that the public has access to all economic deals made by state government to safeguard against public corruption and scrutiny. By adding this measure of accountability, the public now will know what the state is giving away and what private interests are getting in return.

• Requiring Ethics Training and Education for Legislative and Executive Branch Employees and Lobbyists. The Kentucky Legislative Ethics Commission is responsible for establishing, supervising and conducting an ethics education and training program designed for legislators and publishing manuals and guidelines on the state’s Code of Ethics, however, Kentucky is one of 17 states that provides training but doesn’t require legislators to participate. As Governor, I will propose that all legislators participate in and complete an ethics education and training program within 6 months of taking office and I will propose the same requirement for all lobbyists. In addition, I will require that all appointees in my Administration complete an ethics training and education program offered by the Executive Branch Ethics Commission.

• Making All Administration Officials Accountable and Subject to the Ethics Laws. The Fletcher Administration has used unpaid advisors and “volunteers” functioning out of the Capitol itself to skirt the state’s ethics laws. As Governor, I will ensure that all members of my Administration with significant executive branch authority are subject to state ethic laws.

• Increasing the Penalties for Violating the Executive Branch Code of Ethics, as Well. As Governor, I will propose that anyone found guilty of ethical misconduct and in violation of the Code of Ethics repay the costs incurred by the state to conduct the investigation as part of the penalty. In addition, I will review the classification penalties and consider enhancing them to include higher financial penalties (fees and fines) and public reprimand.

• Strengthening Protections for Whistleblowers. Public servants and private citizens who have the integrity to come forward and report abuses of power or misuse of public funds deserve to be protected – but too often they are persecuted. We need to make it easier for whistleblowers to report abuses – I will push to extend the current statute of limitations protecting whistleblowers from 90 days to a full year, as other states have done – and we also need actively to promote whistleblowing when it comes to misuse of public funds: I will consider enactment of a state “false claims” act – such as 19 other states, including almost all our neighbors (Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia), have – which would allow individuals to keep part of the savings state government gains from their reports of fraudulent public spending as an incentive to stop wrongdoing.

It’s time the people of Kentucky had a leader with integrity and conviction to make good on his or her word. Under my leadership, I will ensure that Frankfort serves as a model of open and honest government and Kentucky again becomes a place its citizens are proud to call home.