Monday, February 9, 2009

STATE SENATOR SEUM OUTLINES METRO TRANSPARENCY BILL

I just got in from a press conference today at the FOP lodge on Price Lane. The press conference was called to announce a Metro Transparency Bill put forth by Senator Dan Seum and Representative Joni Jenkins before the State.


The bill goes a long way towards gaining the transparency and limiting the almost total power of the Mayor's office. In short, it forces the Mayor to include the Metro Council and forces transparency with our finances. The sheer audacity and unwillingness of this Mayor to open the books and help gain transparency has been an insult to us all and many thanks to Senator Seum and Representative Jenkins for helping us deal with this problem.


Many may not know that the powers of the Mayor's budgetary power is set forth in KRS 67C. The power to prepare the budget is vested in statute and IS subject to amendment by the General Assembly. In short the Mayor derives his power from State Statute leaving them the option to fix the abuse.


If passed, and it should since it mirrors the State's own requirements, it will accomplish four goals as outlined here:






Notables among those attending, outside the media of course, were Councilmen Doug Hawkins and Ken Fleming, Firefighters President Craig Willman, FOP President John McGuire, AFSCME Political Action Rep Wanda Mitchell-Smith and Executive Director David Warrick. Also mentionable are Chris Thieneman, Kaven Rumpel, and former Council Candidate Bob Heuglin.

Notably absent were the Courier Journal and basically all Democrats, except myself, who were invited to attend. I would have liked to see some Democrat Metro Council members attend to show bi partisan support on a local level for something that will greatly aid them in doing their job, but alas they either could not be bothered with something that will actually empower them to do their job, or decided it would not be politically wise to go against Abramson by attending this event.

Either way this bill goes a long way towards gaining the accountability myself and many others have been actively involved in pursuing.

Many thanks go out to Senator Dan Seum and Representative Joni Jenkins for making this a priority in such a short session. As many of you know Senator Seum has not been one to shy away from doing the tasks no one wants. He basically almost singlehandedly defeated the unnecessary VET program and has been actively involved in all issues concerning us.

Merger promised many things and delivered on very little if anything. This is a huge step forward to correcting the power abuse by this Mayor and all subsequent Mayors to come.

Congrats go to all those worked hard and continue to work hard for the betterment of us all.

Pics of the event will be posted soon.

4 comments:

  1. I think that this bill will be passed. I'm a big fan of Sen. Seum and I feel that with Hawkins local push, this bill should be cake.

    I was a bit surprised that Jodi Jenkins was on this ship, but heck,... I knew she'd do something before Miller would.

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  2. From waht Senator Seum has said he and Jenkins have worked together previously on some issues so the relationship was already there. I agree glad to see this bill and I am a huge fan of Dan Seum myself. Parties be damned. lol

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  3. I think it is time to start removing the incompetent ones from public office across the city. That includes many from the Metro Council who have a interest in conducting the public affairs of the people correctly. Its time to start asking why the representatives of the people, the Metro Council has not been doing anything regarding investigating the mayor. Instead the say, we trust you Jerry.

    Sorry but I do not trust the current mayor and to find more and more dirt coming up every time we look at the issues makes one wonder what really is going on. Its a system of incompetence and I have to wonder like many things in Louisville, its all about who you know and not what you know or what your skill level may be.

    I recently applied for a position with the Louisville Metro Housing Authority. I received a nice rejection letter from their personnel analyst nicely saying that the recently picked someone for a construction managers job who was precisely suited to their needs. I wonder in this case if it really is precisely suited to the needs. Or is it about more figure fudging and lies. Is it based on qualifications or experience or education or anything relevant. Or is it the pet of Jerry Abramson and his regime. Interesting that Mr. Summers got a 64,000 a year job based on the fact that his daddy is a Deputy Mayor. So in Louisville, the so called Possibility City, it really is possible that qualified people get rejected yet the family members of the commissars are appointed without interviews and probably without much of any other oversight.

    Which brings us to the issue at hand, is this mayor honest with the citizens regarding the financial situation of the city or is he lying, obfuscating, and covering up the problems. I also find great humor in Mr. Abramson talking about transparency when his own incompetent and educationally decrepit staff is fudging numbers and making an audit very difficult.

    A clean audit should be based on having clean and easy to understand records. One would expect a business to do this because of state and IRS requirements. But the Louisville Metro Government cannot balance its own books and manage its own records. Yet they tell a former accountant that he's not qualified. Nice isn't it. Is it because the city does not want qualified people in the city government because we all might figure out what is going on with the books, the mismanagement and the overall corruption of a system where it depends on who one knows rather than what he or she knows.

    Mr. Abramson has obviously forgotten who he works for when he cannot produce accurate books. Yet he appoints these lackeys to be in Metro Government based on their political connections. It sounds like the good old boys system is alive and well in Louisville. Not much different than many local businesses that do much of the same thing. I wonder what their books look like.

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  4. Its also good to see that Senator Seum and Joni Jenkins to get with the program and start to work to hold these incompetents in Louisville Metro government accountable. Its time for the people downtown to remember who they work for.

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