"Kiss my Murgatroyd, Stumpy !"
Posted on 09/14/2005 1:26:25 PM PDT by Bluegrass Conservative
Fletcher sacks administration members over personnel problems
MARK R. CHELLGREN
Associated Press
FRANKFORT, Ky. - Gov. Ernie Fletcher Wednesday sacked nine members of his administration, including one of his closest advisers, for what he said he now believes were violations of state merit system personnel laws.
Among those to be sacked are Richard Murgatroyd, Fletcher's deputy chief of staff and close friend. Fletcher said he would also ask the state Republican Party to oust Darrell Brock as its chairman. Brock used to be head of Fletcher's local development office.
In a prepared statement, Fletcher apologized to people hurt by hiring mistakes.
He said he would also disband his local outreach offices, which court documents have indicated was run largely as a Fletcher re-election effort.
Four of those to be discharged were among the nine people indicted for merit law violations. Brock was also indicted for personnel violations.
Fletcher issued pardons to all nine, and anyone else who might be investigated or who violated the law from the beginning of Fletcher's administration through the end of August.
Except for Murgatroyd, though, Fletcher left the highest ranking members of his administration who were indicted in their jobs, notably acting Transportation Secretary Bill Nighbert and deputy secretary Jim Adams.
Fletcher said there was never an attempt in his administration to circumvent the Merit System law, Kentucky's version of civil service, which Fletcher and others in the administration have roundly criticized as archaic and confusing.
He said those who will be leaving were "well-intentioned and doing what they though was best to move the commonwealth forward."
The problems were caused by officials "too eager to please" local politicians, who didn't respect or understand the Merit System and a "lack of insight for how their actions might reflect upon the ethics of this administration."
Fletcher for the first time extended some words of compromise to Attorney General Greg Stumbo, whose office has been conducting the investigation and convened a special grand jury that has issued the criminal charges.
Fletcher and his supporters have accused Stumbo of pursuing the investigation for his own political agenda when there was no real wrongdoing.
Fletcher said he hoped to "bury the hatchet" with Stumbo and work together.
The hastily called press conference was the latest administration response to the investigation, which has wracked it since the probe began in late May.
Others who will be sacked are Bob Wilson, deputy secretary of the Personnel Cabinet; Basil Turbyfill, Fletcher's director of personnel and efficiency; and Cory Meadows, former deputy director of the local outreach office now working in the Transportation Cabinet. All were indicted.
Others leaving state government are Sam Beverage, the state highway engineer; Vince Fields, chief of staff in the Personnel Cabinet and former director of the outreach office; Amos Hubbard, chief district engineer in the Transportation Cabinet; and Allen Sturgeon, an assistant in the Transportation Cabinet.
Wow, I didn't know anyone was actually named Murgatroyd.
Kentucky Ping?
It was probably the appropriate response for political reasons.
ROFLMAO!!! That's the first thing I thought! Heavens to Murgatroyd!
So what did they do? Anybody know?
Accused of violating the merit system by hiring people for political reasons. (Much more complicated than that, but that's it in a nutshell.)
"Kiss my Murgatroyd, Stumpy !"
Back then, During the 70s, 80s and 90s, this "fishwrap" paper, always "slept/kept quiet" over "ethics problems" the DemocRATic "Nomenklatura" Party in Frankfort. We'd only learn about them years, if not decades later.
In '98, We feared "a two-tier federal legal system in America" after "The Monica Affair" (where Bubba lied to a Federal judge AND Grand Jury, with full knowledge/full of pride). Little did the nation/public know, We in Kentucky and Arkansas...et al. We already had one already in place on the state level.
Yes, but will Stumpooh go after Fletcher for sacking a Beverage without a union card?
"Wow, I didn't know anyone was actually named Murgatroyd."
Heaven's to Murgatroyd...he'll be making an exit...STAGE LEFT!(with apologies to Hanna Barbera's Snagglepuss)
Me thinks this was too little too late to keep Fletcher in office for more than one term. Until Kentucky allowed two terms, the governor could pretty much do as he/SHE felt. No more.
I really do hate to see Fletcher in this much trouble as he had some great plans for turning the state around, but now he is spending all his energy on dousing the fires and the democrats are in the wings spraying as much gasoline on them as they can.
That's what happens when politicians hand-pick candidates for other offices. Corruption follows.
Still mad Virgil lost?
:) Thanks....Its a wonder they, (the 'Rats) didn't USE it back then...I rem: how "wonderful" the SHEEP felt when the 'RATs "Won" in '74...Brainless, some change.
State Senator Virgil Moore would have been a vast improvement over Ernie Fletcher. But, oh, that's right....he's no longer a state senator after the Republican Party of Kentucky ran an expensive, negative campaign against Moore (a sitting GOP state senator) in his own Republican Primary. Guess they showed Virgil; that'll teach him to have the nerve to run against the machine.
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