Posted on 06/07/2003 8:32:45 AM PDT by Republican Wildcat
Wanted: Someone to work flexible hours, relaxed dress code, excellent pay, state job.
Governor's stepdaughter preferred.
On April 16, 2002, Bambi Todd, the stepdaughter of Gov. Paul Patton, was appointed, despite a hiring freeze, to be "responsible for public information, strategic planning, training, and assisting the executive with the day-to-day operations" at the Kentucky Racing Commission.
The commission said the post was "essential or of a critical nature to the ongoing operation of the program," when it established it three weeks earlier.
But Todd didn't work the weekend after the Kentucky Derby, when the eyes of the world focused on Kentucky stewards, who were reviewing photographs of jockey Jose Santos after unfounded allegations he won by cheating.
Why?
"I don't know that I needed her, per se," said Bernard J. Hettel, executive director of the racing commission and chief racing steward.
It was not Hettel, but commission chairman Frank Shoop, who hired Todd.
Shoop, a Georgetown auto dealer, is a top Democratic fund raiser who as finance chairman of the party and Patton's re-election campaign delivered millions. Patton appointed Shoop to the racing commission and made him chairman. Shoop's daughter-in-law, Kendra, also works for the commission.
"I hired her," Shoop said of Todd. He said he did not know anything about the creation of the job 14 business days before Todd was appointed.
When asked whether he thought he should have considered other candidates, Shoop was silent. "How long do I have to wait for you to ask me another question?" he finally asked.
"I just brought her in because she was well-qualified. I've been very pleased with her performance," Shoop said. "Her job wasn't based on her knowing anything about racing."
'Everyone in Christendom'
According to the Personnel Cabinet, 335 people in state government were on the registry of those eligible for and seeking such a position. That list would have been forwarded to the racing commission when the job came open, said Dan Egbers, counsel for the Personnel Cabinet.
"Everyone in Christendom wants to be a staff assistant," Egbers said. The pay is high and the qualifications relatively low, meaning a specific license or certification is not necessary, he said.
And the job is secure. Staff assistants hold merit or civil service jobs in the state's bureaucracy. These employees can only be fired "for cause," with specific reasons stated. Non-merit employees can be fired at any time for no reason.
Patton gave this statement in response to questions about Todd and her job: "No person should get a job or be denied a job in the public sector because they are the governor's child or any other relative, friend, supporter, or acquaintance. Neither of my daughters works for a public agency under the control of the governor, and neither I nor anyone on my behalf was involved in the hiring decisions."
In February, daughter Nicki Patton got a University of Kentucky job under a state childhood education grant.
"I'm confident they (Bambi Todd and Nicki Patton) received no special consideration," Patton said.
In Todd's case, she was the sole person out of the 335 people on the registry considered.
Todd, 36, makes $56,259.36 a year for 371/2 hour weeks, following a standard 5 percent raise in November. That's more than twice the per capita income in Kentucky.
Her duties include handling mail; submitting items for the Cabinet newsletter; being a liaison to state government; and setting up meetings, according to the Public Protection and Regulation Cabinet.
Todd, who is also responsible for public information, has written three press releases in the last year. Until last month, Todd had "never spoken to a reporter," according to Susan Klimchak, spokeswoman for the Cabinet.
The racing commission is peripherally attached to the Public Protection and Regulation Cabinet, Klimchak said, but is not overseen by it or any other Cabinet.
Since April, Todd has approved supply orders, time sheets and schedules at the request of Hettel.
Todd commutes to the racing commission's office at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. She has lived, rent-free, in a carriage house at the Governor's Mansion since at least November 1999.
The fast track
"I'm not news," Todd said. "Just because of my parentage-doesn't mean I'm news."
Patton was inaugurated Dec. 12, 1995.
Todd, who has a master's degree in education, had been earning $30,000 a year teaching seventh-grade language arts in Florence before she took a $40,000-a-year job Sept. 1, 1997, at the Department of Education as a language arts consultant.
In May 2001, Patton signed an exemption to a state hiring freeze so Todd could move into a $52,000-a-year job as a principal assistant in the Office of the Petroleum Storage Tank Environmental Assurance Fund.
In March 2002, she took a slight pay cut and was converted to a "merit" employee in a new job at the same agency.
Six weeks later, Todd took the racing commission job -- another merit position, ensuring she will still have a job after her stepfather leaves office.
Todd said that she could have filled another position at the racing commission -- a vacancy left when an accountant transferred to another agency -- for $25,000 a year more, but chose the lower-paying job "because we were in a budget crisis, and I didn't think it was right."
The higher-paying job, however, was not a merit position. In April, three non-merit racing commission employees were laid off. All had worked there longer than Todd.
Hettel confirmed the opening. However, he said, Todd didn't have the necessary qualifications. "Could she adapt to the rigors of accounting in the job? Maybe," Hettel said.
Some credit
Klimchak said Todd has changed some things at the commission office, including stopping the practice of giving coffee, water and soft drinks to employees at the state's expense; requiring itemized cell phone bills; making employees pay for personal long-distance calls; making meeting notices electronic; and helping plan the budget.
Todd "didn't come here with the purpose of cleaning the place up," said Hettel, who has directed the office since 1993. Hettel said he had no role in Todd's hiring.
Hettel said Todd hasn't had a big impact. "Maybe she reviewed some things we've done and made them analogous to other state agencies ... a lot of small things," Hettel said.
"I do believe this agency is run much more efficiently. I will give her some credit for that," Hettel said. "I personally find her acceptable to be around here."
'Nothing to defend'
Todd, also a personal trainer at a gym in Frankfort, sometimes wears shorts and a sweatshirt to work, Klimchak confirmed.
Asked whether she thought this was appropriate attire for a state office, Todd answered, "No comment. ... Obviously, other people do not."
Hettel and Klimchak say other office employees also have worn shorts to work.
Todd generally works from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., although the office is open from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
"I have been coming in every day and working," Todd said. "I've done nothing wrong. You can't prove otherwise, because there's nothing to defend."
Her stepbrother, Chris Patton, might have looked at things differently when he worked for the state from January 1996 to August 1999.
Chris Patton worked on the computer network in the governor's office. Yearly salary: $1.
At the time, the governor said he offered to put his son on the payroll, but Chris said, "No, I don't want to cause you any trouble."
Klimchak said she knows "disgruntled employees" have been dissatisfied with Todd; she thinks they want to retaliate against her.
"All she's done since she's been there is try to clean that place up," Klimchak said.
Klimchak said that no racing commission employees have complained to the Cabinet about Todd.
"The girl works," she said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- News researchers Linda Minch and Linda Niemi contributed to this report. Reach Janet Patton at (859) 231-3264; 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3264; or jpatton1@herald-leader.com.
Someone PLEASE tell me that isn't her real name.. Sounds like a porn star....
Governor Paul Patton (left), First Lady Judi Patton and her daughter Bambi Todd (far right) welcomed famed White House correspondent and UPI journalist Helen Thomas to the Southern Governors' Association meeting, held in Lexington in September. Thomas, who was a keynote luncheon speaker, is a native of Winchester, Ky.
You're bad!
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