by Jewell Florea, President; People for Ethical Government
Dear Editor:
I am writing in response to the article entitled, “County Road Tile Placement Prompted State AG Probe,” which appeared in the Sunday, Feb. 14, edition of the Commonwealth Journal.
As noted in the article, the Attorney General undertook this investigation of county road tile placement in response to a complaint filed by the citizens’ organization, People for Ethical Government. As president of that organization, I feel it is important that readers of your newspaper understand why we filed our complaint, and why we believe Pulaski County taxpayers and voters should be concerned about Pulaski Fiscal Court’s practice of providing drainage tiles for private landowners and real estate developers.
It is our belief that the tile give-aways are a violation of both the Kentucky Constitution and the Kentucky Revised Statutes. Sections 171 of the Kentucky Constitution states, “Taxes shall be levied and collected for public purposes only. ...” We contend that using tax dollars to facilitate access to private driveways does not serve a public purpose.
KRS 179.380 states: (1) “The owner or tenant of lands fronting on a public road shall construct and keep in repair all approaches or driveways to and from the public road under the direction of the county engineer”; and (2) “No owner or tenant shall fill up any ditch or place anything in any ditch so as to interfere with the purposes for which it was made.”
We interpret this to mean that it is the responsibility of the owner or tenant, not the taxpayer, to ensure that his/her driveway does not fill or interfere with the ditch. This interpretation is consistent with that of a number of Attorney General’s opinions and court rulings. It is also consistent with the Kentucky Transportation Department’s policy, which requires property owners to provide drainage tiles where private entrances join state roads and highways.
We also believe that giving tiles to private property owners and real estate developers is a violation of the Pulaski County Administrative Code. Page 13 of the code states: “Pulaski County Road Department will furnish one (1) 20-foot section of tile for private entrance with the balance of necessary tile being furnished by the property owner. ...”
Inexplicably, this policy is contradicted in the very next paragraph, which states: “Property owner has the obligation to furnish any and all tile necessary to handle water flow to be determined by Road Foreman for any new entrance.”
Pages 12 and 13 of the code also contain a list of eleven “criteria which shall be considered in determining acceptance of any road into the Pulaski County Road Program.”
Criteria number 8 states: “All new roads and subdivision streets must have suitable roadway drainage. This must be achieved through both curbs and gutters or ditches with adequate size drainage tiles.”
Our review of county road work requests revealed that magistrates routinely order drainage tiles for subdivision streets, in spite of the requirement that developers provide suitable drainage before these streets are accepted into the county road system.
According to the Attorney General’s investigative report, county officials defended the practice of providing drainage tiles for private driveways on the grounds that the tiles are placed on the county right of way and that doing so is cheaper than grading out the ditch, which would become blocked if the tile was not provided. We believe that the first argument is effectively nullified by KRS 179.380 and that the second is not a legal argument, but a fiscal rationalization which would not hold up in court. Nevertheless, upon reviewing the report, Commonwealth Attorney Eddy Montgomery declined to prosecute.
Members of People for Ethical Government are not particularly surprised or discouraged by the outcome of the Attorney General’s investigation.
Our mission is not to see local officials prosecuted for practicing “politics as usual,” but rather to encourage and support political and governmental reform. We believe an informed and engaged electorate is an essential ingredient in the reform we seek, and to the extent that the Attorney General’s investigation of county road tile placement focused public attention on the subject, we are quite pleased with the outcome. It is our hope that, in the remaining months before the upcoming election, candidates for county judge-executive, magistrate and county attorney will be prompted to publicly state their position on this issue.
Finally, we issue this challenge to Pulaski County voters: As you travel the county roads, notice the number and location of drainage tiles. You will see tiles at numerous private driveways, many leading to barns, fields and empty lots. Go to the courthouse and ask to see copies of the magistrates’ road work requests. You will find that fiscal court spent in excess of one hundred eighty five thousand dollars ($185,000) on tiles in just the first three years of the current administration.
Considering the current state of the economy and record levels of unemployment, with county government diverting over two million dollars from the fire protection fund just to balance the budget, is this a practice that we can afford to continue?
Is it really more cost effective to provide these tiles than to grade ditches that may become clogged?
Is it fair to provide free tiles for those who own property on county roads while those who own property on state roads must now provide their own tiles?
Is it ethical for government to spend your taxes to facilitate access to private property?
Are you in favor of government give-aways and higher taxes or individual responsibility and lower taxes?
For members and supporters of People for Ethical Government the answers to these questions are obvious.
Thank You,
Jewell Florea, President
People for Ethical Government
www.peopleforethicalgovement.org
