By HEATHER PYLES, CJ Staff Writer
Questions about county road tiles being placed on state roads and private drives elicited an investigation by the Kentucky Attorney General’s office some two years ago.
The investigation, opened and closed between August and September 2008, and concluded without prosecution, delved into allegations that numerous county tiles had been placed either on state roads or on private drives.
The Commonwealth Journal received the documents pertaining to the investigation via an open records request to Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway’s office in mid-December.
According to the investigative documents, the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office was contacted in mid-2008 about “possible crimes committed by elected officials in Pulaski County.”
Some of the biggest questions raised involved the placement of tiles with county labor and cost on state roadways. That topic had been a controversial one for several months by the time the investigation was opened, according to an article published by the Commonwealth Journal in Feb. 2008.
According to that article, members of local political watchdog group People for Ethical Government took several of the magistrates to task for allegedly issuing drainage tile to be used on state highways — a practice considered to be illegal under state law.
It was during and after that court meeting, which took place in Jan. 2008, that several magistrates stated they’d been under the impression that placement of county tiles on the state roads had been legal. Once they realized that wasn’t the case, they stated they paid back the amount of money the tile had cost.
Those numbers from 2007 — compiled at that time by Pulaski County Treasurer Arlene Young — are listed in the investigative documents. According to the documents pertaining to the inquiry, nearly all of the five magistrates repaid the tile costs back to the county.
On Friday, Young confirmed that a list of the improperly placed tiles had been pulled together and the funds repaid.
The following totals were reported to have been paid back in 2008, according to investigative documents and copies of receipts attached to those documents:
• First District Magis-trate Kenny Isaacs paid $1,554.96 back to the county for tiles placed on Piney Grove Spur, Piney Grove Road, Faubush Road, Burnetta Road, Old Mill Springs Road ad Cundiff Cemetery Road.
• Third District Magis-trate Tommy Barnett reportedly overpaid by $36.84, paying $1,291.42 for tiles placed on Old Mt. Vernon Street, Pine Hill Road, Dahl Road and Bull Road. The total cost of those tiles was reported to be $1,254.58.
• Fourth District Mag-istrate Glenn Maxey paid back $926.20 for tiles placed on Phelps Road, South Ky. 1247 and Ky. 1675, though the cost of those added up to be $764. Maxey reportedly overpaid by $162.20.
• Fifth District Mag-istrate Mike Strunk paid $151 for a tile placed on Ky. 790, though the cost of that placement came to $150.60.
“To date, all tiles have been paid except for one which a magistrate disputes and cannot be proven was ever placed,” stated the investigation.
Although the investigation lists a tile placed on Ky. 1247 for $94.13 in Second District Magistrate Mike Wilson’s district, that total has yet to be reimbursed.
Wilson emphasized that the tile was never placed, and Wilson stated that he never placed any tiles improperly on any state roads.
According to that investigation, the placing of county road tiles on state roads was reportedly halted by September 2008.
Young said on Friday that the improper placement of the tile had stopped long ago, but she noted that the practice had been done in previous administrations, and that it continues in other counties.
“This is an honest court,” Young said. “I’ve had no problems, ever, of any of them (the magistrates) ever asking me to do something that wasn’t right.”
Third District Magis-trate Tommy Barnett also noted that the practice had been done in previous administrations, noting in an e-mail to the Commonwealth Journal that the current admin-istration with Pulaski County Judge-executive Barty Bullock “inherited” the problem through past administrations.
“However, it was resolved in fiscal court through the County Attorney's Office and The State of Kentucky,” Barnett wrote.
Fifth District Mag-istrate Mike Strunk expressed the same sentiment, saying “We were just following the footsteps of others.
“The last courts for 50 years had done it,” Strunk said.
When asked to comment on the tiles being dropped on state roadways, other magistrates emphasized that they believed they’d done everything legally — and that they were quick to pay the funds back and stop the action as soon as they were informed it was illegal.
“If it’s wrong, it’s wrong,” said Fourth District Magistrate Glenn Maxey. “We make a mistake and we have to pay for it.”
First District Magis-trate Kenny Isaacs questioned why the investigation was being brought up nearly two years after it was carried out.
“That’s something that’s been over and done with for a long time,” said First District Magistrate Kenny Isaacs about the investigation. “That is ancient history, something that’s been cleared and done with.”
Another issue raised in the 2008 investigation was the placement of county roads on the right-of-ways connecting private drives to the roadway.
According to the docu-ment, road department employees explained that “the county is required to maintain their right-of-way and providing the tile is cheaper than grating out the drainage ditches, which would become blocked if the tile was not provided.”
The investigator stated in the document that he contacted Rich Ornstein, attorney for the Kentucky Association of Counties on Sept. 10, 2008 and was told that “if this is the reason and it is a benefit to the county then no crime is being committed.”
On Sept. 11, 2008, the investigator reported that he’d driven over every roadway that had dropped tiles on them with then-county tile supervisor Bill Joseph and was told every road was in the county road system.
The investigator rep-orted on Sept. 22 2008 that he sought advice from Assistant Deputy Attor-ney Tad Thomas. According to that docu-ment, Thomas “advised it is such a gray area and there is no clear-cut crime that prosecution would be pointless.”
“He (the investigator) said everything was good, just don’t put no more tiles on state roads,” Strunk said.
According to the inves-tigation, Pulaski Comm-onwealth’s Attorney Eddy Montgomery declined to seek prosecution.
Montgomery said on Friday that he and the investigator discussed the merits of the case, and he said both agreed that prosecution was not necessary.
“The investigator didn’t think there was anything to it,” Montgomery said. “He called, we talked about it, and we agreed that there was nothing to prosecute.”
