Somerset — A local attorney says Somerset Mayor Eddie Girdler’s attempts to separate the city from participation in the Lake Cumberland Area Drug Task Force are “illegal and ill-conceived.”Joe Travis, formerly Somerset’s city attor-ney, wrote a letter to Mayor Girdler yester-day stating he had been retained to represent the task force concerning the city’s alleged violation of an interlocal agree-ment between the city and the drug task force. The accusation stems from decisions this week to remove a Somerset Police officer from the drug task force, to remove some drug task force emplo-yees from the city’s retirement and insur-ance plans, and to strip some agents of their police powers.

Travis says the city’s actions are in violation of state laws. Decis-ions which affect the interlocal agreement, Travis says, should be made by the city’s governing body — city council — and not by the mayor or an acting police chief.Trouble began bet-ween the two entities last month, when the LCADTF board voted to hire retired federal marshal Mike Walters. Somerset Acting Police Chief Doug Nelson expressed displeasure with the board’s choice, and, a short time later, according to LCADTF Director David Gilbert, he informed the board that he would be removing his department from the task force.

Nelson did, in fact, inform Gilbert this week that the Somerset Police officer assigned to the drug task force was being removed. Gilbert said that officer requested to be removed from his position because “he didn’t want to get caught in the middle” of the controversy that was brewing there.Earlier this month, LCADTF agents received a memo from the City of Somerset stating that, effective 30 days from the issuance of the letter, the city would no longer handle the drug task force’s accounting or payroll paperwork and that drug task force agents who had been sworn in by the City of Somerset would no longer be eligible to receive the city’s insurance or retirement benefits.

And most recently, Nelson informed the drug task force that their police powers would be revoked effective today.While City Attorney Carrie Wiese has assured LCADTF members that the city has no intention of removing itself from the drug task force, Gilbert insists that the city’s actions are jeopardizing the employees of the task force — as well as the existence of the task force itself.

“(The High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area) has called me two times today,” Gilbert said yesterday. “There seems to be no question that they will pull their funding and pull our initiative status (as a result of these recent developments).”HIDTA regularly gives grant money to the drug task force, and the agency’s initiative status allows federal and state agents to work on the task force in this area.

Wiese says the city merely needs clarification on the issue of whether the drug task force agents who were sworn in by the Somerset Police Department are city employees or employees of the LCADTF. But the recent actions of Girdler and Nelson have seemed much harsher.In his letter, Travis notes that the city’s attempt to terminate its participation in the interlocal agreement is in violation of the agreement itself, which states that at least 60 days’ notice must be given — not 30 days — before an entity can remove itself from participation in the agency. (It’s the LCADTF’s opinion that the city removed itself from participation in the task force when it stopped handling its paperwork and stopped considering its agents to be city employees.)

Travis further points out that decisions about the employment of drug task force agents should, according to the agreement, be made by the task force director. Therefore, he says, Nelson’s alleged objection to the hiring of Walters is not warranted.“This has been the policy and procedure for hiring of the task force for the last 17 years,” Travis said in the letter. “Only now do you or Major Nelson indicate that the city must somehow approve the hiring of an agent or officer.”

The Commonwealth Journal contacted Mike Walters yesterday. Walters said he applied for a position on the task force after retiring from the U.S. Marshal Service because he wanted to continue his career in law enforcement. Walters said he is qualified for the position – and that the board apparently felt he was qualified — “but agents have to be sworn in through the Somerset Police Department, and there is where the wrench has fallen into the gears.”When asked why he felt there was an issue with his hiring, he said, “I’m not going to comment on that.”

Wiese said yesterday that Lexington attorney Charles Cole, who is representing the City of Somerset in this matter, was in the process of preparing a response to Travis’ letter, but as of press time, Cole had not issued a response.The Lake Cumberland Area Drug Task Force is a multi-jurisdiction drug enforcement law enforcement agency. It was created in 1993 as a project of the Somerset Police Department, when Gilbert was chief of police there. The LCADTF includes agencies in Pulaski, Wayne and McCreary counties.