Louisville's Metro Council -- And Voters -- Just Don't Get It

Sometimes a crisis should be a crisis but isn't. That's the case of Barbara Shanklin and Metro Louisville Council (Kentucky).

The Courier-Journal reported Shanklin's grandson, Gary Bohler, was paid by taxpayers at least three times when he spent the day in jail, and for years while he was a fugitive with active warrants for his arrest. Shanklin at first said her grandson was still working for her, then that he was suspended with pay, and then that he was fired. She handily won her primary re-election challenge last Tuesday.

But the week before the primaries,  Bohler's lengthy arrest record on drug, robbery, and firearms charges, his 2006 felony drug conviction, and his recent arrest on a domestic violence charge over an alleged rampage at the home of an ex-girlfriend should have been a crisis for incumbent Shanklin, who defended her grandson as someone who needed a job to turn things around.

"Also unfolding were embarrassing details of how Mr. Bohler collected a city paycheck on occasions when he appeared to be otherwise engaged — once in jail and another time, as a fugitive from an arrest warrant. Ms. Shanklin, who initially defended her grandson, mercifully ended the spectacle Tuesday by deciding 'to go ahead and release him' from his $25-an-hour job. Now it’s up to the entire Metro Council to avoid future spectacles by adopting a real nepotism policy that bans hiring relatives." (http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012305190033)

You would think Louisville Metro Council would have known better about nepotism. I wrote here numerous times about another metro council person, Judy Green. On September 9, I wrote, "The Metro Ethics Commission recommended unanimously Green should be removed from office because she intentionally violated four sections of the city's ethics law. She is accused of a conflict of interest in running the Green Clean Team last summer. This is a valuable initiative that gave jobs to teens for clean-up and beautification projects. However, she has been accused of using her official position 'to secure unwarranted privileges for herself or family; paid family members more than others doing the same job; and had personal involvement in the program to the point that it impaired her objectivity.'"

Nevertheless, the council did nothing about nepotism. It looked the other way when it learned that Shanklin hired a convicted felon, then promoted him without posting the position because "he was most qualified."
And now the Louisville voters have virtually put the Democrat back in office for another term. Judy Green was drummed out of office because she hired family members to pick up trash. Barbara Shanklin is riding high, despite hiring her grandson the felon and paying him about twice as much as my wife receives as a metro employee.

Perhaps this smoldering crisis will rise up to bite Shanklin in the behind. The more likely  scenario, based on her 20-percentage-points primary win, is that Shanklin will avoid a crisis and Metro Council will proceed with business as usual without any nepotism ban.