Mayor: E-911 budget amendment may have violated Open Meetings law

City Attorney Tim Butler, left, and Mayor John Royalty talk prior to the start of Tuesday night’s Bardstown City Council meeting.

By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio

Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015, 11:55 p.m. — The Bardstown City Council voted against accepting an amended budget submitted by the E-911 Dispatch Board at the council’s meeting Tuesday night.

However, the amended budget the council rejected was not the latest version submitted by the joint city-county dispatch board.

According to Mayor John Royalty, an amended dispatch budget was received at 4 p.m. Tuesday, just three hours prior to the start of the council meeting. Royalty told the council he was rejecting the budget amendment and questioned the legality of how the dispatch board approved it.

From the emails he received, Royalty said it appeared the board members approved the amended budget by telephone and email — methods Royalty said he felt were improper. The only amended budget left for the council to consider was a older version that was lacked the latest updates.

Larry Green. (File photo)

Royalty recommended the council reject that budget and “wait until they can get a budget back to us legally.

“I don’t want to vote on a budget that was discussed on email and telephone,” he said. “I think its wrong and its not a proper way to handle business,” adding that he believed the manner the budget amendment was approved may have violated the Kentucky Open Meetings law.

The council voted unanimously to reject the dispatch board’s amended budget.

City Attorney Tim Butler suggested the council send the matter to the finance committee for their review before the council votes on the amended dispatch board budget.

E-911 BOARD FINANCES QUESTIONED. In regard to the E-911 amended budget, Larry Green, assistant city administrator, questioned the city’s role in repaying a line of credit the dispatch board obtained from Nelson Fiscal Court.

In 2011, the board asked the county for the line of credit without seeking approval from city government, he said. The E-911 board budget is approved by the city and county, with the county funding 60 percent of the dispatch budget and the city funding 40 percent.

The line of credit — up to $410,000, Green said — was an agreement outside the approved dispatch budget. He said a county employee on the dispatch board — referring to EMS Director Joe Prewitt — went to fiscal court to secure the funds as a “side deal” outside the normal budget process.

Green added that the dispatch board didn’t actually spend the money — Nelson Fiscal Court spent the money. “It wasn’t a loan to the dispatch center, although they called it that,” he said. “Fiscal court spent the money themselves.”

The dispatch center’s initial 2015-16 budget included $54,000 for loan repayment. The amended budget the city received Tuesday afternoon deleted that repayment.

Though the repayment was deleted, Green said the question remains unanswered as to the city’s obligation in repaying that line of credit, adding that the city and county attorneys may need to be the ones to find that answer.

NEXT UP. The council meets next at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016.

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