Sheriff’s email asked city council: ‘Don’t let this man destroy our community’
By JIM BROOKS
Nelson County Gazette / WBRT Radio
Thursday, April 28, 2016, 4 p.m. — In an email sent to Bardstown City Council members prior to their meeting Tuesday, Nelson County Sheriff Ed Mattingly called on the council to stand up and take action regarding the actions of Mayor John Royalty.
SHERIFF ED MATTINGLY
“Don’t let this man destroy our community,” Mattingly wrote.
Mattingly highlighted the accomplishments past mayors achieved by working together with county government to make fair decisions.
“In the last year and four months this mayor has managed to undo what many past Mayors worked hard to build. They communicated and listened to everyone involved. They were able to make well thought-out educated decisions.”
“The current Mayor has never reached out with any serious effort to make things work and obviously believes the past mayors were idiots. For some reason he believes that the county has done the city wrong and that he is going to make it right.”
This same reasoning is what led to the end of the joint city-county recreation department, the split between the city fire department and the volunteers, and now the mayor’s attacks on Nelson County Dispatch, Mattingly said.
“You take a deep look at the decisions that he has made and tell me what is good about what he has done thus far,” Mattingly wrote. “He has angered many people and destroyed the lives of numerous good people who were good at their job but would not kiss his feet. Surely you have seen the effects of his actions.”
BILL BUCKMAN
“Councilmen please stand up. If you have not discovered it by now, you can not trust the mayor and his friend, Councilman Bill Buckman,” he wrote. “The two of them think that they know everything about emergency services.”
Mattingly warned the council about the KSP dispatching proposal, stating his belief the cost estimates the city received were not accurate. He asked the council to take a closer look at the value and quality the state police dispatching will provide.
“KSP will answer your call but I am not sure what you are going to get after that,” he wrote. “You will still have the same radio system you have now. You will not have the record management system that you have now. You will not have the service you have now, and your police will still be “bitching.”
Mattingly noted that that Nelson County Dispatch has purchased and is installing a new, state-of-the-art computer-aided dispatch software and record management system — a project that’s been in the works for more than a year.
“Did you know that the City Police have never shown any interest in this system and have not requested pricing? It is pretty obvious that the decision was made over a year ago to leave.”
In regard to recent discussions of a new building for the fire and police departments, Mattingly asked the council if they were aware that the chief was given a sketch of a new building that would be located at the end of Wilson Parkway in the Wilson Industrial Park.
“Are you prepared to pay for all of this? Is it necessary?”
In closing, Mattingly asked the council members to take action.
“Stand up and represent the people, they are not happy!”
LARRY GREEN
CITY’S RESPONSE. In response to Mattingly’s email, Larry Green, the City of Bardstown’s human resources director, said that the sheriff’s email overlooked the actual history of the city’s agreement with the county in regard to the recreation department and the 911 dispatch center, and he overlooked the fact that the actions that canceled the agreements came before Royalty was mayor.
It was former Mayor Bill Sheckles who — with unanimous approval of the city council — put Nelson Fiscal Court on notice that it was going to cancel both agreements. Green provided copies of municipal orders 2014-16 and 2014-17 that gave notice of the city’s intent to cancel the agreements.
The municipal orders, both issued on Sept. 23, 2014, are signed by Sheckles and the members of the council at that time: Bobby Simpson, John Royalty, Roland Williams, Tommy Reed, Francis Lydian and Joe Buckman.
As far as the cost of dispatching, Green said the Kentucky State Police’s proposal should stand on its own merit. He noted the KSP proposal only asks the city to pay for the extra costs KSP will incur to add the city’s dispatching to its existing dispatch center. KSP has the needed infrastructure already in place, he said.
In response to an email from Judge-Executive Dean Watts that challenged the dollar amount the city said it was asked to pay for its share of 911 dispatch expenses, Green provided a copy of the proposed dispatch center budget dated March 30 that shows the city’s contribution for dispatch budget is to be $251,918.
Green said 40 percent of the calls the center receives are city-related calls; the rest are for service outside the city limits. The KSP dispatch proposal offers the city significant savings, as well as other advantages.
Green said the city is currently putting its next budget together, and with county government still working to determine how it will change how it collects 911 landline fees — and how that change could affect how much the city is asked to pay for 911 services — it was only prudent to explore dispatch alternatives.
KSP will receive 911 calls, and then dispatch the appropriate city agency, Green said. If the calls are for EMS or the sheriff’s office, those calls would be transferred quickly to the local dispatch — there would no significant delay, he said.
NEXT UP. The Bardstown City Council will hold a special meeting 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 3, 2016, to discuss hiring a special counsel to investigate the mayor for possible misconduct in the restructuring of the city police department. The special meeting will follow the council’s 5 p.m. working session at the city hall annex next to the recreation center on Xavier Drive.
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