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Ethics investigation clears Louisville official?Submitted by local_yokel on Thu, 09/13/2007 - 09:59.
Here's the link: (Link...) If I were John Loope, I would find the report of the Louisville City Atty/Ethics officer very unsatisfactory. Here's the full text:(Link...) Page 8 of the pdf (numbered page 6 in the document) says basically that all the allegations were dismissed as untrue in the report just because the accuser didn't provide all the evidence. Could it be possible that accuser expected the person tasked with investigating the complaint to uncover and examine the evidence? I mean, when I think of an "investigator," I envision someone in a trenchcoat who can get to the bottom of a matter. Not some attorney who says he took it upon himself to write a report and then declares the conclusion at the beginning. The attorney further says something like: "That [meaning that the accuser didn't provide all the evidence], in and of itself, should end the investigation and result in a finding of no ethical violations. However, since the investigation has the further function of allowing the accused persons to have their say and exonerate their names if there are no facts, I am continuing with the investigation." So he says right at the beginning of the report that the only purpose of the report is to give the accused their say and that the conclusion has already been made based on lack of evidence PROVIDED BY THE ACCUSER. Not that I'm saying the lack of evidence provided automatically means the accused are guilty, either. But if I were going to be exonnerated in something, I'd hope it was a more ringing endorsement than this. I'm glad the police investigators don't operate that way.
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Copyright (C) 2007, All Rights Reserved
The key to all these ethics issues can be found at the Blount County Human Resources site. MTAS and CTAS are both following the same state guidelines.
" personal interests that impact or appear to impact the discretion of officials and employees"
"personal interests that affects or would lead a reasonable person to believe it affects the person's exercise of discretion"
Now try to define reasonable.
R- for whatever reason I can not use quoteblocks in reply.
Oops. Should be fixed now.
I seem to recall something about this in relation to the raging ethics issues over in Knox County.
I'm not clear on the details and I'm not sure what law covers all this (and I'm too lazy to look), but I seem to recall there is some controversy that the complaint has to be detailed and specific and that the person making the complaint basically has to lay out the evidence before ethics committees would proceed with an investigation. In the case of Knox County, I believe there was also an opinion that anonymous complaints wouldn't be considered.
If I recall correctly, it raises an issue in regard to protecting anonymous whistle-blowers from retaliation.
It raises a huge issue with whistle-blowers. There is a difference in the Ethics stuff and the Comptroller's fraud and waste/abuse hotline. I still can not find the active link for that. The state removed the pdf link.
Mr. Tingle made his observations/accusations right out in the open. And can I point out that there is yet ANOTHER reference to American Fidelity Bank in that document? Apparently, John Loope serves on their "advisory board" along with our Sheriff and many other notables in county/city government.
The Ethics Legislation that the State passed recently is totally useless and serves no purpose as far as ethics goes. The law is so vague, it is a complete waste of time to file any ethical complaint. Foxes guarding the hen house.
My converstations with members of the State Ethics Commission office have sure given me some hope. No easy routes in a state that takes a hands off county issues but real hope in how to deal with some of the local jerks.