Kentucky Lawyer Common Andy Beshear's workplace dominated final week that Pikeville Unbiased Colleges violated the state's Open Information Act by failing to supply a controversial and secretive life insurance coverage coverage awarded to the district's superintendent greater than a decade in the past.
The choice stems from a request filed by faculty board member Ashley Brown for a duplicate of the life insurance coverage coverage that the district's board, in 2008, awarded to Superintendent Jerry Inexperienced in closed session.
Inexperienced's coverage has been the topic of controversy within the district for months. In April, one board member loyal to Inexperienced threatened to resign after different board members questioned whether or not the coverage was awarded illegally.
Inexperienced introduced his retirement, efficient June 30, 2020, throughout a board assembly earlier this month. He resigned because the board's secretary, efficient instantly, throughout the identical assembly.
District officers, of their response to Brown's request, stated the district couldn't produce a duplicate of the life insurance coverage coverage as a result of it didn't make a copy in its possession.
In its choice final week, the Workplace of the Lawyer Common dominated that the "nature and objective of the doc, not the place the place it's stored," decide whether or not a document is assessed as "public," and that "the company's lack of possession is due to this fact not a reputable foundation for denial."
Inexperienced and the district's board legal professional, Max Thompson, declined to remark for this story.
"We'll get this document, and I hope we get it with little issue," stated Amye Bensenhaver, an legal professional who specialised in open information and open conferences legal guidelines throughout a 25-year profession within the Kentucky Workplace of the Lawyer Common.
Bensenhaver, now director of the Kentucky Open Authorities Coalition, stated she is working with Brown to retrieve a duplicate of the coverage.
Few particulars concerning the coverage have been made public.
In response to district information, the district's 5 board members went into closed session in a July 2008 assembly and accomplished Inexperienced's annual analysis. A month later, the district minimize a $154,000 examine to Monumental Life Insurance coverage Firm.
In September of that 12 months, Thompson, the board legal professional, wrote a letter to Inexperienced saying the board had "agreed to pay for a One Million Greenback Time period Life Insurance coverage Coverage or pay the equal of a time period coverage premium in direction of a Entire Life Coverage" throughout the July assembly.
Thompson instructed the Herald-Chief in April that board members gave the coverage to Inexperienced as a result of "different districts had been trying to rent him away, in order that they needed to extend his general compensation bundle."
"That was their aim," Thompson stated in April. "They had been happy together with his efficiency, in order that they needed to maintain him."
Faculty districts had been allowed to carry out superintendent evaluations in closed session on the time, however as soon as the board made the choice to present Inexperienced a life insurance coverage coverage "the right means to do this would have been to vote on that in open session," Thompson stated.
Inexperienced declined to remark in April about whether or not the board complied with the state's open conferences legislation when it awarded the coverage.
In response to state knowledge, Inexperienced is the fourth-highest paid superintendent in Kentucky at $215,000 per 12 months. The one superintendents to make extra are these in Fayette, Jefferson and Boone counties. About 1,200 college students attend two colleges operated by Pikeville Unbiased Colleges, which commonly performs above the state common for ACT scores and basic tutorial efficiency.
Inexperienced made $228,000 throughout the 2013-14 fiscal 12 months, based on a examine historical past supplied by Brown, the varsity board member who requested a duplicate of the life insurance coverage coverage. His contract throughout that 12 months promised a base wage of $153,000.
Whereas superintendent contracts often include details about the advantages they obtain, Inexperienced's contract doesn't point out the 2008 coverage, and a superintendent compensation survey for 2018-19 lists Inexperienced as having no life insurance coverage profit.
Brown stated she first requested for a duplicate of the coverage greater than a 12 months in the past, and has made quite a few written requests since then, however that the district by no means produced a duplicate.
"Not having the coverage on file makes it arduous for anybody in my place to make certain about something when speaking to most people," Brown stated. "And imagine me, they're ."
Bensenhaver stated the order compels the district to offer the document or provoke an attraction by means of a Circuit Courtroom motion.
"The ball at this level is within the district's court docket, so to talk," Brown stated. "I am actually hoping that this life insurance coverage coverage will lastly be positioned into document and due to this fact rectify the violation of (the) open information legislation."
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