Kentucky Executive Branch Ethics Commission v. Wooten

465 S.W.3d 453, 2014 Ky. App. LEXIS 158, 2014 WL 5368891
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedOctober 3, 2014
DocketNO. 2013-CA-000524-MR, NO. 2013-CA-001571-MR
StatusPublished

This text of 465 S.W.3d 453 (Kentucky Executive Branch Ethics Commission v. Wooten) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kentucky Executive Branch Ethics Commission v. Wooten, 465 S.W.3d 453, 2014 Ky. App. LEXIS 158, 2014 WL 5368891 (Ky. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

OPINION

STUMBO, JUDGE:

Kentucky Executive Branch Ethics Commission (“the Commission”) appeals from two Orders of the Franklin Circuit Court. Those Orders reversed two Final Orders of the Commission holding that several Property Valuation Administrators improperly used their official positions or offices to obtain financial gain for their family members in violation of KRS llA.020(l)(c). As a basis for the reversals, Judges Phillip J. Shepherd and Thomas D. Wingate independently determined that KRS llA.020(l)(c) does not bar Property Valuation Administrators from hiring or promoting family members. In this consolidated appeal, we conclude that KRS llA.020(l)(c) cannot reasonably be interpreted to prohibit Property Valuation Administrators from promoting and hiring family members. Accordingly, we AFFIRM the Orders on appeal.

In 2007, the Commission began investigating the hiring and promotion practices of several elected Property Valuation Administrators (“PVAs”) throughout the Commonwealth. Thereafter, the Commission charged five PVAs with violation of KRS llA.020(l)(c), to wit, that each had improperly hired or promoted family members within their respective offices. These charges were as follows: 1) Harlan County PVA Felicia Wooten was charged with improperly submitting a Request for Personnel Action (“RPA”) with the Department [455]*455of Revenue recommending her son, Derrick Wooten, for a promotion and salary increase; 2) Leslie County PVA James D. Wooton submitted an RPA recommending that his daughter, Mara Wooton, be hired as a General Deputy Trainee; 8) Oldham County PVA Ron G. Winters recommended that his wife, Barbara Winters, be promoted from Deputy to Chief Deputy; 4) Laurel County PVA Joyce Parker recommended that her daughter, Christis Garland, for appointment to a seasonal full-time position. Garland was subsequently hired as a full-time Secretary in the Laurel County PVA Office; and 5) Taylor County PVA Julie Shields recommended that her husband, Martin Shields, be appointed as a Deputy in the Taylor County PVA Office. In 2007, he was appointed Chief Deputy.

After an investigation, each of the charged PVAs was found to have violated KRS HA.020(l)(c), which states that “No public servant, by himself or through others, shall knowingly ... [u]se his official position or office to obtain financial gain for himself or any members of the public servant’s family[.]” The Commission then imposed various penalties, ranging from an order to cease and desist further violations to a $5,000 fine.

In 2008, eleven PVAs filed a Petition in Franklin Circuit Court seeking a Declaration that the Commission’s interpretation of KRS 11A.020 was unconstitutional and not supported by statutory or regulatory authority. The Franklin Circuit Court granted Summary Judgment in favor of the PVAs upon determining that PVAs are local elected officials and not state employees who fell under the authority of KRS Chapter 11. This ruling was reversed on appeal to a panel of this Court. Thereafter, the Commission rendered Final Orders against the Petitioners for violation.of KRS llA.020(l)(c).

Appellees Wooten, Wooton and Winters independently appealed the Commission’s Final Orders to the Franklin Circuit Court, and the matters were subsequently consolidated before Judge Shepherd. Similarly, Parker and Shields each prosecuted an appeal to the Franklin Circuit Court, with those actions being consolidated before Judge Wingate. The two appeals proceeded in Franklin Circuit Court, resulting in Opinions and Orders being rendered on March 5, 2013, and August 28, 2013, respectively. In each instance, the court reversed the Commission’s Final Orders. As a basis for reversing, Judges Shepherd and Wingate each determined in relevant part that KRS HA.020(l)(c) could not be construed to bar the hiring or promotion of family members.1 Rather, the courts determined that the statute does not provide that a public servant may not “use his official position or office to obtain compensation for himself or any members of the public servant’s family,” but rather bars financial gain. In making this distinction, the courts determined that the Legislature’s usage of the term compensation denoted earned income which is not prohibited, as distinguished from gifts, gratuities, kickbacks and other forms of financial gain.

' The courts went on to note that while the Commission’s goal of eliminating nepotism was laudable, other Kentucky statutes which prohibit nepotism are crafted with language that is explicit and absolute. Conversely, they found that llA.020(l)(c) is broad and indefinite, and does not contain specific and unequivocal language as is found in every other instance in which nepotism is barred.

[456]*456Finally, the courts recognized that following the enactment of llA.020(l)(c) in 1992, the Commission rendered an Advisory Opinion stating that “the Executive Branch Code of Ethics does not specifically prohibit the employment of relatives in PVA offices.” Exec. Branch Ethics Comm., Advisory Opinion 93-24 (June 7, 1993). Some years later, the Commission proposed an amendment to KRS Chapter 11 A, which was submitted to the 2000 General Assembly. This legislation would have amended KRS HA.020(l)(c) to expressly bar nepotism in the Executive Branch. That effort was unsuccessful, and KRS llA.020(l)(c) remained in its present form. Then in 2004, the Commission issued another Advisory Opinion which mirrored the language of the rejected, proposed legislation and stated that the hiring or promoting of a family member was a per se violation of the Ethics Code. Exec. Branch Ethics Comm., Advisory Opinion 04-34 (September 30, 2004). In addressing the 1993 Advisory Opinion, the proposed legislative amendment, and the 2004 Advisory Opinion, Judges Shepherd and Wingate determined that the Commission’s own Advisory Opinions were contradictory and that it could not circumvent the legislative process by administrative fiat.

Having closely studied the record and the law, we find no error in the circuit courts’ reasoning or disposition of the consolidated appeals. The matter before us centers on the construction of KRS llA.020(l)(c). As noted above, it provides that “No public servant, by himself or through others, shall knowingly ...

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Related

Lindall v. Kentucky Retirement Systems
112 S.W.3d 391 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 2003)
Commonwealth v. Plowman
86 S.W.3d 47 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 2002)
Woods v. Commonwealth
793 S.W.2d 809 (Kentucky Supreme Court, 1990)

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Bluebook (online)
465 S.W.3d 453, 2014 Ky. App. LEXIS 158, 2014 WL 5368891, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kentucky-executive-branch-ethics-commission-v-wooten-kyctapp-2014.