Judge Moore saves Boone County tax money on Hawaii vacation!

Friday, July 10, 2009

July 8, 2009
Boone officials clash over tax rolls
By Amanda Van Benschotenavanbenschoten@nky.com
BURLINGTON -
A political firestorm that has been brewing for weeks between County Commissioner Charlie Kenner and Property Valuation Administrator Cindy Rich came to a head at Tuesday's Fiscal Court meeting.
The two traded verbal jabs during a tense 14-minute presentation Rich made in response to Kenner's public criticism of her job performance two weeks ago.
It all began in early June with the revelation that this year's commercial tax rolls were projected to drop by $500 million from 2008.
Following media reports, county and PVA staff looked into the issue and discovered that hundreds of commercial properties worth more than $300 million were omitted from initial calculations.
The commercial tax rolls are now projected to drop by $200 million instead. The data is not yet certified.
Rich attributed the mistake to a computer glitch. She said the omitted properties were on the tax rolls, but were coded incorrectly in the system.
Kenner said the codes weren't wrong when he examined the software program. When asked, he couldn't recall when that was.
"There was no computer glitch - I don't buy that. I've got some serious concerns here, and some red flags are up," he said at the June 23 Fiscal Court meeting.
"They were all very high-end properties, things like Kroger Marketplace in Hebron and Meijer on Houston Road. That's a pretty glaring error, in my opinion. So I'd like to get to the bottom and see what's going on here, and proceed from there," he said.
Rich said she "was horribly offended" by his remarks, and he should have approached her privately.
Kenner said he began researching the issue just before the June 23 meeting and didn't have time to do so.
She attended Tuesday's meeting to defend herself.
"I remind you, Commissioner, I do not answer to this body," she said. "I answer to Boone County citizens and taxpayers only. I have oversight by the Department of Revenue. I am here for them, and not you."
"You should really know what you're talking about before you lash out at someone," she told Kenner.
She said he examined the wrong part of the program when he concluded the codes weren't the issue.
She also invited him to read aloud a July 6 letter from the software manufacturer that blamed "software idiosyncrasies" for the mistake, and she produced e-mails that showed the problem was fixed.
"If you really wanted to address this, you would have given me a report ahead of time like I asked for two weeks ago," Kenner said. "I don't intend to be a part of these personal attacks on me. I also answer to taxpayers - that's why I bring these things up, Cindy. Don't personalize this."
"I think you personalized this two weeks ago," she shot back.
Kenner, 55, also scolded Rich, 27, for her forceful attitude and for smirking at him.
"Laughing at me in that conduct does not become you," he said.
"Well, I'm sorry, Commissioner Kenner, but you started it," she replied.
Judge-executive Gary Moore abruptly ended the discussion without comment after Rich's presentation.
"I am focusing on keeping the court focused on doing the county's business, and not allowing the arena to be used for political purposes," he said.
After the meeting, Kenner said he was "absolutely not" convinced by Rich's presentation, but refused to elaborate.
"I have my reasons," he said. "...That's her version. I very much disagree with her version of the events."

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Charlie's outfit looks as if he is getting ready to explore one Judge Moore's many county trails.

Anonymous said...

Kenner can dish it out but he can't take it!

Anonymous said...

You go girl!!

Anonymous said...

All of us at Cindy's bar ( Pitchers Pub ) are wondering what happened. Its not like Cindy to mess something up this bad. Maybe she was spending too much time working on Cathy's campaign.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

The PVA being Cindy Rich is the ONLY person responsible for the error in the reports. She is the Administrator of the office, the computer company does not send the reports she should. If she failed to check her reports then shame on her for not doing the job she was elected to do. Mr. Kenner, Mr. Moore, Ms. Flaig, The Boone Co Fiscal Court etc do not send the reports it is the responsibility of the PVA to make sure the information that leaves her office is correct. If she cannot be responsible and mature enough to do then job then she needs to resign. It is as simple as that. Name calling-nasty comments are not the answer-and to be honest the PVAs attitude is quite embarassing for the taxpayers in Boone Co-so stand up admit your error and go back to work. Keep your political views at home and out of the office you have a job to do. Being a Boone Co taxpayer I expect to see you working on Monday morning doing the job you were elected to do instead of another article in the news with some lame defense of how this could have happened. I think we all know how it happened.

Anonymous said...

For all those out there who have been looking in from the outside of the so called Boone County GOP split this is a perfect example why the "establishment" majority formed an executive committee. Under the old rules anyone could gather up a handful of malcontents to stack a meeting and pass any stupid thing. For example, putting an immature 24-year old bar owner on the ballot for PVA because her Daddy showed up to the meeting with two dozen friends and 20k to pay to reprint the ballot. Now this is what we get, a PVA that flies off the handle the first time someone criticizes her. Even if you think Commissioner Kenner was ahead of himself with his first statement about “hoping there were no ulterior motives” the incident could have died there. She took the conflict from a minor spat to an all out brawl by loosing her mind and showing a shocking lack of maturity. While she may be a very smart person she obviously lacks the temperament to hold a public position that will always be the focus of criticism.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

It is funny that the "malcontents" were the only ones smart enough to pass the test! Didn't Kenner's brother take a similar test and flunk it?

Anonymous said...

Did you really get a good look at the only person that passed the test and was qualified that Gary Moore brought to go up against Cindy? Did you get a real good look? What a goofball he was, from Campbell County too. Did Gary Want Cindy not to have the job that bad, to bring in "GOOBER" and think people would accept that.

Anonymous said...

Cindy for Governer in 2014?

Anonymous said...

As I have said before, things would be much better if the Fiscal Court would once again work together as a team. Every since Cathy Flag decided to run for County Executive she spends more time trying to manufacture issues rather than working with the entire court to benefit the County. This time she tries to spin a tale out of a legitimate trip. I don't know of any other elected official who uses their own skymiles for county business. Cathy needs to work for the citizens and not for her reelection campaign.

Anonymous said...

To Anonymous (July 21st @ 10:15 pm)
If it was legitimate ,,why didn't Gary admitt it?? You are one of Gary's fools!

Anonymous said...

To Anonymous (July 12th 8:26 pm)
If your going to try and lie about the facts. The number was 25 thousand and half of that was raised before they left the court house. Yet,,another one of Gary's fools. If your going to lie get your facts straight

Anonymous said...

Garys team does work together!To give the shaft to the tax payers! As I recall, Gary,Charlie and Terry all went to Hawai on KACO money. In other words your dime,,Stupid! wait,,, are you one of Garys paid bloggers on Kaco's payroll??

Judge Moore has a little trouble with math!