Bill Nighbert: Difference between revisions
Content deleted Content added
No edit summary |
lead |
||
| (39 intermediate revisions by 31 users not shown) | |||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{BLP sources|date=July 2007}} |
|||
| ⚫ | |||
| ⚫ | |||
| ⚫ | |||
== Career == |
|||
| ⚫ | When Republican [[Governor of Kentucky]] [[Ernie Fletcher]] was elected and took office in 2003, Nighbert joined the administration as Deputy Commissioner for the Governor's Office for Local Development (GOLD). That office |
||
Nighbert served as mayor of [[Williamsburg, Kentucky]]<ref name='legacy'>{{cite news |
|||
|url=http://www.kentucky.com/2008/09/06/515097/nighberts-legacy-is-controversy.html |
|||
|accessdate=2010-07-17 |
|||
|title=Nighbert's legacy is controversy |
|||
|author=John Cheves and Bill Estep |
|||
|date=September 6, 2008 |
|||
| ⚫ | |||
| ⚫ | When Republican [[Governor of Kentucky]] [[Ernie Fletcher]] was elected and took office in 2003, Nighbert joined the administration as Deputy Commissioner for the Governor's Office for Local Development (GOLD). That office gave millions of dollars in grant money to local government units. One of the offices in GOLD was Local Initiatives for a New Kentucky (LINK).{{Citation needed|date=July 2010}} |
||
| ⚫ | |||
| ⚫ | |||
| ⚫ | In March 2005 Governor Fletcher named Nighbert as acting Secretary for the Transportation Cabinet. In November 2005 Fletcher announced that Nighbert was given a full appointment as Secretary of the Transportation Cabinet. |
||
| ⚫ | |||
In May 2005 the office of the [[Attorney General of Kentucky]] announced that it was investigating evidence of illegal hiring practices in the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. When the investigation was announced, Nighbert claimed he knew of no illegal hirings in the Cabinet. In May 2005 the news media reported whistleblower accounts that [[Dick Murgatroyd]], a high-ranking Transportation Cabinet official, intervened to fill a highway superintendent job with a man who was later fired for problems that included carrying a gun in a state truck and using a state garage to fix the furnace of a county Republican official. Other whistleblower reports emerged that month detailing how the leader of Fletcher's election campaign in [[Edmonson County, Kentucky]] was hired as a transportation district manager ahead of more qualified civil servants, and late given an unusual 32% salary increase. It also emerged that month that a 25 year veteran of the Kentucky State Police was fired as the Transportation Cabinet's lead investigator due to his political affiliation, and that a 32 year employee of the Transportation Cabinet was summarily transferred to a post 100 miles from his home in order to force his retirement and open his position up for a Republican. |
|||
|date=November 25, 2005 |
|||
|title=Nighbert named Kentucky transportation secretary |
|||
|newspaper=Business Courier of Cincinnati |
|||
|url=http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2005/11/21/daily23.html?jst=b_ln_hl |
|||
|accessdate=2010-07-17 |
|||
}}</ref> |
|||
Nighbert has been involved in a number of controversies related to his term in Kentucky government. He was a party in a suit regarding workplace threats, and was a defendant in a bid rigging investigation at the Kentucky Department of Transportation.<ref name="legacy"/> However, he was found not guilty of the bid rigging charges in 2010.{{Cn|date=October 2024}} |
|||
On June 7, 2005 Nighbert was called before a grand jury investigating illegal hiring practices. He invoked the [[Fifth Amendment]] and refused to testify on the grounds that his testimony might incriminate him in criminal activity. |
|||
==References== |
|||
On June 14, 2005 Nighbert, Assistant Transportation Secretary [[Jim Adams]] and Transportation employee [[Dan Druen]] were all indicted by a grand jury and charged with criminal violations of the state's merit system laws. |
|||
{{Reflist}} |
|||
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nighbert, Bill}} |
|||
Also in June 2005 evidence surfaced of a political "hit list" of employees in the Transportation Cabinet who were targeted for their political affiliations. That month it also emerged that Jimmy C. Holiday, a Republican supporter of Fletcher, was given a job answering telephones in the Transportation Cabinet but refused to do any work. The Transportation Cabinet's response was to reclassify him as an "administrative coordinator" at a salary of $42,420. |
|||
[[Category:Living people]] |
|||
[[Category:Mayors of places in Kentucky]] |
|||
On July 6, 2005 three more administration figures were indicted for merit system violations: [[Dick Murgatroyd]], former Deputy Secretary of Transportation who by then was Fletcher's deputy chief of staff; [[Cory Meadows]], a Transportation Cabinet official who was also a former deputy director of the Local Initiatives for a New Kentucky (LINK) office which had reported to Nighbert; and Transportation Cabinet official [[Dan Druen]] on new counts. |
|||
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]] |
|||
[[Category:State cabinet secretaries of Kentucky]] |
|||
On July 11, 2005 three more people were indicted in the investigation: state Republican Party chairman [[Darrell Brock Jr.]], [[Basil Turbyfill]] and [[Bob Adams]]. Also in July 2005, a LINK office meeting agenda from May 13, 2004 surfaced, indicating that the office's goal was re-election of the governor and that the LINK office was working toward that goal, with activities including "Pursue proactive communication with supporters" and compilation of lists of each Kentucky county's "top 15 supporters of the Governor". |
|||
[[Category:Recipients of American gubernatorial pardons]] |
|||
On July 19, 2005 Transportation Cabinet official [[Dan Druen]] was charged with felonies related to the scandal, and resigned. The following day a Transportation employee filed a federal lawsuit claiming that the Transportation Cabinet and Kentucky Republican Party conspired to have her fired so that her position could be given to a Republican. |
|||
In August Druen was indicted on new felony charges and evidence emerged that Druen, on state time and using state resources, kept records on Transportation Cabinet employees' political affiliations. Also that month a videotape was produced that was said to show Nighbert ordering the firing, for political reasons, of the Transportation Cabinet's top investigator. And also in August another indicted official in the Transportation Cabinet was promoted to fill Druen's former position. |
|||
Also in August, a February 3, 2005 e mail sent by former Kentucky Homeland Security director [[Keith A. Hall]] surfaced, in which Hall referred to the LINK office, formerly under Nighbert, as a "political field operation" to help re-elect the governor in 2007, and said LINK's eight offices around the state were "an undervalued asset for its two main clients, the Governor and his political field operation." |
|||
On August 29, 2005 [[Ernie Fletcher|Governor Fletcher]] pardoned Nighbert and others for any actions related to the merit system investigation. Nighbert had previously said he would reject any pardon because he wanted to take any case against him to trial, but later Nighbert himself had specifically applied for pardons from the governor for himself and others. |
|||
On September 20, 2005 Nighbert was again indicted, this time for violating the state whistleblower act by telling a female whistleblower who worked under him that in his younger days he might have "socked her in the mouth." |
|||
As of December 1, 2005 Nighbert still held the office of Secretary of Transportation for the state of [[Kentucky]]. |
|||
[[Category:Kentucky politicians|Nighbert, Bill]] |
|||
[[Category:Pardon recipients|Nighbert, Bill]] |
|||
Latest revision as of 16:31, 6 October 2024
 |
Bill Nighbert is a Republican government official in the U.S. state of Kentucky.[1]
Career
[edit]Nighbert served as mayor of Williamsburg, Kentucky[2] for three terms. In 2003 he strongly supported the campaign of Ernie Fletcher for Governor of Kentucky, supporting Fletcher politically and with financial contributions.[citation needed]
When Republican Governor of Kentucky Ernie Fletcher was elected and took office in 2003, Nighbert joined the administration as Deputy Commissioner for the Governor's Office for Local Development (GOLD). That office gave millions of dollars in grant money to local government units. One of the offices in GOLD was Local Initiatives for a New Kentucky (LINK).[citation needed]
Nighbert moved to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, serving as Commissioner for the Department of Intergovernmental Programs there. Nighbert's duties including allocating over $200 million in road funding for cities and counties.[citation needed]
In March 2005 Governor Fletcher named Nighbert as acting Secretary for the Transportation Cabinet. In November 2005 Fletcher announced that Nighbert was given a full appointment as Secretary of the Transportation Cabinet.[1]
Nighbert has been involved in a number of controversies related to his term in Kentucky government. He was a party in a suit regarding workplace threats, and was a defendant in a bid rigging investigation at the Kentucky Department of Transportation.[2] However, he was found not guilty of the bid rigging charges in 2010.[citation needed]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Nighbert named Kentucky transportation secretary". Business Courier of Cincinnati. November 25, 2005. Retrieved 2010-07-17.
- ^ a b John Cheves and Bill Estep (September 6, 2008). "Nighbert's legacy is controversy". Retrieved 2010-07-17.