Bevin: House panel lacks authority to investigate handling of road project

Gov. Matt Bevin said Thursday a special House committee does not have the authority to investigate his handling of a multimillion-dollar road project in Jessamine County and summon witnesses for testimony under oath.

Bevin’s general counsel, Steve Pitt, informed the committee’s chairman, Democratic Rep. Jim Wayne of Louisville, of the governor’s opinion in a two-page letter Thursday. Pitt also told Wayne in the letter that two Transportation Cabinet employees will not be testifying at a scheduled meeting Friday of the House Investigatory Committee on Executive Actions.

Wayne said he was studying Pitt’s letter and would not comment on it until Friday’s meeting.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, appointed the panel earlier this month to investigate claims that Bevin delayed an $11 million extension of East Brannon Road in Jessamine County as political retribution against Democratic Rep. Russ Meyer of Nicholasville for not switching political parties last December.

Bevin has said he delayed the project because the administration of former Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear didn’t secure a necessary portion of land before the deadline to begin work. The state was contractually obligated to pay The Allen Co. $625,000 in damages because of the delay.

Pitt told Wayne Thursday that the executive branch “welcomes the opportunity, at the appropriate time, for a full exposition of the facts” concerning the road project.

“Regardless, we do not believe your committee is authorized to conduct such an investigation into the Bevin or Beshear administration, or, in particular, to summon witnesses for testimony under oath,” Pitt said.

Pitt said the committee’s rules are “overly restrictive and not conducive to a full and fair determination of the facts.” He said he understood that only the chairman can ask witnesses questions and other members must submit their questions to him in writing to use at his discretion.

“I don’t know where they came up with that,” said Wayne, who said he wants the meetings to be open with members asking anything they want.

Pitt said the Bevin administration declines, “at least temporarily,” to produce for Friday’s meeting Paul Looney and Ryan Griffith of the Transportation Cabinet. Looney is deputy state highway engineer for project development, and Griffith is the cabinet’s director of the division of construction.

“We will, however, consider making them available on a latter date if you will provide us with your purported legal authority to act as a lawful committee of the General Assembly and, in particular, to summon witnesses and question them under oath,” said Pitt.

In the meantime, Griffith and Looney would be willing to voluntarily answer the committee’s written questions, he said.

This story was originally published October 27, 2016 at 5:23 PM with the headline "Bevin: House panel lacks authority to investigate handling of road project."