This Central Kentucky leader found principal’s job more difficult than decades of elected office
He’s been involved in local governments for longer than many of his constituents have been alive. Refereeing — dealing with unhappy and yelling coaches and fans — gave him the thick skin he needed for public office.
George Lusby has been a fixture in local government for 55 years. He was a member of Georgetown City Council for 26 years. At the end of December, he will leave office after finishing his 29th year as Scott County judge-executive, the top elected administrator of county government.
Lusby spent 30 years in the Scott County school system as a teacher, coach, principal and director of pupil personnel. And he was a referee for many games, including 11 state high school football championships and high school basketball tournaments.
For many years, he also found time to write a newspaper column called “Crawfish and Minnows.”
Lusby, 82 and a Democrat, did not seek re-election. He sat down Dec. 3 for an interview with the Herald-Leader. Here are some excerpts edited for length.
Q. Which is the most difficult job: Teacher, principal or judge-executive?
A. Being a principal. In school as a principal, you’re dealing with problems most of the time. Discipline problems. Parent problems. Teacher problems. This job (judge-executive) is fun all the time for me. I hate to even think about quitting.
Q. Why is this job fun?
A. Well, you get to see all the things you can do for the community. … The thing that I love the most is the quality-of-life things. Parks, and things like that. We bought over 2,000 acres of property just for parks …. We brought water lines to people.
Q. Over a period of years, you were a referee for a lot of college and high school games. Did that help you grow the thick skin you needed for politics?
A. It helped more than anything you can imagine. No question about it. In refereeing, it makes a difference when the coach is yelling at you and the fans are yelling at you. You just keep on doing what you’re supposed to be doing, and always knowing you’re right and they’re wrong.
Q. Is it true you got socked in the jaw one time after a game?
A. I got knocked out! I think it was after the St. Xavier and Trinity game. We were at the Fairgrounds Stadium (in Louisville). The fans had come down out of the stands and were storming the field. I was going back to the dressing room, and a guy hit me with his forearm right across the jaw. I wasn’t out but maybe 10 seconds. I thought he’d broken my jaw. Somewhere I’ve got a tape of the game and you could hear the loudspeaker guy saying, “They’ve hit an official! That’s a penalty!” And I’m thinking, “Penalty? The game’s over!”
Q. You grew up in a poor section of Georgetown. How did that shape who you are today and how did that shape who you are as a leader?
A. Well, the section of town wasn’t poor. It was the people who lived there who were poor. Second Street was the greatest community you could grow up in. The kids played together. We’d rabbit hunt. Everybody just did everything together. We had everything you could want. We had a blacksmith’s shop across the street, where a guy shoed horses. We’re talking about in the early ‘40s.
Q. Let’s fast-forward. How closely is your success tied to Toyota?
A. I know what the situation was when I took over (as judge-executive). We were an agricultural community in the ‘80s and were slowly switching to manufacturing, but the manufacturing had gone out. Clark Equipment had moved out. Johnson Controls Inc. had moved out.
I was principal at Georgetown Middle School. We had buckets in the hall to catch rain. At Garth School, one entrance was closed down because the plaster and roof was leaking. There was no money to fix anything.
Now we’re thriving. … Toyota is a big part of the revenue that the city and county gets.
Q. You have any regrets about Toyota coming here?
A. No, no. no. I might have some regrets if they hadn’t. They’ve been a blessing for Scott County.
Q. What’s the worst mistake you made in office?
A. The biggest disappointment was the Army Corps of Engineers not giving us a permit to build a reservoir (in northern Scott County in 2006). Every time we would do something … there would be another obstacle. But (on the county-owned land purchased for the reservoir) we have horseback riding, mountain bike trails, we allow bow hunting for deer and turkey, and some hiking. There’s no overnight camping.
Q. What’s the best thing you did in office?
A. I guess managing the budget. And if you didn’t manage the budget, you couldn’t do the other things. … Today, we’ve probably got close to $30 million in the bank. We’ve got three major projects going. We’re building a park right across the street from where the new high school is being built. It’ll be done in March or April. The city is redoing the 911 Center, and it’s about a $12 million project and we’re doing half of that. And the (expansion of Lanes Run) Business Park is a city project, and we volunteered to pay half of it because we’ll get revenue from it.
Q. Scott County’s political landscape has changed dramatically since you became judge-executive in 1990. Then Republicans were 12 percent of the total number of the registered voters. Today it’s more like 50 percent, and your successor, Joe Pat Covington, is Republican. What do you think about that?
A. It’s 180 degrees from where it was. I’ve survived. All seven of my (fiscal court) magistrates are Republicans. We get along fine. There have been one or two issues that were partisan.
I have never asked anybody what their politics is. I appoint people to boards, and I’ve never asked “Are you Democrat or Republican?” I don’t know and I don’t want to know.
Q. What challenges are ahead for your successor, Mr. Covington, and what advice would you have for him?
A. I give him no advice. It’ll be the same challenges, managing the money. He’s doing everything right. He’s talking to all the department heads.
The challenge that he’s got is to distinguish between wants and needs. My philosophy has been “You pay as you go.”
Q. That goes back to my question about how your upbringing shaped who you are as a leader today.
A. Absolutely. Growing up, you didn’t have VISA. My daddy, he painted, and he stripped tobacco in the winter. You had to charge things, because you didn’t have cash flow, but you always paid it. That’s my philosophy. If you want a car, why don’t you save your money till you’ve got the money to pay for the car?
Q. What, if anything, would you tell President Trump about governing?
A. Resign. President Trump, in my opinion, has no inkling about how the average person lives.
You were talking about Second Street. I know how it is to eat mush and jowl bacon and blackberry jam and brown beans. Golly, I can’t remember a single meal where we didn’t have brown beans. I’m sure we did. … Those are the things that shape your life.