Senators rail against Beshear KET appointments, which include his own comms director
The Kentucky Senate passed a bill on Wednesday that would boot all governor-appointed members of the board that oversees Kentucky Educational Television (KET) and make all new governor appointments subject to Senate approval.
High among the concerns of GOP Senators were two people on the KET board closely aligned with Beshear’s office: Crystal Staley, the governor’s communications director, and Leah Adkins, the wife of top Beshear advisor and former House Democratic leader Rocky Adkins. Senate Bill 104 from Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Lietchield, would yank both of them, as well as three others, from the Kentucky Educational Television Authority Board.
The bill passed on a party line in the GOP-controlled Senate, 30-6.
Staley was appointed last Summer while Leah Adkins was appointed to the board in September 2020.
“This board is being politicized and polarized. This puts a stopgap in place to make sure that we protect this critical resource for Kentucky,” Meredith said.
Senate Bill 104 also outlines requirements for gubernatorial appointees to the KET board. It establishes that the appointees reflect equal sex representation and a political makeup that’s proportional to the representation of registered Republicans and Democrats in Kentucky. Appointees cannot have been employed by the Executive Branch within a year of their appointment. No more than two can be from the same Kentucky Supreme Court District.
Currently, five spots on the nine-member board are to be appointed by the governor. The bill does not change that.
Senate Minority Caucus Chair Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, said the bill was taking KET “in the wrong direction.”
“The truth of the matter is that there’s nothing polarizing about what KET has done now… I don’t see why now, today, we want to make KET’s board a partisan issue. It’s not broke. It doesn’t need fixing,” Thomas said.
Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, criticized the bill as an example of “petty politics.”
“Why are we going to politicize something that has so far been able to stay out of the fray?” Berg asked.
The governor’s office responded via spokesperson Scottie Ellis.
“There have been concerns over the last several years that the General Assembly has been pressuring KET and this latest effort appears to be another attempt to control the organization through this action. Former Gov. Bevin appointed numerous cabinet secretaries and officials to a number of boards – including university boards – and neither the bill sponsors or any of their colleagues objected,” Ellis wrote.
One former communications director was appointed to a key board in the recent past. Republican Gov. Matt Bevin appointed his former communications director, Amanda Stamper, to the Kentucky Board of Education. Bevin also appointed cabinet head Derrick Ramsey to the University of Kentucky board of trustees while he was serving as a cabinet head.
Republicans on the Senate floor said that it was Democrats who politicized the board by appointing such prominent Democratic-aligned people.
“The perception and the potential for the governor’s communications director and the wife of his senior advisor being on the board that governs (KET) is a problem… This board has already been politicized. This excellent bill has a new and thoughtful approach,” Senate Majority Leader Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, said.
A spokesperson for KET, Todd Piccirilli, said that the bill “sounds reasonable,” and that Meredith had responded positively to some concerns the organization forwarded.
Aside from Staley and Adkins, other gubernatorial appointees who would be booted from the board include board chair G. Dan Griffith, of Owensboro; Jay Mehta, of Paducah; and Robert Beck, of Lexington.
The bill would allow the gubernatorial appointees kicked out to be reappointed subject to Senate confirmation. It would also mandate that the representative from the University of Kentucky be elected by the board of trustees and that the appointees reflect the minority composition of Kentucky.
“I find it interesting that I’ve been accused of politicizing this board when we’ve changed it to make sure that the representation of the board represents both parties,” Meredith said. “… We’re recognizing race, we’re recognizing gender, we’re recognizing geographic diversity in this state.”
Others on the board include Karyn Hoover, wife of former Republican House Speaker Jeff Hoover; vice-chair David Couch, from the Kentucky Department of Education; and Kevin Weaver, of Lexington.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to accurately report Senate Minority Caucus Chair Reggie Thomas’s political party.
This story was originally published March 2, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
