Whoa! Pull up Horse Park bill ’til audit done
The Kentucky Horse Park has come under intense and, frankly, peculiar, scrutiny in the Kentucky Senate this session, thanks to Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown.
Thayer has made vague but serious accusations about both the management of the park and the commission that oversees it, alleging political patronage in hiring and letting contracts, low morale among employees and that prices for both camping and equine events at the Horse Park have become so high they exclude some people and organizations from using the facility.
He has called for a full performance audit of the Horse Park and his Senate Bill 200 seeks to dismantle the existing 17-member commission that oversees it and replace it with a nine-member commission appointed by Gov. Matt Bevin. The bill easily passed out of the committee and the full Senate on party-line votes.
The House should slow down this train — the bill was only introduced in the Senate Feb. 12 and zipped through to passage in less than two weeks — and insist on a full vetting of Thayer’s allegations before taking action on the measure.
The first step should not be to wipe away the current commission and overhaul management but to conduct the full performance audit, which Thayer asked for and Horse Park management has welcomed.
Thayer had promised this effort late last year when former Gov. Steve Beshear in the final days of his administration appointed his wife to fill out a vacated term on the Horse Park Commission. Jane Beshear had previously served on the commission, as well as on other equine-related boards.
Another strong connection to the former governor is Horse Park executive director Jamie Link, who served as Beshear’s deputy chief of staff. Link had served as deputy executive director of the Horse Park previously and as CEO of the World Equestrian Games held there in 2010.
A 2014 audit of the Horse Park by the Finance Cabinet raised serious questions about management at the park before Link came on board. In testimony before the Senate Economic Development, Tourism and Labor Committee, Link said that his administration had corrected all the major issues addressed in the audit.
Link said that since he and his management group took over, the Horse Park’s annual deficit has dropped from $3.1 million to $1.8 million. The state General Fund contributes about $2.4 million to the park’s annual $14.5 million budget. Link said his management group had analyzed the costs of hosting events and the market competition to arrive at pricing for admissions, hosting events and camping.
None of this seemed to faze Thayer, who on the Senate floor accused Link of lying about fixing the problems in the audit. He read aloud a Feb. 25 letter, which he referred to as a “smoking gun,” from Bevin’s Finance and Administration Cabinet saying the Horse Park had not followed appropriate purchasing practices and had spent more than $500,000 with a vendor that did not have a contract during Link’s tenure.
This is indeed a tangled tale. It would be better to consider the future of this very important asset for our region and state in a reasoned manner with facts at hand than in a fevered political rush.
This story was originally published March 1, 2016 at 6:57 PM with the headline "Whoa! Pull up Horse Park bill ’til audit done."