Fayette’s judge executive should not have sole power to fill county clerk vacancy

The vacancy appointment of a new Fayette County Clerk — prompted by the recent resignation of Don Blevins Jr. —should not be in the hands of the one-person, Fayette County Judge Executive (FCJE).

In 118 of Kentucky’s 120 counties, County Clerks, Sheriffs and County Attorney offices operate under control of fiscal courts, headed by Judge Executives.

Since the merger of the city of Lexington and Fayette County in 1974, this has not been the case. Our Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, headed by our Mayor, makes ordinances and reviews budgeted spending operations of the County Clerk and other Constitutional offices.

Perhaps the vestigial FCJE office should be abolished, but, at least, this appointment power should be curtailed or removed legislatively.

Our fiscal court is composed of three commissioners, each paid a paltry $150 each year to attend three meetings to distribute a very small budget for county (primarily paving for old rural) roads, along with our FCJE. The FCJE office, budgeted at $9000 here, with a few legal duties, is relatively insignificant and should logically defer to the Mayor and/or Council, at least for vetting and other guidance in important appointments.

The offices of Fayette County Clerk, Sheriff and County Attorney employ many hundreds of employees, all significant to our community’s welfare, and cost us many millions of dollars of precious tax money.

In 2010, I announced there would be no such appointments during my term, when I ran for and won election to be your FCJE. Twice since then, I have tried to bring this issue to the attention of the public, with little, if any, media coverage. But now, the unexpected resignation of our County Clerk, suddenly (and perhaps suspiciously) within a couple of weeks after having been re-elected, demands that I respond to the potential for public harm should we have more “back room deals” and nepotism in these vacancy appointments.

We should notice that these appointments have gone on in the past, with possibly questionable results, since other qualified candidates were kept out of the closed door loop. This resigning County Clerk, Don Blevins, Jr. was named to this position by former FCJE, Sandy Varellas, to replace his father, Don Blevins Sr. (for supposed health reasons), two years after Blevins Sr. had been elected to a four- year term — along with her vacancy appointments of three Sheriffs and a County Attorney.

I am relatively unfamiliar with our new FCJE, and even though she claimed that Don Blevins, Sr., solicited her to run for her office, I must give her the benefit of doubt to believe she will do what is right.

Citizens should watch to see how transparent this vacancy appointment process will be:

▪ Are applications and credentials available to the public?

▪ Has each serious candidate been vetted by the city’s Public Protection Commissioner for criminal history?

▪ Has the city’s Human Resource Office provide relevant information for public review?

▪ Should our Human Rights Commission be involved?

▪ Should the Council have hearings to make suggestions/recommendations or insist on one applicant?

▪ Should the Mayor have some veto power over the selection? Even after an appointment, will some be encouraged to say the “fix” is in?

▪ Which other elected county officials will resign now, and who will they try to put in their place?

Stay tuned.

Jon Larson is a Lexington attorney who has twice served as Fayette County Judge Executive.