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Testimony on ethics charges to resume in Danville

August 09, 2008|BOBBIE CURD

Three of the ethics charges filed against Mayor Hugh Coomer by three city commissioners are still unheard, and testimony is planned to resume during the last week of August.

The remaining charges allege that Coomer: threatened the city manager's position during a private meeting; made an unauthorized appointment to the beautification committee after rejecting the Heart of Danville's recommendation; and submitted an intentional misrepresentation of the approved beautification committee plan for the use of $20,000 in grant money available through the Transportation Equity Act.

The hearing will resume at 9 a.m. on Aug. 25 in city hall.

The Danville Board of Ethics began hearing testimony on July 28, but because the hearing was held the same afternoon as a regularly scheduled City Commission meeting and apparently ran longer than expected, it was continued. The date of resumption was left undetermined due to scheduling conflicts.

The board was able to complete three hours of testimony on four charges, with attorneys calling five witnesses.

Coomer, City Engineer Earl Coffey, City Manager Paul Stansbury, a contractor and a local business owner all took the stand. Bill Johnson of Lexington is serving as counsel for Coomer, and the city is being represented by Bryan Bowman of the Lexington firm Sturgill, Barker, Turner & Maloney.

Listing of charges

The charges that were heard allege that the mayor: specifically directed the city engineer to ignore the official action of the City Commission regarding demolition of the old building at Cowan Street Park; conducted one-on-one interviews with candidates during the hiring of both the city manager and the police chief outside agreed upon and adopted hiring procedures of the City Commission; signed a letter of intent, without authority, to apply for grant funds on behalf of Pioneer Playhouse; and interrupted and interfered with the contractor performing the streetscape work at the corner of Second and Main streets, resulting in the contractor leaving the job.

Commissioners Janet Hamner, Terry Crowley and Kevin Caudill filed the complaint accusing Coomer of ethics violations, which originally consisted of 10 counts. Commissioner Norma Gail Louis refused to sign the document.

Two counts were dismissed after a preliminary hearing determined that neither was filed within the one-year statute of limitations, and a third was deemed unfounded.

The two charges that were dismissed alleged that Coomer met with the Kentucky League of Cities in early 2007 without city staff present, and that a resulting meeting was set up with an insurance agency in April 2007.

The unfounded charge accused Coomer of attempting to influence recent appointments of two new members to the ethics board. During the preliminary hearing, the board's chairman, Jim Sullivan, said Coomer did contact him to remind him of two openings on the board after the appointments did not happen in the required time frame when the terms expired.

Sullivan said Coomer never mentioned any charges against him, and neither of the two names mentioned by Coomer were appointed.

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