As the fifth annual National Whistleblower Day winds to a close, we recognize the contribution of the women and men who have exposed misconduct, fraud, and wrongdoing in government at great personal risk.

National Whistleblower Day commemorates the enactment by the US Continental Congress of the first whistleblower law on July 30, 1778. That law recognized that "it is the duty of all persons in the service of the United States, as well as all inhabitants thereof, to give the earliest information of wrongdoing to Congress or other proper authority of any misconduct, frauds, or misdemeanors committed by any officers or persons in the service of these states, which may come to their knowledge."

Since the date was first celebrated in 2015, efforts have been underway to persuade Congress to formally and permanently recognize July 30 as National Whistleblower Day.

Our posts have documented numerous instances of women and men who attempted to call attention to public agency misconduct and agency efforts to silence them.

https://www.facebook.com/419650175248377/posts/449087908971270?s=184659…

Here are a few others.

A Franklin Circuit Court jury recently awarded Kentucky Labor Cabinet employee, Michael Donta, a $500,000 award in a whistleblower action for wrongful firing after he reported improprieties in a state nursing apprenticeship program.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.courier-journal.com/amp/1827923001

In March 2019, former Department of Corrections Commissioner Jim Erwin filed a whistleblower action against the Justice Cabinet after he was fired for disagreeing with the Cabinet's handling of internal affairs investigations.

https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/crime/2019/03/05/kentucky-pr…

In 2018, Legislative Research Commission employees Daisy Olivo and Brad Metcalf filed whistleblower actions against the LRC after they were fired for reporting that a 19 year old House staffer had been sexually harassed by three lawmakers.

https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article222450455.html

In November 2017, Matthew Selph, former assistant executive director of the State Board of Elections, filed a whistleblower suit against the board after he was fired. He maintained that the firing was motivated by his reports of multiple violations of law.

http://kentuckytoday.com/stories/former-state-board-of-elections-offici…

In June 2017, an employee of the Administrative Office of the Courts, Scott Brown, filed a whistleblower action against AOC after he was suspended. He alleged that the disciplinary action was prompted by his report of waste and fraud relating to no-bid contracts, use of state vehicles, and double payments on janitorial contracts, among other things.

https://www.courthousenews.com/whistleblower-suit-filed-kentucky-court-…

In November 2016, an attorney in the Attorney General's Office, Lainie Kaiser, filed a whistleblower action when she was fired one week after raising concerns about discriminatory pay policies.

https://amp.courier-journal.com/amp/95207446

In late 2015, two Public Protection Cabinet attorneys, Kimberly Whitley and Jacqueline Heyman, filed whistleblower actions against the Cabinet after they were retaliated against for reporting Cabinet employees' use of state time and offices to conduct private businesses, including a business that involved the sale of sex toys.

https://amp.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article48012705.html

Kentucky's whistleblower law is codified at KRS 61.102. As construed by the courts, it establishes a four part test: 1) the employer is an officer of the state; 2) the employee is employed by the state; 3)the employee made, or attempted to make, a good faith report or disclosure of a suspected violation of state or local law to an appropriate body or authority; and 4) the employer took action or threatened to take action to discourage the employee from making such a disclosure or to punish the employee for making such a disclosure.

https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=40158

Clearly, the law has been given a work out in the past few years. Some cases are stronger than others. No case should be filed unadvisedly. Public agencies go to extraordinary lengths to discredit employees who, in many cases, are already traumatized.

But whistleblowers play a vital role in exposing public agency wrongdoing and shining a light on agency officials intent on covering up that wrongdoing, penalizing the whistleblower, and perpetuating a "culture of secrecy."

Like open government advocates, whistleblowers serve the public interest by exposing waste, fraud, abuse, and violations of the law and thus promote better government.