The Kentucky Senate has mastered yet another method of perpetuating the status quo, silencing potential critics, and hiding the truth.
In a vote on adoption of a resolution to confirm two gubernatorial nominees to board and commissions, Senate resolution sponsor Robert Stivers refused to “yield to questions” from other senators concerning the individual nominees and why he was going to such extraordinary lengths to orchestrate their rejection on the floor of the Senate.
https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/record/22rs/sr138.html
It’s a stomach turning experience to observe the Senate President abuse his power to advance his agenda in defiance of — in at least one of the two cases — the constituents who elected that nominee to represent them.
Brian Mackey threatens the status quo at the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, and it’s governing commission, because he has dared, and dares, to shine a light on the department and commission.
Mackey made public records requests. He attended public meetings. He reached out to me, as many others across the state do, for explanation of Kentucky’s open government laws and the increasing restrictions on those laws (also orchestrated by lawmakers).
We may not share a love of hunting and fishing, but we share a belief in open, accountable government.
Before his nomination, Mackey received an adverse ruling from the Kentucky Attorney General in an open records appeal involving an issue of tremendous public importance. He expressly declined to pursue the matter through the courts after his nomination, hoping to affect positive change to the department and commission from within rather than challenging them from without.
https://ag.ky.gov/Resources/orom/2021/21-ORD-127.pdf
Knowing the threat to open government the Attorney General’s position represented, the Kentucky Open Government Coalition later filed a separate request for records of the Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission and was denied access. We — not Mackey — appealed.
https://kyopengov.org/blog/kentucky-open-government-coalition-appeals-c…
Mackey is not a party to the Coalition’s ongoing judicial challenge to one of the single gravest threats to open government in the Commonwealth: the ability of public officials to evade open records and meetings by conducting the public’s business on their private devices and accounts.
But senators were denied this and other pertinent information when Stivers refused to “yield to [their] questions].” Some spoke on Mackey’s behalf — Senators Hornback, Parrett, and Webb — those who actually know him and understand his commitment to changing the culture at the department and on the commission—something Kentucky Auditor Mike Harmon called for in his 2018 audit of Fish and Wildlife. One senator passed because she lacked sufficient information about Mackey to cast an informed vote (thanks to Stivers’ vengeful silence).. Mackey’s nomination was defeated by a vote of 10-21.
By hook or by crook, lawmakers seem intent on silencing the public’s voice and undermining the public’s right to know. Brian Mackey is the latest casualty.
Mackey will not be silenced.
