Published: March 21, 2008 10:54 pm            

War of words

Williams: Moberly’s position a conflict

FRANKFORT — State Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, and state Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, are having a war of words days before a conference committee is scheduled to discuss the state budget.

Williams alleged Thursday that Moberly, who is chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations and Revenue, may be unintentionally violating ethics laws by participating in the budget process as a high-ranking official at Eastern Kentucky University.

Moberly, who has been at EKU for more than 20 years, was serving as director of student judicial affairs and disabilities before being promoted in the fall to executive vice president for administration by new President Doug Whitlock.

The Senate this week passed an amended version of House Bill 250, an ethics measure that would prevent legislators from discussing or voting on bills that contain the names of their employers.

The legislative ethics code currently does not allow lawmakers to vote on matters that directly benefit them, family members or business associates.

“If Eastern Kentucky University were named in the budget, Harry Moberly could not participate,” if HB 250 becomes law, Williams said.

“I believe that if anyone filed an ethics complaint against Harry Moberly now that he would be in violation,” he said.

Williams said he does not believe Moberly, who he called “the darling of the liberal establishment in this state,” has intentionally done anything inappropriate or unethical, but it does not change the fact that his employment at EKU and his stature in the legislature is a conflict of interest.

“I’ve been at the conference table many times when he has stood up to have things added for Eastern Kentucky University in the budget,” he said. “That’s just the way it is. If he doesn’t get what he wants in the budget, nobody else is going to get what they want.”

“Everyone’s afraid of him on various issues because he holds the budget hammer over there,” Williams said.

Moberly called the allegations made by Williams “lies” Friday during a press conference conducted in the office of House Speaker Jody Richards.

“I have never ever at any time disrupted any conference committee because of anything that EKU had on their priority list,” he said. “That is a total falsehood. David Williams is the great disrupter of conference committees. He’s the reason we did not get a budget in 2002 or 2004 when he walked out over issues that were not even budgetary issues.”

“You can ask any university president. I work equally for all higher education,” Moberly said. “My first priority in all budgets has always been elementary and secondary (education). It’s my first priority in this budget.”

As a long-time EKU employee, Moberly questioned why Williams would bring this issue up now, suggesting that it is a retaliatory attack stemming from his refusal to hear a Williams-sponsored bill in his committee.

“He’s bringing it up now because I killed Senate Bill 1,” Moberly said. “It was to be the marquee bill of the session. It guts education reform. It does away with CATS testing, and he decided to get back at me through the ethics bill.”

“The biggest problem now is that absolute power corrupts absolutely,” he said. “He has no opposition in his caucus in the Senate. He has evolved into an egomaniacal dictator.”

Describing Williams as “like a little petulant kid who doesn’t get their way,” Moberly said Williams is the one with ethical issues.

“Senator Williams is the one who got taken to the ethics committee for soliciting lobbyists and got out of it because his staff took the blame for it,” he said. “So he’s the one who skates on thin ice with ethics.”

Numerous university presidents also have said that Moberly’s EKU and legislative relationship is inappropriate, Williams said, before admitting that they likely would not go on record because they are afraid of retribution.

Whitlock disagreed that there is a conflict of interest and said other university presidents know they have Moberly’s support.

“In my view, a conflict of interest in this situation would require that Harry had done something that benefits Eastern disproportionately compared to the other institutions,” he said. “In my view, I don’t think that’s the case. I don’t believe that’s the case among the other university presidents. To a person, I think they value Harry’s support of all higher education and all of education.”

“It’s understandable, I guess, that the question come up, but I think the record documents that Harry has dealt with things before him in a fair and even-handed manner,” Whitlock said. “I regret very much that these issues have been raised.”

State Sen. Ed Worley, D-Richmond, stood up for Moberly.

“It is clearly not a conflict of interest and there is an ethics opinion that has been issued to that effect,” he said. “We have talked to Tony Wilhoit at the ethics commission (Friday) and Tony concurs. This doesn’t have anything to do with this.”

“This is just another political squabble,” Worley said. “It is a tough game down there. It’s not for everybody. It will resolve itself Tuesday when the conference committee starts. Harry and I will both be in the conference committee, as well will be Senator Williams, and we’ll work together. I predict that they’ll be a budget.”

Richards, who called Moberly “a treasure in the state,” also showed his support.

“He’s generally respected as the person who knows more about the budget than anybody in the state,” he said. “Harry Moberly has not tried to help Eastern anymore than we’ve tried to help all of our universities.”

What effect the ethics discussion will have on the ability to pass a state budget remains to be seen.

“The people of the commonwealth would be greatly disadvantaged if we had to shut down part of the state government,” Moberly said. “I’m going to put this bitterness aside and act in good faith and not go in there with a chip on my shoulder. We have an obligation to people of the commonwealth to work out a budget, and that’s what we need to do.”

Richards echoed the importance of the state passing a budget.

“We’re all big boys and girls,” he said. “We need to remember why we were elected in the first place. We wanted to come here and help our great commonwealth of Kentucky.

“We’ve got to keep that in our thoughts and move forward and put all this preconference committee rhetoric behind us and do the people’s work,” Richards said. “That exactly what we intend to do.”

Bryan Marshall can be reached at bmarshall@richmondregister.com or 624-6691.

        

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