AG: Bevin's acts threaten 'our very liberty'

FRANKFORT, Ky. – Saying Gov. Matt Bevin's recent reorganization orders amount to a dangerous power grab that "threatens our very liberty," Attorney General Andy Beshear announced Wednesday he is going to court to block changes Bevin ordered on Friday to the University of Louisville Board of Trustees and the Kentucky Retirement Systems Board.

"Gov. Bevin's executive orders eviscerate or rewrite all of these statutes passed by an elected General Assembly and they continue an unmistakable pattern of reorganization right before major decisions need to be made so, apparently, the governor can control those decisions, not the board, " Beshear said at a news conference in the Capitol.

The pattern, Beshear said, shows "these reorganizations are not about efficiency. They are about power. They are about control."

Bevin's 7 reorganizations in past 2 months

Bevin Communications Director Jessica Ditto  responded in a statement that called Beshear's action "purely political in nature." She said Beshear is being hypocritical because Beshear's own father, former Gov. Steve Beshear, "relied on the exact same authority" Bevin is now using to issue more than 100 reorganization orders while he was governor from 2007-2015.

But Andy Beshear said there is at least one vital distinction between how prior governors have ordered reorganizations and what Bevin is doing.

"What's unprecedented here is a governor doing it in a pattern not to increase efficiency but to assert control, doing it in a pattern of reorganizing boards right before major decisions," Beshear said. He said Bevin abolished the U of L Board as it was trying to decide on how to cope with budget cuts, whether to raise tuition and the fate of President James Ramsey.

At U of L, an ad hoc group of 47 faculty members who oppose Bevin's move said in a statement that they were "gratified" that Beshear had decided to intervene and warned that the governor's appointment of 10 new board members would endanger the university's  accreditation, making courses "meaningless and degrees worthless."

Some members of the Faculty Senate Executive Committee Wednesday said the faculty should ignore Bevin's action as illegal, and the committee agreed the full Senate would hold an emergency meeting June 29 to consider measures denouncing the move. One speaker said the reorganization was merely a cover to allow Ramsey to get rid of critics on the board of trustees, while another questioned whether Ramsey should "serve another day" given his support for the governor's effort to undermine academic independence at the university.

But Ron Butt, one of Ramsey's supporters on the former board, called Beshear's lawsuit "politics as usual," while another, Dr. Bob Hughes, said it was unfortunate. "It is way past time to let the University of Louisville begin to function again by focusing on teaching and research," Hughes said. And it's "time to respect the current governor’s attempts to solve these problems he inherited."

Beshear also warned that the governor's actions may threaten the "very accreditation of the university itself."

"Teachers and students rightfully argue that if the governor can take the action he's taken, he can remove that board at any time he disagrees with a decision," Beshear said. "That not only makes him the de facto president and de facto board at U of L, it makes him the de facto president and board of every public university."

Beshear said "even more dangerous" have been Bevin orders affecting the retirement systems board just before it was to elect a chairman and vice chairman. More dangerous, Beshear said, because Bevin's actions "put the $16 billion of investments and assets controlled by that board directly under the control of this governor."

This raises "a whole host of conflict issues," Beshear said, "especially for a governor whose financial statement lists companies that are involved in pensions and pension management."

Beshear also said Bevin abolished and appointed a new Horse Park Commission just as it was to hire a new executive director and overhauled the Workers' Compensation Nominating Commission amid its work to nominate several candidates to the governor for appointment as judges who oversee workers' comp claims.

Beshear speculated on the possible bad effects of a governor using such executive orders to seize immediate control of other boards, such as the Board of Elections, Kentucky Registry of Election Finance or boards that award incentives for economic development projects.

"Simply put, the governor's claim of power here threatens our very liberty," he said.

But in her statement, Ditto said, "Gov. Bevin will continue to do the job he was elected to do. Attorney General Beshear's frivolous political lawsuits will not deter the Bevin Administration from working to fix Kentucky's economy, protect the pensions of teachers and state workers, and clean up the mess and corruption left behind by the previous administration."

Beshear will not initiate his challenge to Bevin's reorganization of the U of L and retirement systems boards as a new lawsuit but instead said he will intervene in a pending lawsuit against Bevin challenging his reorganization of the Retirement Systems Board.

Reporter Tom Loftus can be reached at 502-875-5136 or tloftus@courier-journal.com. Reporter Andrew Wolfson contributed to this story.