Mike Green's term on the Kentucky Board of Home Inspectors ("KBHI") ended.
It's over, the Governor's Office ruled Thursday. Green is not "reappointed," as some blurbs mistakenly said. He's gone. In fact, he was gone on July 15. Serving after then was prohibited by law.
Green's exit also provides an example to follow, courtesy of Gov. Beshear. The new KBHI would be wise to follow it, and Kentucky's home inspecting law.
The story is simple as can be. So is the law involved.
A few days ago, a news release went out naming new appointments to the KBHI. It included Mike Green, who already had been on the board 6 straight years.
Whoops. State law is crystal clear. "A member shall not serve on the board for more than six (6) consecutive years." KRS 198B.704(7). That 6-year term limit ruled Green out.
PLI knew it was a mistake, so PLI held this newsletter, for the mistake to be corrected. It is as important to get the news right as it is to get the law right.
The Governor's Office caught the flub almost instantly. The next day, the error was corrected.
Boards & Commissions, which oversees such things in the Governor's Office, shot out a note: "Upon review, David [aka "Mike"] Green has completed all eligible terms to this board," the memo said. "We will begin a search for his replacement."
The Governor's Communications Director put out the news the same day.
End result: Green is off the KBHI. But can he keep showing up?
"We have addressed this matter. Mr. Green will be replaced and although, as a member of the public, he may attend the meetings, he will no longer be a member of the board," Boards & Commissions wrote.
Now, really, it was simple to figure out what a one sentence statute like KRS 198B.704(7) means. So this is not about brilliant legal work by some policy wonk in the Governor's Office. (The error was partly due to a computer glitch, and partly because neither Green nor the KBHI was straight with the Governor's Office. In fact, the KBHI specifically told a OOPs staffer not to bring it up with Boards & Commissions. But that's another story.)
The heart of this short story really is about the honesty and responsibility it takes to admit an error and promptly correct it. That's leadership, and character.
The Governor's Office got it right. They goofed. OK. Poopey happens.
The instant they realized it, they admitted it and they fixed it.
It does not get much better than that. That's the way it's supposed to work.
Gov. Beshear often says he "leads by example."
Everybody makes mistakes. Here is a picture perfect "example" of what to do then. It is an example the new KBHI can follow too.
The KBHI dodged the term limit law for months. For a board that exists solely to administer the home inspection law, that was opposite the Governor's example, and leadership. The Governor, and the people of this state, trusted the KBHI to carry out the law -- fairly and impartially. An (unlikely) acknowledgment from the KBHI that it erred would be a step in the right direction. It is critical for the KBHI to set the example for obeying the law, if it is to claim any moral authority to expect that home inspectors do.
The Governor's Office, and its Boards and Commissions crew, learned the KBHI avoided checking with Boards & Commissions, starting last July, when Green's 6-year term limit first came up.
Green's sixth year on the board ended July 15. The KBHI meeting that month was July 19. Green could have prevented all this right then. So could the KBHI. They both can read. Instead, they picked scofflaw, and waltzed themselves, and their governor, into the breach.
Knowing his term ended July 15 also did not stop Green from showing up, pretending to be a member of the board. Then all the other board members let Green sit at the table. That misconduct turned it into a big deal, when just obeying the law was simple.
Even after the entire statute - all 15 words of it - was read out loud at the July meeting, and again at the August meeting, the KBHI played Sgt. Schuklz. "A member shall not serve on the board for more than six (6) consecutive years" supposedly was a stumper. Really?
Looking for any excuse, some board members wanted to hide behind the board lawyer. The board is well aware its lawyer routinely gets it wrong. The board needs to hire a law firm that understands the law because it might save money. The board also could have asked for a written legal opinion. The fact that it did not get a written opinion speaks volumes.
More important, the whole idea is dead wrong. Lawyers and staffers are not responsible. The KBHI, only the KBHI, is responsible. No one else is. That's the job.
The Governor appoints board members for their own judgement and wisdom. If he, or the General Assembly, wanted someone else making KBHI decisions, the law would say so and the Governor would appoint them. If a board member wants somebody else to make decisions, then quit and get the governor to appoint them.
Board members are there to know the law they administer, and be the experts carrying it out. Not to avoid it. Dodging the law only squanders more home inspector license fees.
Already the KBHI wasted hundreds of thousands of inspector license fees, by far the majority of the fees it collected. The cash was lost in budget "sweeps" that never would have happened if the KBHI spent it - as it was supposed to - on public awareness, and PR, and marketing to educate the public, for example.
Now the KBHI has to cope with a series of motions and votes it let Green make, knowing he was prohibited from serving when his 6 years expired, in July.
In the October meeting, for example, Green made or "seconded" almost a half-dozen motions -- impossible, of course, for a faux member, forbidden to serve.
Green made motions to (1) have the board lawyer rework a regulation; (2) hand the board lawyer a trip to Florida with half the cost of a seminar that has nothing to do with home inspection; and (3) take adverse action on a pair of license applications. Motions can only be made by board members. Obviously.
Green also voted on at least one decision (to lobby for a change in the home inspection laws) where his vote made the difference between the motion passing or failing. But, of course, Green had no vote to cast after his six years ended his term.
He also voted repeatedly, in three meetings after his term expired, to pay himself -- as the board member he was not -- for his daily fee, expenses, and travel. So the KBHI gets to waste more time and money unwinding that that mess too, and get the money back. State Auditor Crit Luallen just audited one board at OOPs (the Office of Occupations & Professions), turning up tons of trouble.
The auditor's report on OOPs, the same state agency that houses the KBHI, found two "material weakness." "Material weakness" are the most serious.
The audit found OOPs "does not consistently retain original documentation and does not properly monitor expenditures or revenues from license fees for the board. For example, the audit found that board members' travel vouchers - approximately 53 totaling $6,800 - were paid without proper approval by O&P between July 2009 and May 2010." OOPs has a new Executive Director, and Deputy, now. In fact, it was the new Deputy who volunteered to check on Green's term limit with Boards & Commissions. He should have.
The audit also found that the board involved, the State Board for Proprietary Education (which Green arranged to have oversee some home inspector schools) was "inadequate" at the job and "lacks a clear understanding of its role and lacks any historical knowledge of ongoing issues facing the board."
If it's not too late, the KBHI would be smart to see if can avoid being the State Auditor's next OOPs audit - starting with Green's unlawful payments.
All of this is trouble the KBHI makes for itself. It's a nuisance and a headache. All of it costs home inspectors money. Nobody's perfect, it is unbelievable that no one on the KBHI could figure out the meaning of "a member shall not serve on the board for more than six (6) consecutive years." Just count six fingers.
The KBHI even let Green make the October motion, and then vote for it, to nearly triple KBHI pay and have the lawyer push another regulation to pull it off.
That's one more way the new KBHI might think about leading by example - and following the Governor's. The Governor, and the Attorney General, cut their pay this year.
If the honor of being asked by the Governor to serve our Commonwealth on the board is not enough, maybe board members ought to be doing something else. Public service is about pitching in, and serving our community - not about the pay. No one was appointed to see how much money they could grab. There are plenty of people happy to take any unhappy appointee's place, and accept the honor the people bestowed by entrusting them to fairly, selflessly carry out home inspecting law.
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