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ONE-ON-ONE - September 2005
by Ed G. Lane
'No One Has Yet, Not Even One Time, Said Our Administration Hired an Unqualified Person'
Lieutenant Gov. Steve Pence addresses the current charges against the administration and other state issues
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Stephen B. Pence
On December 9, 2003, Stephen B. Pence became the first Republican lieutenant governor in Kentucky since 1946, serving alongside Gov. Ernie Fletcher. A native of Louisville, Pence holds Bachelor of Science and MBA degrees from Eastern Kentucky University and earned his juris doctor from the University of Kentucky. He served as assistant attorney general for Kentucky before leaving to serve in the Army as an active part of the JAG Corps. Upon return to civilian life, he became a partner in the law firm of Pedley, Zielke, Gordinier and Pence. In 2001, he was appointed as the United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky. Currently, Lieutenant Governor Pence serves as the Secretary of the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet and as chairman of the Kentucky Sports Authority. |
Ed Lane: Gov. Fletcher has added additional responsibility and authority to the position of lieutenant governor. You also serve as the Secretary of the Justice and Public Safety Cabinet. What are the key responsibilities of this cabinet?
Steve Pence: The Justice Cabinet oversees Kentucky State Police, Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement, Corrections Department, and Juvenile Justice. We also operate the Department of Criminal Justice Training in Richmond. Several other responsibilities have been added to that since restructuring. The Department of Public Advocacy now reports to the Justice Cabinet, as does our newly created office of Drug Control Policy. The Justice Cabinet is mainly involved with law enforcement-related matters and agencies.
EL: What areas demand the most of your time?
SP: I probably spend 60 percent of my time doing lieutenant governor functions and the other 40 percent as the justice secretary. The key for any cabinet secretary is to have very good people working with you, giving them the authority to make decisions, and holding them responsible.
EL: How many persons are incarcerated in the Kentucky prison system and what are the trends in prison population?
SP: Approximately 18,000. The number is high; it is trending up. That is in large part due to the increasing drug epidemic that is facing this state. Any fight on drug abuse has to involve law enforcement. That results in more arrests, more incarcerations, and that’s driving our prison population up.
EL: What options are available in lieu of incarceration?
SP: The Office of Drug Control Policy is trying to find acceptable alternatives to incarceration. I’ve said all along, we cannot incarcerate our way out of the drug problem. We have to be able to identify those individuals who will benefit from treatment. We simply cannot afford to continue to incarcerate because of the social cost and the fiscal cost. This isn’t a matter of being softer on crime, it’s being smarter on crime, incarceration and rehabilitation.
EL: Do you know the approximate average cost to incarcerate someone?
SP: It varies – it can be anywhere from $40 to $60 per day. That starts getting pretty darn expensive.
EL: What is the mission of Kentucky Vehicle Enforcement (KVE)?
SP: KVE’s main mission is to focus on commercial vehicle enforcement rather than being an all-purpose law enforcement agency. In the past, overweight coal trucks were allowed to run the highways with impunity simply because it was policy not to enforce weight limits.
When we came into office, we decided to enforce the law as it is written on the books. If the legislature wants to change the coal limits, they could do that. This has been a very successful initiative. It has saved lives, in fact. The number of fatalities due to overweight coal trucks being in collisions with other vehicles has gone down.
EL: The Office of Drug Control Policy works to reduce drugs in Kentucky. What are the office’s key initiatives?
SP: The Office of Drug Control Policy (ODCP) has probably been one of the best things that has happened during this administration. People have to understand that the drug abuse that’s going on now affects more than the one individual who does the drugs. If it’s a parent, it affects their family; if it’s a child, it affects their parents; and if you have enough of those affected, it affects their community.
EL: What is your plan to solve the drug problem?
SP: We see this as a three-prong attack. At the tip of the spear is law enforcement. But on the back end of the problem, we have to find a different way to treat these people. We cannot just incarcerate them.
We’re in the process now of opening 10 100-bed treatment facilities. We have a dozen drug courts, which have been proven to work. They reduce the recidivism rate of these offenders and help get these people reincorporated back into society, into jobs, and making them productive.
EL: How important is the school system in fighting drugs?
SP: Schools are where, if we ever win this battle, it will be won. We must get people to stop the use or to never begin drug use. That has to start at an early age; and I think that has to start within the schools. The problem as I see it is that schools do not win awards for saying, “Look, we’ve identified a drug problem and we’ve found some kids who are doing drugs. We’ve put the students in treatment.” No principal wins an award for that. Drugs are available in all schools. Drugs are out there. We need to find a way to make sure kids don’t get started.
EL: What can be done in helping school officials?
 SP: We’re studying and looking at options: How can drug testing be used? How can drug dogs be used? What public service messages do we get out there to students? We’re competing with a culture that makes drug use cool. We have to combat that.
EL: What are the top drug problem areas in the state?
SP: I don’t know that any part of the state is any worse than any other. Drugs are prevalent throughout the state. We see it a lot in the eastern part, primarily because of Operation Unite and the good job they’re doing in identifying the problem. Abuse is a problem in downtowns and urban areas, and it’s a problem in Western Kentucky.
The General Assembly did pass historic legislation where for the first time, the precursor for methamphetamine – which is pseudoephedrine and ephedrine – can no longer be bought off the shelf; it has to be bought behind the counter at the pharmacy.
EL: How did you get the new legislation passed?
SP: When the Fletcher Administration first came into office, we proposed that pseudoephedrine/ephedrine be put behind the counter at all the pharmacies. We were told point blank by many leaders on the judiciary committee that that would never ever happen. That was a clear defeat for us.
We started working right then to gather the statistics and get this problem identified. That was our goal right up until this last session when this legislation passed unanimously.
EL: On a national basis, how does Kentucky rank statistically in drug abuse?
SP: My position is that any drug abuse is unacceptable, regardless of the state’s ranking.
EL: There are about 5,000 registered sex offenders in Kentucky. One of the administration’s initiatives will be to pass new legislation to strengthen Kentucky’s sex offender laws. What specifically are you proposing?
SP: We’re approaching this in the same manner that we approached the drug problem. That is, rather than dictating from the Justice Cabinet what we think should happen, we are hosting a series of meetings throughout the state and asking prosecutors, judges, victims, advocacy and victim groups to come and tell us what it is about our laws that needs to be enhanced.
One of the first things that we want to identify is the category of offender.
Sexual predators and pedophiles are not prone to rehabilitation; they have very high recidivism rates. Knowing that, what category of offender do we identify as receiving, for a first-time offense – not a second but a first-time offense – a minimum of 25 years to serve without parole?
What type of second offender do we put in that category – if there is a second offender? For whom do we remove any possibility of parole? What category of person would be qualified for castration – either chemical or surgical? That procedure is available in Florida; it’s mandatory in some cases. Is that an alternative? What category of juvenile offender should lose his status of juvenile if he commits an adult crime?
There’re over a half-million sex offenders in the nation. Of those, probably 100,000 are not registered. How do we get a national registry that has teeth in it? In other words, if these people are required to register and they don’t, what should be the penalty? This is what I mean by getting in front of the problem. This is my passion. Let’s mobilize now. That’s why we’re taking the sex offender coalition out into the state and asking for input.
EL: I did see a recent proposal requiring sex offenders to wear an electronic device that would give his or her GPS location. Released sex offenders could be tracked at all times.
SP: That’s one of the ideas we need to study. What category of offender would be eligible? Can we get the offender to pay for electronic monitoring or be incarcerated if he doesn’t pay for it? The victims and the judges will know where the laws are weakest. These are the types of ideas we want the coalition to address.
EL: Let’s discuss the merit system. Attorney General Greg Stumbo has indicted nine state employees alleging violations of the merit system. How serious is this problem?
SP: These are misdemeanor offenses that have been alleged, but so far there have been no offenses proven. The governor has said that we have found no evidence of criminal conduct and that this issue is political. Who is right on that? Whether or not the governor is right on this being political or Mr. Stumbo is right in saying these are serious crimes, the verdict is going to be found out in fairly short order. I think most Kentuckians see the hypocrisy in this matter – they keep things in perspective. Forty percent of the people in the state are registered Republicans. When the Fletcher administration took office, only eight percent of the state employees were Republicans. That tells you something has been going on for 30 years or more regarding party affiliation.
EL: Is eight percent a real hard number?
SP: It’s probably close. I don’t know the precise percentage, but that’s the number that I’ve heard. This investigation is not about protecting merit employees. Merit employees have protection through the Personnel Review Board – they always have had that protection. It’s been used successfully for years in many cases.
This issue is about Attorney General Greg Stumbo doing his best to try to bring down and discredit a governor who came here to change the very system that the attorney general had in place for the last 30 years. He has been part of that system. My question is, can the attorney general or the speaker of the house, or any of those people who’ve been the Democrat’s party bosses, really look at the people of Kentucky and say they have never used their political influence in those 20-plus years in Frankfort to get someone a job? They surely don’t think that anybody in Kentucky believes that. The people of Kentucky are going to see this for what it is – an opportunity for Attorney General Stumbo to promote his name and to try to bring down a very popular governor. That effort is costing the state millions of dollars and thousands of law enforcement hours that could be used for real problems facing our state. That being said, eventually everyone is going to have to answer for their conduct. Indictments will have to be answered and the people in Kentucky are going to hold everyone accountable for the decisions they have made. I’m willing to be patient and see what that final result is.
EL: A state legislator estimated that approximately 60,000 people a year apply for employment with Kentucky’s state government. Out of those applications, do you think some employment procedures may have been mishandled?
SP: Kentucky has 33,000 or 35,000 employees – the number is very high. State employees were in a closed merit system until we came along. In other words, the merit system was truly limited to the Democratic machine when you have that many employees and you now say, “We’re going to level the playing field and we’re going to bring more people in to compete.”
No one has yet, not even one time, said our administration has hired an unqualified person. What the allegation has been, is that “Hey, you have brought other people into the pool that we really don’t want in the pool.” That’s the push back. Out of 33,000 employees, thousands of job openings, and thousands of hires, have been mistakes been made? I would guess someone, somewhere down the line may have made a mistake. And you know what? That’s what the Personnel Board is for. If a mistake is made, they look at it, they review it and if they think something criminal has happened, the statute says the Kentucky Personnel Cabinet refers the matter to the attorney general.
EL: Did the attorney general make indictments without the Merit System Board being involved?
SP: He did and that in itself is very telling. The attorney general decided to leap frog the Merit System Board and take this directly to the unprecedented level of calling a special grand jury to investigate misdemeanors. I have a lot of faith in the people of Kentucky. When the results come back, the people will see this for what it is – a political move against Gov. Fletcher by someone who really has zero moral authority.
EL: A couple of statewide newspapers have covered this issue extensively and have written a lot of editorials. Do you have any comment about the newspaper coverage?
SP: The papers you’re talking about are the Lexington Herald-Leader and the Louisville Courier Journal. Neither of those papers endorsed us. I don’t think they’ve ever been a friend of the administration. We didn’t come to Frankfort to whine about whether or not the newspapers liked us or didn’t like us. We came with one purpose – to improve government and change the way business is done in Frankfort. I don’t think that anyone came here with the illusion that the Fletcher administration was going to make changes and not get a lot of push-back and blow-back.
We are getting that now and are also seeing possibly a flaw in the way our system is set up – giving an attorney general of the opposing party, who is a political boss himself, the power to have a private police force investigate the executive branch. That being said, do I think we’re getting a fair shake from the newspapers? No. Am I whining about it? No. They didn’t like us, they didn’t endorse us from the very beginning and that’s just part of what we have to live with, but that shouldn’t be driving our policy anyway.
EL: Looking back when this issue first came up, do you feel there was some way you could have handled it differently or do you feel like it was pretty much destined to go the course that it’s going because of the attorney general and the newspapers?
SP: Again, I don’t know about the newspapers, they’re going to do what they’re going to do. With the attorney general, that’s simply something we cannot control. The unique issue is that the attorney general has the law enforcement capacity, he has the ability to request a grand jury, and he’s a political opponent. It’s dangerous, but people are going to see this for what it is - eventually. Someday, these allegations will be answered in a court of law, and I believe they will be shown to be political.
EL: You are a NASCAR fan. Do you feel NASCAR treated Kentucky fans fairly by failing to schedule Nextel Cup Races at the NASCAR track in Sparta, Kentucky?
SP: I am a NASCAR fan and I will tell you I believe that there is no finer facility for a Nextel Cup Race than Jerry Carroll’s Kentucky Speedway. It appears to me the track owners were left no choice but to try and bust up what they have called a monopoly to spread and share this market, which is hugely popular everywhere, but it’s very popular here in Kentucky. A Nextel Cup Race would do for Kentucky in Northern Kentucky what the Derby does for Louisville. If you’ve ever been to a cup event, it is not a one-day or two-day event, it is a week-long event. I don’t want to see this come to Kentucky just because I like NASCAR, I want to see this come to Kentucky because it would be an economic boon to Kentucky.
EL: How is the Louisville Arena site-selection effort progressing?
SP: Being from Louisville, the arena is of particular interest to me and I really appreciate the governor letting me chair that task force. As a non-voting member, I’m really the governor’s eyes and ears on that task force. Louisville is the single largest economic engine in this state. The arena will help boost the economic power from that engine. The new arena has to meet three tests. The arena must not only benefit Louisville, it also has to benefit the taxpayers of the state, and take care of the University of Louisville’s needs. UofL will be the home tenant – the main tenant – of this arena.
Trying to fit all of those together is like working on a Rubik’s Cube. We will have a recommendation to the governor by October 1. There is a great group of people on the task force. The arena will be one of the highlights of our administration.
Ed G. Lane is chief executive of Lane Consultants Inc. and publisher
of The Lane Report.
edlane@lanereport.com
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