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KY: House panel backs adult abuse registry bill

FRANKFORT, KY. — The House Health and Welfare Committee passed a bill Thursday to create an adult abuse registry, something long sought by advocates as a way to better protect elderly and vulnerable adults.

House Bill 259, sponsored by Rep. Ruth Ann Palumbo, D-Lexington, won unanimous approval and now goes to the full House, which passed a similar measure last year. It failed to pass the Senate.

HB 259 would create a registry similar to the existing child abuse registry, where adults found to have abused or neglected children are listed. People on that registry are barred from working in positions around children, such as at day care centers.

An adult abuse registry could be used by prospective employers, such as home health or personal care agencies, that hire people to care for adults. Employers could check the registry to determine whether an individual had been found to have abused, neglect or exploited an elderly or vulnerable adult.

Gov. Steve Beshear made the creation of such a registry a priority in his budget address earlier this month and proposes including $2.2 million over the next two years to develop and operate the registry within the Cabinet for Health and Family Services.

Also on Thursday, the committee heard from a Lexington-based home health care agency that reported significant problems under the state’s new managed care system for Medicaid that took effect Nov. 1.

Representatives of Nurses Registry and Home Health, which provides Medicaid-funded home-health services for elderly people and disabled children, said they have been confronted by major problems in filing claims, getting services authorized and getting payment under the new system in which the state relies on three private companies to handle Medicaid services.

Pat Hagan, who manages children’s services for the nursing agency that serves patients in 16 counties, said many claims aren’t getting paid and she’s concerned about how long the agency can keep serving severely disabled children.

“A lot of children depend on what we do,” she said.

The agency is one of several providers that have approached lawmakers during the session to report problems with the new managed care system, which serves about 560,000 Medicaid members outside the Louisville region. Passport Health Plan, a separate non-profit manages care company, serves about 170,000 Medicaid members in Jefferson and 15 surrounding counties.

No representatives of the three managed care companies spoke at Thursday’s hearing.

Committee chairman Tom Burch, D-Louisville, said the committee may take the matter up next week if the problems aren’t resolved.

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KY: Kentucky State Auditor Adam Edelen to audit indigent-care fund

State Auditor Adam Edelen said Thursday he will conduct a financial review and management audit of the trust that funnels more than $30 million in state and local indigent-care funds to University Hospital.

And Edelen said he will also explore the broader question of “whether there are adequate resources to treat indigents in the Louisville area,” an issue in the recent debate over a proposed merger that would have included the safety-net hospital.

Questions about the oversight of the Quality and Charity Care Trust were raised earlier this month by County Attorney Mike O’Connell, who disclosed that its board, appointed by the University of Louisville, had not met in more than two years.

A day later, U of L President James Ramsey asked Edelen to review the trust’s financial reports, although he noted that no one has ever questioned whether any funds were misspent.

But Edelen said in a statement that his review will go beyond the indigent-care trust’s finances and examine whether its “governance structure provides sufficient oversight” of the tax dollars it disburses.

Edelen spokeswoman Stephenie Steitzer said the failure to hold board meetings twice a year as required by the trust’s bylaws “begs the question as to whether there is a proper and effective governance structure in place.” She said the management audit will consider whether the trust has “proper transparency and accountability measures.”

Until recently the indigent-care trust and its unpaid board of directors, appointed by the U of L Board of Trustees, have drawn little attention, perhaps because the trust’s role is so limited.

In a decades-old arrangement, the trust receives about $25 million a year from the state and about $7 million in local funds — currently from Louisville Metro Government — and passes it to University Hospital to help pay for treating poor uninsured patients.

In recent years that money has fallen far short of covering the cost of that care, even when supplemented by other federal indigent-care funds, according to hospital officials.

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KY: Bills seek to abolish office of constables

Kentucky voters will get to decide if they want to do away with county constables if either of two bills proposed by a pair of Jefferson County legislators is approved by the General Assembly.

State Rep. Joni Jenkins, D-Shively, and state Sen. Julie Denton, R-Louisville, have both proposed legislation that would amend the Kentucky Constitution to abolish the office of constable. If either bill passes, the question will be posed to voters in a ballot referendum.

Kentucky's 1850 Constitution created the office of constable and requires the election of one constable in each magisterial district. Warren County has six constables.

"Constables play a vital role throughout our state in deterring crime in eyes and boots on the ground," said Rick Bruce, Warren County's District Four constable.

Bruce also is president of the Warren County Constable Association, a group he and two other Warren County constables created for themselves and their deputy constables last year to ensure that members conduct themselves professionally and adhere to the Constable's Code of Ethics as established by the National Constables & Marshals Association.

Constables are recognized under state law as law enforcement officers. Unlike police officers, constables are elected but are not paid. They pay for their own training, uniforms, cars, gasoline, weapons and other equipment. Constables can charge fees for certain services, such as serving legal papers or taking patients from places such as LifeSkills to mental health facilities. But those fees typically don't cover the costs associated with the tasks.

Both Jenkins and Denton cite a shooting in Louisville last year that involved a Jefferson County constable as the final straw in inspiring their legislation.

"I'm very concerned that once these folks are elected, they are automatically peace officers, and many of them have no training whatsoever," Jenkins said. She introduced her bill in the House on Jan. 11, and on Jan. 12 the bill was sent to the Elections, Constitutional Amendments and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee.

Denton's legislation was introduced Jan. 3 in the Senate to the State and Local Government Committee. She sponsored the bill to address problems she sees around the state in which constables' actions have been called into question. But Denton admits that the Louisville shooting incident was the "straw that broke the camel's back."

On Nov. 2, Jefferson County Constable David Whitlock allegedly shot a woman in the parking lot of a Walmart in the Pleasure Ridge Park area of Louisville after he said she tried to run over him with her car. The woman survived.

Meanwhile, in Warren County, District Two Constable Charles Russell was indicted Sept. 7 on charges of second-degree forgery and first-degree official misconduct. Russell has not been tried on those charges yet.

"What my feeling is on it is, there have been some problems in Louisville, and they're trying to take it out on all the constables rather than take it out on an individual situation," Bruce said. "If a sheriff in some part of Kentucky got in trouble, would they do away with all the sheriffs? The answer is no.

"The constables play an important role in their communities."

Denton doesn't expect her proposed legislation to pass as it is currently written. But the bill is a "starting point" for discussion about the issue, she said.

Jenkins has asked Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway to weigh in on the issue of what action, if any, the legislature can take to limit the scope of authority that constables have in their communities, or to place requirements on who can seek the office.

"I would like to see them not be automatically put in the position of peace officer," Jenkins said.

Someone with no training being handed arrest powers by virtue of a popular vote "I don't think is appropriate," she said.

The Kentucky Sheriffs Association is neither for nor against the position of constable, executive director and retired Fleming County Sheriff Jerry Wagner said. However, Wagner said, potential solutions to the issue include eliminating the office, limiting constable's duties or requiring constables to complete certain training elements.

"Our position is that we feel that law enforcement are charged with protecting the citizens and property and should be properly trained and accountable," Wagner said. "There's no qualifications. There's no training, no standards and there's no oversight (of constables). Whatever it takes to fix that problem is how we need to pursue it. When I say ‘we,' I'm not talking about sheriffs. I'm talking about citizens. I don't think anybody wants untrained, unsupervised individuals policing our communities."

- The Associated Press contributed information to this report.

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KY: House GOP files lawsuit challenging redistricting

House Republicans hit hard in a contentious redistricting process struck back Thursday, filing a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of newly drawn legislative boundaries that they claim favor Democrats.

House GOP Leader Jeff Hoover of Jamestown and other GOP lawmakers asked for an injunction to delay implementing the measure and asked that next Tuesday's election filing deadline be postponed until the matter is resolved.

Judge Phillip Shepherd scheduled a hearing for 10:30 a.m. EST Monday to consider those issues.

"We have been saying for a couple of weeks now that not only was it unfair to the people of Kentucky, not only did it disenfranchise a lot of folks in Kentucky, but it was unconstitutional," Hoover told reporters outside Franklin County Circuit Court after the lawsuit was filed.

Frankfort attorney Jason Nemes, representing the Republicans, said the lawsuit could affect both House and Senate redistricting, plus judicial redistricting. All three were dealt with in the same redistricting plan.

"If one part of the bill is declared unconstitutional, then the whole bill is unconstitutional," Nemes said.

Kentucky now is one of 25 states with pending court cases involving redistricting, said Justin Levitt, a professor at Loyola Law School who tracks the legal challenges.

Kentucky's Democratic-controlled House voted largely along party lines on Jan. 12 to redraw boundary lines in a way that sets up Republican vs. Republican races in three House districts. One unfortunate Republican would face powerful House Democratic Floor Leader Rocky Adkins in northeastern Kentucky.

Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear signed the measure into law last week.

The lawsuit contends that the new legislative districts could have been better balanced by population, and that they could have been drawn in a way would have required fewer splits in counties and precincts.

Hoover said House Republicans have been placed in districts with larger populations than their Democratic counterparts.

The new lines also produced some oddly shaped state House districts. The 89th stretches from the Tennessee border in McCreary County, zigzags narrowly through Laurel County, then encompasses all of Jackson County for a geographic setup that one lawmaker said would require an airplane for travel.

Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg, had said population changes, not politics, guided the redistricting measure.

Stumbo said he doesn't believe a Kentucky judge would issue an injunction without a trial on the merits of the case.

"It takes a very, very, very high showing for a court to issue an injunction based upon a claim that something is unconstitutional," he said. "Anybody can claim something is unconstitutional."

With the newly drawn district lines, Reps. Myron Dossett of Pembroke and Ben Waide of Madisonville are together in the 9th District. Reps. Mike Harmon of Danville and Kim King of Harrodsburg would share the 54th District. Reps. C.B. Embry Jr. of Morgantown, Jim DeCesare of Rockfield and Michael Meredith of Brownsville would be together in the 17th District. All are Republicans.

Even Hoover would be paired with a yet-to-be-decided incumbent in the 83rd District under the House proposal. Republican Rep. Jill York of Grayson would face Adkins in the 99th District.

A similar lawsuit filed after the 1990 census established some of the case law that House Republicans would point to in their impending legal challenge.

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The legislation is House Bill 1.

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Online: http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/12RS/HB1/RM.pdf

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KY: Senate committee OKs new emblem for slow vehicles

A state Senate committee gave a favorable reading Wednesday to a bill that would change the law requiring slow-moving vehicles to carry a triangular emblem.

Senate Bill 75, which would allow reflective tape on slow-moving vehicles rather than the emblem, received unanimous support from the Senate Transportation Committee, paving the way for a vote on the matter by the full Senate and potential passage into law.

The bill has gained eight sponsors, including Sen. David Givens, R-Greensburg, and Sen. Joey Pendleton, D-Hopkinsville.

The slow-moving vehicle emblem law has been at the center of a rash of citations that have been issued the past several months to Amish operators of horse-driven buggies in Logan and other western Kentucky counties.

Members of the Swartzentruber Amish, a conservative sect with communities in Graves and Grayson counties, have been cited by police for operating without the red-and-orange triangle that denotes slow-moving vehicles.

Eight men in Logan County - who are members of another conservative sect of Amish known as the Old Order Amish - have been cited in recent months for not using the emblem while on public roads.

The members of each Amish community have broader restrictions on technology and dress more plainly than mainstream Amish. They consider the bright colors of the triangular emblem to be sinful.

Also, those who have been cited contend that driving with the emblem would interfere with their relationship with God by putting faith in a man-made symbol to keep them safe while traveling.

Several Amish in Graves County have been jailed for refusing to pay fines for violating the law.

Eight Amish men from Auburn have cases pending in Logan District Court. Trials scheduled for some of the men have been delayed due to the current legislation in the General Assembly.

Sen. Mike Wilson, R-Bowling Green, a transportation committee member, said lawmakers on the committee viewed pictures of vehicles with gray-and-white reflective tape affixed to them.

Supporters of the bill say the reflective tape is easier for other drivers to see than the triangles, and a number of Amish and people who are close to the Amish community have said they consider the reflective tape to be a reasonable compromise between public safety and the Amish's ability to practice their religion.

"I must say that at a thousand feet (behind a vehicle), it might have looked like a speck with the triangle, but you could clearly see the outline of the buggy with the tape," Wilson said.

In addition to giving the bill a first reading, the committee added an emergency clause that would make the bill a law immediately upon Gov. Steve Beshear's signature.

Wilson said the measure could pass the full Senate as early as Friday.

"Even though people will argue that you're singling out (the Amish) and doing it just for this group, the goal is to make everyone safe on the road," Wilson said.

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