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FRANKFORT — Attorney General investigators say they have evidence that government lawyers may have given advice to officials about how to circumvent state hiring laws.
The attorney general's staff made that allegation in its latest filing that asks Franklin Circuit Court to appoint a special master, or commissioner, to review sealed documents to determine which ones should be turned over to the special grand jury investigating allegations of improper hiring.
The motion, filed late today, says Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration cannot keep communications between officials and internal general counsels private if those attorneys were giving advice on how to get around state laws.
In the filing, Deputy Attorney General Pierce Whites and Assistant Deputy Attorney General Janet Graham argue that the court should release some documents taken from computers of Gov. Ernie Fletcher and his staff that are sealed because of attorney-client or executive privilege.
Whites and Graham, citing evidence they provided the court under seal, said some communications sent by officials to government counsels “were made to seek and obtain advice regarding future” merit hirings.
“This advice may have been used to aid officials in the administration” in violating or evading the merit system law, the filing said.
The merit laws stipulate that rank-and-file bureaucrats must be hired based on qualifications, not political ties.
Whites and Graham added that “there is a strong likelihood” some of the privileged documents could show a similar trend.
Sheryl Snyder, a Louisville attorney hired by the governor's office, said in an interview Monday that he hadn't seen any e-mails or memos from state attorneys that appeared to aid officials in circumventing hiring laws.
He said that he doesn't object to a court-appointed commissioner who would sift through the documents.
* E-mails between state officials are merely copied to administration attorneys.
* Communications between an official and an attorney didn't involve legal advice.
Reed said today he was passing on the name of a family friend who was interested in leaving the chamber of commerce organization Greater Louisville Inc.
When a job in the state tourism department didn't pan out, Reed passed the woman's name to Glenna Fletcher, who had an opening for a non-merit, appointed position on her staff.
Reed noted that he doesn't know the woman's party registration.
“I don't see anything unusual about that,” Reed said of his e-mail.
He said he didn't know why the governor's office attorneys have deemed that a privileged document, but added that he never saw what Glenna Fletcher wrote to the governor about the recommendation.
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