June 11, 2010
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Corruption In The Middle Of Kentucky, Pt.2
Officials slow to react.The Lexington Herald Leader first dug up the story that uncovered the scandal surrounding the Lexington Airport. At first, city officials were slow to react because most of the top airport officials were friends. However, after continuous probes by the Leader, the Vice-Mayor, the city council and the Kentucky state auditor began its investigation. In January of 2009 three of the accused resigned their positions at the airport when the authorities began an investigation into alleged misuse of the airport's credit cards. The resignations of John Rhodes, Finance Director; John Coon, Operations Director; and, John Slone, Planning and Development Director were accepted at a three hour closed board meeting. Michael Gobb, the airport's Executive Director resigned earlier that month after extensive questioning of his use of the airport's credit card. According to reports, he racked up over $200,000 in questionable travel expenses. Lexington officials including the Vice Mayor, Jim Gray had demanded the resignation of Bernard Lovely, Chairman, as well for his role in the fraudulent use of the airport's credit cards, however, he refused to step down. Gray alleged that Lovely had been negligent in allowing the extensive abusive spending. The board allowed Lovely to remain on the panel but replaced him with Bernard Lovely as Chairman.
The following month, Crit Luallen, State Auditor, released her report on the airport's spending. Results indicated that seven airport top employees spent over $500,000 in undocumented and questionable credit card expenses between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2008; Rhodes, Coon, Slone, and Gobb were included in the seven. The four accused combined racked up over $332,000 on the airport's credit cards for personal expenses including Hannah Montana tickets, video games and golf lessons, while Gobb and two others ran up a $4,500 tab in one night at a Texas strip club. Gobb alone spent over $26,000 on a Hawaii vacation. In October, a grand jury indicted the four on felony charges of theft by deception after the nine month investigation.
In April of this year, Slone and Coon accepted plea bargains and pleaded guilty to one charge each of conspiracy to commit theft by deception, a misdemeanor for the fraudulent use of the airport's credit card related to the $5,000 charge made at the Texas strip club in 2004. Results on Gobb's indictment have yet to be released.