LC Treasurer cites Judge Exec on Violations

By Roberta Cantrell
BSN Editor

The Lawrence County Fiscal Court met in special session Monday, Sept. 28, to discuss agenda items of concern and reappoint personnel board members.

One of the items on the agenda concerning an employee was tabled for further review by the Lawrence County Attorney John Osborne, however, during the open discussion the fiscal court along with LC Treasurer Josh Puckett discussed the determination of classification and payment of an individual who had been providing services to the county who had been authorized to do the work and turn in a time card signed by LC Judge Executive Phil Carter.

In a packet of information Puckett provided to The Big Sandy News he states that “Concerning Jason Cole, here are some facts as I have them. Mr. Cole was retained by Judge Carter on 8/24/26 to operate a county dozer on the county property located on Town Hill. Mr. Cole was retained at an hourly rate. Mr. Cole exclusively uses a county dozer, fueled and maintained by county fuel and workers. Mr. Cole is directly supervised by the county judge and turns in a county timesheet signed by the county judge. As with the concern raised above, Mr. Cole has worked at least 10 days with the county and no contract was approved by the Fiscal Court prior to his employment.”

Another item of concern brought up by Puckett was a dump truck owned by Lawson Excavation that has been parked on Town Hill claiming this was another venture that Judge Carter entered in without approval of the Fiscal Court.

During the meeting Judge Carter moved to also table this item, however, Puckett made a motion to continue stating every day this truck is sitting on county property it is costing money.

According to KRS 67.710 the Powers and Duties of a Judge Executive in Kentucky, they are only allowed to execute contracts previously approved by Fiscal Court. Secondly as discussed in the last court meeting, the spending threshold for Lawrence County is $40,000.

Judge Carter without approval from the court accepted an estimate of $48,982 for a one-month lease from Lawson for the dump truck that was issued on Sept. 9.

Puckett said during the meeting that Judge Carter attempted at that time to have Matt Blackburn, Financial Officer, create a purchase order memorializing the expenditure and was informed by both Puckett and Blackburn that a contract had not been approved by the Fiscal Court and the amount was over the threshold.

Puckett said the judge replied he “understood and would take care of it.”

In their regular September session, the Fiscal Court did start the process of raising their spending threshold from $40,000 to $50,000 but until it was official it would remain $40,000. At no time during that meeting was the dump truck issue addressed by the judge.

Puckett stated that moving forward to Sept. 23, the Judge called Blackburn and told him to have Puckett write a $10,000 check to Lawson for a deposit for the dump truck.

“The Finance Officer called Lawson Excavating and was informed that the dump truck had already been delivered to the county and was currently being used as ordered and secured by Judge Carter,” stated Puckett in the meeting. “I then informed Lawson that the contract had not been approved by the court and would need to through a bidding process, and they needed to come get their truck.”

The judge was told by Blackburn the third time the rental had not been approved.

At this point Puckett stated that no contract has ever been agreed by the Fiscal Court and the truck remains on county property by the Lawrence County Soccer Field costing the county money each day it sits there.

The court agreed to have the truck removed and go through the proper procedures.

One other unauthorized expense by the judge that went over the $40,000 threshold was brought up by Puckett in the packet he provided The Big Sandy News and that was invoices by Boyd Cat in Catlettsburg.

“On July 29, the Financial Officer was contacted by Boyd Cat, with an email detailing an estimated bill for work being done on the D6 dozer. The finance Officer explained to him that no authorization had been made for those repairs. The representative and Finance Officer emailed back and forth with myself (Puckett) and Assistant Judge (Vince Doty) being CC’d in those emails. At that time the Boyd representative said that the number were only estimates might actually be lower or it could go up.”

The final outstanding bill amount totaled $51,000.

“This work was never approved by the Financial Officer and a purchase order was never created. Again, it was asserted by the Boyd Cat rep and the work was approved by Judge Carter,” stated Puckett.

Also, during the meeting personnel board members reappointed were Vince Doty, Shawna Marcum, Chris Jobe, David Pinson and Clyde Burchett.

A special meeting is being planned to address the individual whose employment was approved by the judge.