The board of directors of the Kentucky Association of Counties erred in choosing Denny Nunnelley, its long-time deputy director, over former state Auditor Ed Hatchett as its new chief executive officer.
In Hatchett, a lawyer who served as banking commissioner before serving one-term as auditor, KACo had the opportunity to provide a clean break from the abuses exposed in a scathing audit by the office of Auditor Crit Luallen by hiring a respected leader with an unblemished reputation for fairness and independence.
By choosing Nunnelley, who has been the number two person at KACo since 1994, the KACo board is sending the message that it has not learned the right lessons from the years of wasteful spending under former Executive Director Bob Arnold, whose resignation was forced by the KACo board in September. Arnold’s dismissal was not because the board, made up of elected county leaders from throughout the state, was dissatisfied with his leadership but because it recognized what Arnold’s leadership had done to the organization’s reputation by the misuses exposed by Luallen’s scathing audit.
Indeed the same meeting in which KACo’s board demanded Arnold’s resignation, the board praised the executive they had just fired for his outstanding years of leadership. That was a clear indication that the board was far from repentant about the organization’s misdeeds.
When the KACo committee assigned to recommend a successor to Arnold chose Hatchett, the former auditor was widely praised as the right person to help restore KACo’s tarnished reputation. Not only had Hatchett, an attorney, done an excellent job as auditor in the days when elected state leaders could only serve one term, but he had no previous ties to KACo. In short, he offered a clean break from the misdeeds of the past.
But KACo’s board refused to accept the committee’s recommendation and opted to interview Hatchet and the three other finalists for executive director. In choosing Nunnelley, the KACo board chose the candidate with the closest ties to the abuses of the past. Instead of offering new leadership, the board sent a message that it has yet to learn the right lessons from the audit by Luallen and that the good-old-boy system that has sowed the seeds of abuse still exits at KACo.
Nunnelley, who served in the Kentucky Senate from 1995 to 1998, as Woodford County judge-executive from 1986 to 1993, and as Woodford County sheriff from 1982 to 1985, may prove to be an outstanding leader of KACo. He certainly has earned the praise of board members.
“The Board came to this decision following a thoughtful and thorough review of the four outstanding candidates selected by the search committee,” said Rick Smith, president of the KACo Board. “Denny Nunnelley is an extremely qualified and talented executive who will provide strong, reliable leadership.”
In making the announcement, Smith emphasized that KACo’s number one goal is to fully integrate the code of ethics and new management policies passed on September 30 into a management culture that is pervasive throughout the organization. One would hope those policies are fully implemented, but we would feel a lot more confident about just how serious KACo is about ending past abuses if KACo’s board had not (1) so lavishly praised the executive director it had just fired in September and (2) hired his top aide in January.
