Friday, March 28, 2008

Governor's Office: Kentucky Board of Education Appointments On the Way

Earlier today I posted a story from KyPolitics that indicated Governor Beshear had missed the boat on nominating replacements for four current members on the Kentucky Board of Education and now "lacks the ability to have any late appointments confirmed in the General Assembly that is now in regular session."

The four members in question are: David Webb of Edmonson County, Janna Vice of Madison County, David Rhodes of Montgomery County, and Bonnie Lash Freeman of Jefferson County, whose terms end April 14th.

KyPolitics argues that by statute, "unlike other board appointees that require General Assembly confirmation but can take office during the interim, the Kentucky Board of Education statutes require that Board members be confirmed prospective (sic) to their taking office...on April 15th."

In a followup conversation this afternoon with Dick Brown of the governor's media office Kentucky School News and Commentary was told that according to the interpretation of the governor's General Counsel,

"They're wrong."

It's not too late because the statute... allows that if an appointment is made when the General Assembly is not in session, then at the next convening of the General Assembly...those appointments will be...confirmed. He can fill the vacancy. Well, they're not really vacancies because the people in those positions right now continue serving until someone new is appointed. Really, the governor is looking at trying to find the absolute best possible people for these positions, and in due time, probably
the next month or so, we'll see those nominees come forward. They will be appointed by the governor. They will begin serving, and at the next time the General Assembly convenes, which would be January 09, then they would do the confirmations.

Asked for a timeline, Brown responded,
I think...we'll probably see those, easily by early summer, if not before hand.
Brown confirmed that Governor Beshear has not had a change of heart since his earlier stated disappointments with the board and when ask if he plans to replace the four members said,
Yes he does."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Prospective" is spelled correctly. It means before. Get a Webster's Dictionary, Mr. Pricipal.

Richard Day said...

Not a spelling problem...but a usage problem.

Anonymous said...

Explain.

Richard Day said...

Hummm. I'll try.

"...the Kentucky Board of Education statutes require that Board members be confirmed prospective to their taking office..."

My problem with it is that "prospective" is an adjective meaning "likely to become."

We would never say,"...confirmed likely to become taking office..."

Proper usage, as I understand it, is: prospective client, prospective mother, prospective rocket scientist, prospective board member...

Better would have been, "prior to taking office", "before taking office", "in advance of taking office" ...

But if some English professor out there wants to overrule me ... so be it.

By the way...I don't mean to be overly pedantic. I am well aware that I frequently misuse the ellipsis, for example. In fact, I enjoy it.

....and I misspell words more frequently than I'd like to admit.

Thanks for the comment.