Ousted Board Member Blames Williams

As previously reported, former Kentucky Board of Education member Steve Neal lost his seat when Senate leadership chose not to bring his confirmation up for a vote. Since the law requires confirmation by both houses - Neal is out.

KSN&C tried to catch Neal over the past few days to ask for his thoughts on the dismissal but our schedules didn't mesh. Fortunately, Toni Konz caught up with him.

This from C-J:

Neal, who resigned as a registered lobbyist for the teachers union after his appointment but maintained his position as executive director, said yesterday that he blames Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville.

"He played small-minded, petty politics instead of doing what was right for children in Kentucky," said Neal, a Democrat. "I had a bull's-eye on my forehead, and it was
put there by David Williams."

Neal said Williams wanted to privatize pension plans of state employees and proposed "devastating changes" to the state's health insurance -- two things the union successfully lobbied against.

"I am quite certain that this was a personal grudge against me and against JCTA," Neal said.

Williams did not return several calls for comment yesterday. He released a statement through Baez-Schrader saying that Senate leaders reviewed the resumes of all the appointees.

"The resumes were thoroughly reviewed in complete consultation with the Senate Democrats," Williams said. "The confirmations speak for themselves."

Governor Beshear expressed disappointment.

Today C-J's David Hawpe expressed something else.

At first blush, it looks like Steve Neal got a raw deal...

Sen. Tim Shaughnessy, D-Louisville, harrumphed that, "up until Thursday (before adjournment) I was told there was not a problem. But then (Sen. Ed Worley, D-Richmond, the minority leader) came up to me and told me that (Senate President) David Williams did not want to embarrass Steve Neal, but that his confirmation would not come up."...

Of course, one could just as easily argue that Neal made himself a target.

In addition to opposing Williams' ideas for changing the state's public pension and health insurance programs, Neal and other teachers union leaders saw to it that JCTA gave Democratic gubernatorial candidate Steve Beshear almost $200,000 for his 2007 campaign.

That's the kind of thing likely to get the attention of Kentucky's most powerful state-based Republican....

If his recent attacks on Jefferson County Superintendent Sheldon Berman are any example, he would seem to know a lot about targeting one's opponents personally.

In the Jan. 21 edition of JCTA's "Action" newsletter, Neal mocked the superintendent, saying, "I can only describe Dr. Berman's dealings (with the county's teachers) as 'stink, stank, stunk,' We can only hope that he will stop pushing the heads of his employees beneath the cold, murky water and seek a better way to help them stay afloat."

Berman, he declared, was guilty of trying to "stick it to the little guy" while doing "nothing to help JCPS."

This is rhetoric more often associated with a Teamsters local, not the local teachers union. And I say that as the son of a Teamster.

Did Neal really think Republican lawmakers would forget his broadsides, including those in the Feb. 18 "Action" headlined "Proficiency on the Cheap," in which he claimed that the state's "decision-makers have no idea what it takes to teach children in our public schools?"

Maybe he really did expect them to laugh along with him, when they read this Neal put-down: "There are times I have chuckled when legislators blame (the Kentucky Education Reform Act) and teachers. I would love to put them in a classroom alone for one week and see how they fare."

Maybe he expected Williams and his GOP caucus to forget not only the serious policy differences and the teachers' huge Democratic political gifts but also Neal's taunt that
honchos in both parties were guilty of throwing "simple-minded solutions at complex socio-economic problems," as well as "rampant political posturing" and playing "the blame game."

That sounds like the kind of stuff I might throw around, but then I don't expect David Williams to have the Senate confirm me for the state school board. Or anything else...