LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – Muncie McNamara, the Bardstown attorney and political supporter whom Gov. Andy Beshear briefly installed as the state’s unemployment insurance director earlier this year, told lawmakers during a hearing Thursday that the Beshear administration cut corners in a hurried attempt to approve “a crush” of jobless claims last spring.
McNamara said the administration overrode warning signs to approve thousands of claims that should have been individually investigated, until the U.S. Department of Labor “got wind that we were doing that and told us that we had to stop.”
McNamara also said the unemployment insurance system wasn’t technologically prepared when Beshear in March offered the jobless aid to people who wouldn’t normally qualify such as independent contractors, ahead of the federal government taking similar action.
“Had we had some time where we could think about what we needed to have done to accommodate this new class of people, and then make the computer system changes before we started accepting those applications, then a lot of the – especially the early problems – could have been avoided,” McNamara said during testimony to the Interim Joint Committee on Economic Development and Workforce Investment.
McNamara, who is protesting his May firing as executive director of the Office of Unemployment Insurance, was a surprise witness at the hearing, which was initially advertised as featuring current Beshear officials.
The Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting first reported earlier this month that McNamara’s connections to the Beshear administration and Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman played a key role in his landing the $85,000-a-year job despite having no prior experience with unemployment administration.
McNamara said during Thursday’s hearing that he donated to Beshear’s campaign, raised money for Beshear and knocked on nearly 1,000 doors for the campaign in Nelson County ahead of the November 2019 election.
Following Beshear’s victory, McNamara said he applied to work in the new administration “in any way I can” rather than a specific job.
When Coleman called to offer him the job running the unemployment office, McNamara said, “I was frankly surprised when she called me specifically, because I had listed several interests.”
The Kentucky Center also reported that the Beshear administration created the vacancy McNamara filled by sidelining the previous unemployment office director, state government veteran Katie Houghlin, to a "special assistant" role.
Democrats accused the Republicans who control the committee of using McNamara’s appearance for partisan ends.
Committee co-chairman Rep. Russell Webber, R-Shepherdsville, gaveled the meeting to a close while ignoring an outburst from Sen. Reggie Thomas, D-Lexington, who said 16 of the 17 lawmakers allowed to question McNamara during his 1-hour-and-15-minute appearance were Republicans.
McNamara was not able to respond to criticism by Sen. Karen Berg of Louisville, the only Democrat called on during the hearing, over his role in the April data breach of the unemployment system. Webber cut Berg off, saying McNamara is not on trial.
While acknowledging his administration’s failure to timely process about 1 million unemployment claims during the pandemic, Beshear has also laid blame at the feet of former Republican Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration and the Republican-controlled legislature, for leaving a system that was “starved” by budget cuts and employee attrition.
When Berg alleged that Bevin administration “intentionally decimated” the unemployment system, McNamara acknowledged it was in “bad shape” when he took the job in January, well before the surge in claims.
“When I walked in the wait times on the telephones were over an hour on average, and there was already a backlog of claims in the tens of thousands,” he said. “There had been a lot of attrition … it essentially left the office pretty understaffed.”
When he started the job, McNamara said someone in the administration suggested the unemployment office needed “a ground-up rebuild.”
“I said, ‘Well, I’m up for a challenge,’” he said.
In a statement Thursday, Beshear spokeswoman Crystal Staley said the governor personally “did not hire, fire or communicate with this individual (McNamara).”
The Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet, which Coleman leads, added that it’s confident McNamara’s claims regarding his firing will be “found baseless.” His appeal is pending with the Kentucky Personnel Board.
“As documented by the cabinet, Mr. McNamara exhibited unprofessional behavior toward cabinet leadership and teammates and lacked the leadership skills necessary to address the issues affecting the Office of Unemployment Insurance,” the cabinet said in a statement Thursday.
