LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — A Metro Council leader said Thursday she is close to naming a panel to review the ethics case of Anthony Piagentini and decide whether to bring charges that could result in a trial to remove him.
Cindi Fowler, vice chair of the council’s majority Democratic caucus, told reporters Thursday that she has secured four council Democrats to serve on a charging committee. Five members are needed.
Fowler said she has asked council Republicans to provide a representative by early next week. If that doesn’t happen, she said she still is prepared to move forward without a GOP seat.
“I think the public expects us to do the right thing,” she said, noting the Louisville Metro Ethics Commission’s recommendations that urge Piagentini’s removal. “I believe that those speak for themselves.”
The ethics commission last week unanimously found that Piagentini, a Republican who represents eastern Jefferson County, violated six of seven charges in connection with his role in a $40 million federal grant he backed for his future employer. The bipartisan commission suggested the Metro Council remove him from office.
Council Republicans declined to speak about the charging committee process Thursday because they were notified only shortly before Fowler’s 3:45 p.m. press conference, said Steve Haag, the GOP caucus spokesman.
Metro Council President Markus Winkler would establish the ad hoc charging committee once five members are named. The panel would then appoint its leadership and hire an outside attorney.
Winkler, a Democrat in his first term as council president, told his caucus that the committee would have wide latitude, from making no recommendation to deciding that his conduct merits his ouster.
“The formation of the charging committee doesn’t bring charges,” he said. “That committee is formed to decide whether to bring charges.”
If the council ultimately convenes a trial for Piagentini’s removal, 18 members of the 26-person council would have to approve kicking him off.
The council’s current makeup is 16 Democrats, nine Republicans and one Independent.
Piagentini co-sponsored an ordinance directing $40 million in federal COVID-19 pandemic relief money to the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council last year, removing his name as sponsor moments before a final vote. He then abstained from voting.
He took a one-year, $240,000 consulting job with the group the next day, according to evidence shown at his August trial.
The ethics commission ruling accuses Piagentini of taking “advantage of a perilous moment in government finance,” during the pandemic, with the goal of enriching himself.
Piagentini called the ethics commission’s ruling a “complete travesty of justice” and pledged to “use every legal means at my disposal to fight this.”
A Metro Council trial could proceed at the same time as any legal appeal by Piagentini, according to the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office. The matter is not “settled law,” Assistant County Attorney Hollie Hopkins said.
The council previously created three charging committees for cases involving council members Judy Green, Dan Johnson and Barbara Shanklin. Those all were bipartisan panels, said Kyle Ethridge, spokeswoman for the council Democrats.
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