The long and slow process of relieving Judy Green of her duties on the Metro Council kicks off today. She’s the focus of a meeting of the Louisville Metro Ethics Commission beginning at 11:30.
The meeting may not take place, however. The original complaint, filed by political rival Ray Barker in January, has triggered an avalanche of other accusations against Green. She’s been dodging cameras, then agreeing to interviews, all the while claiming innocence in spite of irrefutable evidence that she’s done plenty wrong. Barker’s complaint focused on Green’s mismanagement of a bogus program to hire members of Green’s family to pick up trash in the West End.
Last week activist/blogger Ed Springston filed an additional complaint alleging ethical misconduct regarding Green’s actions involving the 100 Black Men group, for which she secured funding but directed the group to funnel money to others as she chose. The Ethics Commission could combine the complaints, or, more likely, use it as an excuse to postpone things further.
Green’s problems are primarily financial, and she’s exhibited a long history of personal fiscal mismanagement that, to West End voters, aren’t a big concern in terms of her fitness for political office. But it’s a problem for the Metro Council in general, where her colleagues have increased their distance and her allies have disappeared. The media has uncovered plenty of dirt on Green, including a police investigation that found she rang up $25K on a credit card in the name of an assistant.
It’s obvious that she can’t survive the scandal. But she will try. Because Judy Green needs the $42K salary she gets as a Council member.
The ethics commission will likely take its time issuing any kind of ruling or decision. It may delay things today. The ethics commission is providing cover for Metro Council members, who say they won’t move on removing Green from office until they’re through. And when they do, expect that process to take a while before Green is booted out by her colleagues.
In the meantime, we’re going to be subjected to a lengthy news story, similar to the Karen Sypher saga, of a woman who has convinced herself that the crimes she’s committed aren’t, really, all that bad.
So we’re stuck with Green, and news consumers are stuck with an ongoing story that’s likely to drag on through the summer.
