Jane Murray's expensive and disastrous loss of her lawsuit against the Scioto County Board of Elections in the Ohio Supreme Court is yet another example of her arrogance and poor judgment. It is just another failure in Murray's long and tragic political career.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
JANE MURRAY: 11 Months of Turmoil
Jane Murray had a long history of government and financial scandals in Lexington and Washington DC before she moved to Portsmouth and changed her name to escape the failures of her past.
Murray changed back to her maiden name and moved to Portsmouth in an attempt to escape the scandals of her past. She has an ongoing lawsuit against the City of Portsmouth and she initiated a recall attempt against her Councilman, before running for mayor. In 2009, she won the election with 44% of the vote of the Citizens of Portsmouth, and immediately began a vindictive agenda of revenge against all of those she perceived as having slighted her, beginning on her first day in office.
Considering the failures and scandals of Murray's past, it is no wonder that her first eleven months as mayor have been pure turmoil. She has been a major financial burden and embarrassment for the City of Portsmouth.
ELEVEN MONTHS OF TURMOIL:
- Murray told City Council and the public that, as a "civil engineer," Mr. Peck was qualified to run the City Engineering Department as well as to operate the city's water AND sewer plants. However, with Murray's firings of Sutherland and Duncan, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency informed Murray on Jan 13, that the City was "out of compliance" with environmental laws. They also made it clear that Peck was not qualified to operate a water OR wastewater facility and that he was not able to become qualified. (Portsmouth Times: "Portsmouth In Violation of EPA Rules", "EPA Says City Still Not In Compliance.")
- In Lexington and in Washington DC, Murray went by her married name, Jane Vimont, and she worked as an assistant to Scotty Baesler, when he was the mayor of Lexington and later when he was a congressman.
- In Lexington, Jane Murray was responsible (as former mayor Baesler's "Special Projects Manager") for the City's "Cultural Master Plan," a plan to build to build a major "Cultural Arts Center," with museums, theatres, etc., in Downtown Lexington. After over $8 million for planning and property acquisition, the Center was never built. Lexington was sued by the State of Kentucky over the fiasco, and was forced to pay back million of dollars. Murray's failed cultural plan is a financial burden to Lexington to this day. (Click here to read entire story.)
- In 1995, Murray was hired as development director of the UK Basketball Museum, a project she had promoted as Baesler's Special Projects Manager. Murray was responsible for all planning, feasibility studies, and fund raising. The City of Lexington and the University of Kentucky poured millions of dollars into the proposed museum. In 1998 the Museum Board terminated her contract, when they discovered that Murray's fund-raising goals were never met, the cost was going to be millions more than she had told them, and the project was way behind schedule. The museum finally opened after Jane was terminated, but it went bankrupt in 2005. (Click here to read entire story.)
- Murray also falsely claims to have performed early studies for the Muhammad Ali Museum in Louisville when she was really only a bill collector a Canadian Museum Consultant. (Click here to read entire story.)
- Murray's career featured several more scandals, including a major newspaper investigation for abuse of government credit cards in Lexington, conflicts with Baesler's staff in Washington, and violations of Kentucky's Sunshine Laws.
Murray changed back to her maiden name and moved to Portsmouth in an attempt to escape the scandals of her past. She has an ongoing lawsuit against the City of Portsmouth and she initiated a recall attempt against her Councilman, before running for mayor. In 2009, she won the election with 44% of the vote of the Citizens of Portsmouth, and immediately began a vindictive agenda of revenge against all of those she perceived as having slighted her, beginning on her first day in office.
Considering the failures and scandals of Murray's past, it is no wonder that her first eleven months as mayor have been pure turmoil. She has been a major financial burden and embarrassment for the City of Portsmouth.
ELEVEN MONTHS OF TURMOIL:
January.....
- On January 4, her first day as Mayor, Jane Murray fired three respected, highly qualified city department heads, with no prior notice. (Water Works Director Sam Sutherland, Wastewater Director Richard Duncan, and Service Director Chris Murphy.) She called a news conference and publicly accused the three men of "gross negligence and mismanagement," among other accusations. (WSAZ: Portsmouth's First Female Mayor Takes Office.)
- City Solicitor Mike Jones warned the Murray (in a memo to her and City Council) that her unfounded accusations against the fired employees could "could be viewed as defamatory in nature and expose the city to potential civil liability." The memo was leaked to the Portsmouth Times. (Portsmouth Times: Actions By New Mayor Bring Warning From City Solicitor.)
- Murray told WSAZ TV that, regarding all union-related issues, she was "consulting on union contracts with former city employee Roy 'Bubb' Payton who was convicted last year on felony charges involving city property. Murray said her probe shows Payton was the victim." (WSAZ-TV.) Payton remains a key, behind-the-scenes advisor to Murray, despite having been convicted of a long list of charges, including falsification to obtain prescription drugs and theft of city property, including a garageful of mowers, weed-eaters, tools, a heavy equipment trailer, and other items. Payton had pled guilty.
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| Roy 'Bubb' Payton-Key Murray Advisor (Convicted Felon and Admitted Prescription Drug Abuser) | <><><><><><> <>
- Murray hired Jeffrey Peck of Lexington Ky to be her "Commissioner of of Engineering and Public Services," a position she made up on her own and promised to pay him $80,000 per year. (By the city charter, only City Council can create new positions and authorize salaries.) On many occasions, she introduced introduced Peck as Civil Engineer, but in fact Peck has no engineering degree of any kind and cannot legally be referred to as an "engineer" in the State of Ohio. (Portsmouth Times: "Mayor: City Meets EPA Guidelines.")
- Despite her unfounded accusations against the men, Murray was forced to offer Sutherland and Duncan their positions back. Sutherland returned to operate the Water Plant, but Duncan refused. As a result, the City Sewage Plant was out of compliance until August when another sewage plant worker was approved by the EPA. (Portsmouth Times: "Sutherland Re-Hired.") Murray refused to apologize for her false allegations against Sutherland.
- Murray conspired with Bill Beaumont (whom she had hired to be Mr. Peck's "Assistant Commissioner of Engineering and Public Services", another fraudulent title) to arbitrarily and illegally cancel the City's contracts with Portsmouth Insurance Company and award a "no-bid" contract to a close relative of Beaumont's, who owns an insurance agency in Jackson Ohio. Murray was eventually forced to re-instate Portsmouth Insurance's contract had been competitively bid.
- Murray gave another no-bid contract to a local contractor, Jack Vetter, to renovate her office-another illegal action which council had not authorized. (Over the months since Murray has awarded several more un-bid contracts to Vetter's Construction Company.)
- The Ohio Department Of Transportation (ODOT) had conducted and paid for a study of traffic lights in the City of Portsmouth and had directed that many of them on State Route 52 (11th and 12th Streets) be taken down by the previous mayor. In January, Murray ordered the lights re-installed. Based on her actions, ODOT stated that the City was jeopardizing its state funding. In response to ODOT's letter City Council directed Murray to take the lights taken down, but Murray refused. Instead she had the lights covered with plastic garbage bags and left in place. These eyesores remain in place to this day. (Portsmouth Times: "ODOT Says Traffic Study Ignored.")
February.....
- At a key meeting to the show the support of community leaders for jobs and at the Piketon A-Plant, Murray embarrassed the City of Portsmouth by casting the only "NO" vote against a major supporting resolution. All other mayors and county commissioners in a 12-county area voted for the resolution but Murray voted against it and even invited an anti-nuclear activist to the meeting to lecture the other community leaders. Murray's bizarre action forced City Council to pass it's own special resolution of support which it passed unanimously. (Portsmouth Times: "Murray Votes No On Piketon Plant Resolution") We hope friends and relatives of A-Plant workers will remember this ridiculous vote. (P-Town Underground: Geoffrey Sea.)
-The Portsmouth Traffic Committee is made up of knowledgeable citizens appointed by the mayor and city council to advise City Council with regard to traffic related issues, usually presided over by the Police Chief. Its meetings are open to the public and any interested citizen is generally allowed to speak. At the January meeting, Jane Murray issued a 'gag order' to the Police Chief and ordered him not allow anyone to speak except for Jeff Peck, her so-called Commissioner of Engineering and Public Service. She stated that since the meeting was related to "traffic control engineering, only Peck was to speak because he was "the only engineer." If she did not know from the beginning that Peck was not an engineer, she surely knew it by then, so this was another lie she told to the citizens of Portsmouth. (Portsmouth Times: "Mayor Picks 'Official Presenter'.", "Abrupt End to Traffic Meeting.")
Jane Murray: 11 Months of Turmoil (Continued)
March.....
- Murray has had a series of contentious meetings with all three of the city's major labor unions, claiming that she was seeking concessions to help balance the City's budget. In March, Murray accused City Fire Fighters of not caring “if I don’t have the money to address our declining neighborhoods’ housing stock and clean the city up. It doesn’t matter to them that we have sewage backing up in people’s homes, and we have a long-term control plan that we have to start implementing.” In a meeting with the Police Union she tried to order a police captain to discipline an officer for referring to her as ma'am instead of "Madam Mayor." (Portsmouth Times: "Union Speaks Out On City Budget Issue")
-The EPA continued to threaten the City with millions of dollars in potential fines for failure to comply with environmental regulations by not replacing a Rick Duncan, whom she fired in January, with a qualified director. (Portsmouth Times: "EPA: No More Warnings to Mayor, City.")
- City Solicitor Mike Jones took the extraordinary step of publicly calling for Jane Murray to resign as mayor. After reciting a long list of Jane's reckless actions, he stated "the potential financial ramifications that the city now faces are frightening in my opinion." (Portsmouth Times: "Solicitor Calls For Mayor To Resign.")
June.....
- Murray fired Shannon Southworth, the City's highly qualified Grants Technician who was the only remaining employee in the Community Development Department, when Southworth questioned a payment to one of Murray's favored contractors for substandard work. (Portsmouth Times: "Southworth Issues Statement About Firing", P-Town Underground: "Crazy-Town Community Development.") Southworth was soon hired to a "High State Government Position" in the Ohio Department of Development. (Portsmouth Times: "Fired City Employee Now In High State Government Position," August 27, 2010.)
August.....
- In an interview on WSAZ-TV, Murray called Portsmouth "the most corrupt city I have ever witnessed, the most corrupt government." Murray comment was in response to questions about the apparent success of the effort by citizens to place her recall on the November ballot. Her unsubstantiated comments on such a widely-watched news program broadcast were seen by many citizens as a embarrassment to the City. She could give no examples of the so-called corruption to the news media or to city council who questioned her about her accusations. Later the Police Chief requested that she report the "corruption" to his office or to other appropriate authorities so it could be investigated. she refused, saying she would do so at the "proper time and place." (Portsmouth Times: "Mayor Calls City Corrupt.", "Police Chief Responds to Corruption Comments")
September.....
- In September, Police Chief Charles Horner went public about an long term dispute with the mayor, which Horner said been going on since at least May. The City had been awarded a State grant, for a major upgrade of the Law Enforcement Computer System, but Murray would not approve the paperwork so the State could release the money. Horner told City Council that Murray's refusal to sign literally put the police and the public at risk, because the upgrade was needed to keep the in-cruiser computers relied upon by officers to identify drivers operational. Murray was withholding her approval in order to pressure Horner on other Law Enforcement-related issues. (Portsmouth Times: "Spat Over Server Continues." P-Town Underground: "Crazy-Town")
November.....
- Murray has had a series of contentious meetings with all three of the city's major labor unions, claiming that she was seeking concessions to help balance the City's budget. In March, Murray accused City Fire Fighters of not caring “if I don’t have the money to address our declining neighborhoods’ housing stock and clean the city up. It doesn’t matter to them that we have sewage backing up in people’s homes, and we have a long-term control plan that we have to start implementing.” In a meeting with the Police Union she tried to order a police captain to discipline an officer for referring to her as ma'am instead of "Madam Mayor." (Portsmouth Times: "Union Speaks Out On City Budget Issue")
May.....
- In May, Murray's habit of making slanderous, unprovable accusations against citizens brought another lawsuit on her and the City of Portsmouth. Shane DeSimone,a former PHS student and Portsmouth resident, sued claiming that "on two occasions in April 2010...Murray published (publicly stated) that plaintiff (DeSimone) was ‘laundering’ money through his rental properties...” and also stated that "DeSimone, an Italian American, ...was in the Mafia." (Portsmouth Times: "Another Day, Another Lawsuit Against City.")-The EPA continued to threaten the City with millions of dollars in potential fines for failure to comply with environmental regulations by not replacing a Rick Duncan, whom she fired in January, with a qualified director. (Portsmouth Times: "EPA: No More Warnings to Mayor, City.")
- City Solicitor Mike Jones took the extraordinary step of publicly calling for Jane Murray to resign as mayor. After reciting a long list of Jane's reckless actions, he stated "the potential financial ramifications that the city now faces are frightening in my opinion." (Portsmouth Times: "Solicitor Calls For Mayor To Resign.")
- On May 12, Murray and her fake engineer, Jeff Peck, released to several charts which she claimed showed increased traffic accidents on Route 52 in order to justify her plan to replace traffic lights, against the recommendations of a study completed by the Ohio Department of Transportation. However, all of her information was fabricated to produced the results she wanted, as the police chief reported the following week. Using a legitimate traffic analysis, Chief Horner reported: "We had 235 U.S. 52-related accidents, based on the top 15 accident locations, before the light removals, and after the light removals, 106, based on the top 15 accident locations. That’s a reduction of about 50 percent.” (Portsmouth Times: "Chief Horner Challenges Mayor’s Traffic Numbers")
June.....
- Murray fired Shannon Southworth, the City's highly qualified Grants Technician who was the only remaining employee in the Community Development Department, when Southworth questioned a payment to one of Murray's favored contractors for substandard work. (Portsmouth Times: "Southworth Issues Statement About Firing", P-Town Underground: "Crazy-Town Community Development.") Southworth was soon hired to a "High State Government Position" in the Ohio Department of Development. (Portsmouth Times: "Fired City Employee Now In High State Government Position," August 27, 2010.)
August.....
- In an interview on WSAZ-TV, Murray called Portsmouth "the most corrupt city I have ever witnessed, the most corrupt government." Murray comment was in response to questions about the apparent success of the effort by citizens to place her recall on the November ballot. Her unsubstantiated comments on such a widely-watched news program broadcast were seen by many citizens as a embarrassment to the City. She could give no examples of the so-called corruption to the news media or to city council who questioned her about her accusations. Later the Police Chief requested that she report the "corruption" to his office or to other appropriate authorities so it could be investigated. she refused, saying she would do so at the "proper time and place." (Portsmouth Times: "Mayor Calls City Corrupt.", "Police Chief Responds to Corruption Comments")
September.....
- In September, Police Chief Charles Horner went public about an long term dispute with the mayor, which Horner said been going on since at least May. The City had been awarded a State grant, for a major upgrade of the Law Enforcement Computer System, but Murray would not approve the paperwork so the State could release the money. Horner told City Council that Murray's refusal to sign literally put the police and the public at risk, because the upgrade was needed to keep the in-cruiser computers relied upon by officers to identify drivers operational. Murray was withholding her approval in order to pressure Horner on other Law Enforcement-related issues. (Portsmouth Times: "Spat Over Server Continues." P-Town Underground: "Crazy-Town")
October.....
- On October 22, the Portsmouth Times reported on Murray's bizarre plan to control traffic around her house on Dorman Drive. She called it a "Traffic Calming Plan," but it mainly consisted of adding three-way and four-way stops at almost every intersection near her house. As with many of Murray's actions this seemed to be targeted at SOMC. Her plan would have caused serious traffic congestion near the hospital and City Council wisely over-ruled her plan with a city ordinance. (Portsmouth Times: "Mayor Unveils Traffic Calming Plan." P-Town Underground: "GRIDLOCK..")
- On October 22, the Portsmouth Times reported on Murray's bizarre plan to control traffic around her house on Dorman Drive. She called it a "Traffic Calming Plan," but it mainly consisted of adding three-way and four-way stops at almost every intersection near her house. As with many of Murray's actions this seemed to be targeted at SOMC. Her plan would have caused serious traffic congestion near the hospital and City Council wisely over-ruled her plan with a city ordinance. (Portsmouth Times: "Mayor Unveils Traffic Calming Plan." P-Town Underground: "GRIDLOCK..")
- Murray was criticized by local businesses (State Electric, West End Electric, Lute Supply, and Market Street Hardware) for purchasing Christmas lights from out-of-town without giving local merchants a chance to bid on them. They stated Shawnee State regularly requested bids for local vendors, as the City had done previously. Murray blamed her decision to order $14,000 worth of Christmas lights from Bloomington, Minn., on a "volunteer committee" she had formed. Murray said she "asked them to work with us on a plan to decorate the downtown area. I had asked that someone call the Chamber of Commerce about getting the businesses involved. And the volunteers did not follow through on that. And it became late in the game and therefore I had the order taken out..." (Portsmouth Times: "Mayor Defends Out-of Town Christmas Light Purchase.")
- Murray requested a meeting with the Mayor of New Boston and attempted to get him to go along with a scheme to create two new fees in Portsmouth (and New Boston): a "stormwater fee" and a new "flood defense fee." (Her plan is to repeal the current city "Flood Defense Levy,' which was just passed by voters in November and replace it with fees that can be increased at her discretion.) Murray used false information to mislead village officials claiming that the fees were needed by the City since flood defense revenues had, in recent years.... "dwindled from $225,000 a year to less than $119,000 a year." In fact as of September, the City had collected $210,825, and should exceed $225,000 by year end. (Portsmouth Times: "Murray Pitches Floodwall Plans to New Boston," "Murray's Flood Fund Numbers Don't Add Up." P-Town Underground: "Jane Murray's $100,000 Lie.") New Boston officials wisely declined Murray's plan and put off Jane's next meeting request until after the recall election.
- Murray requested a meeting with the Mayor of New Boston and attempted to get him to go along with a scheme to create two new fees in Portsmouth (and New Boston): a "stormwater fee" and a new "flood defense fee." (Her plan is to repeal the current city "Flood Defense Levy,' which was just passed by voters in November and replace it with fees that can be increased at her discretion.) Murray used false information to mislead village officials claiming that the fees were needed by the City since flood defense revenues had, in recent years.... "dwindled from $225,000 a year to less than $119,000 a year." In fact as of September, the City had collected $210,825, and should exceed $225,000 by year end. (Portsmouth Times: "Murray Pitches Floodwall Plans to New Boston," "Murray's Flood Fund Numbers Don't Add Up." P-Town Underground: "Jane Murray's $100,000 Lie.") New Boston officials wisely declined Murray's plan and put off Jane's next meeting request until after the recall election.
Jane Murray: UK Basketball Museum
Jane Murray has had a remarkable and amazing past.
- From (1980-1993), she served as a key advisor to Scotty Baesler, the Mayor of Lexington, the 63rd largest city in the US.
- When Scotty Baesler was elected to congress in 1993, Jane went to Washington with him and served on his staff until 1995.
- In 1994, while still working for Congressman Baesler, she accepted a lucrative position as director/fund-raiser to build the new University of Kentucky Basketball Museum.
- She left the UK Basketball Museum job in 1997 to work for Lord Cultural Resources, a Canadian company.
With this experience and more on her resume, it is not surprising that Jane Murray impressed a large number of voters and was elected as mayor of Portsmouth in 2009. (This information can be found on Jane's campaign website, http://janemurrayformayor.com/.)
Unfortunately these facts, impressive as they might be, tell only a small part of the story. To understand the current sad situation of Portsmouth with Jane Murray as mayor, we must look deeper at Murray's history.
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| Former Lexington Mayor and Congressman Scotty Baesler (Jane Murray's former boss) |
Early on, when Jane Murray appeared on the scene in Portsmouth with such an impressive resume, we wondered why she didn't have even a single endorsement from her past.
- Why no letters of support from former mayor and congressman Scotty Baesler, her former boss?
- Why no personal appearance by Baesler who she worked for for over 10 years and who doesn't live very far away?
- Why no referrals from Lexington or Washington?
- Why no recommendation from the UK Basketball Museum?
- Why not even a photograph of Jane Murray at any of the many projects she claims credit for on her website?
The articles that we present in the next few days will tell you about:
- The tragic history of turmoil and failure that have followed Jane wherever she has gone.
- The current mess that the City of Portsmouth is in because of Jane's destructive behavior, and poor judgement.
- What we believe will happen to our city if Jane Murray is not removed.
JANE MURRAY, formerly JANE VIMONT (An important name change)
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| Jane ex-husband, Richard Vimont, influential Lexington attorney |
In the late 1970's, while at the University of Kentucky, Jane Murray met and married Richard Vimont, an influential Lexington attorney, with connections to the mayor's office. Richard Vimont went on to form the major Lexington legal/lobbying firm of Vimont and Wills. (Vimont still practices law at age 74. Vimont and his current wife, a UK professor, have a successful horse farm outside of Lexington and are major donors to Democrat candidates.)
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In 1986, Jane's husband, Richard was working in the mayor's office, representing Lexington on several issues. That was the year that Jane Murray-Vimont was hired as Scotty Baesler's Legislative Liaison, a position which according to the Lexington newspaper the Herald Leader (Aug. 12, 1986) was created especially for her. She even gave herself the title of "Lexington's Lobbyist."
While still working as a Lexington City employee, she formed a new company, JVA, Inc. (Jane Vimont Associates). With her influential position in the mayor's office she eventually steered several city projects to JVA for her own personal benefit, including the UK Basketball Museum.
UK BASKETBALL MUSEUM: One of Jane's Many Tragic Scandals
In 1986, Jane's husband, Richard was working in the mayor's office, representing Lexington on several issues. That was the year that Jane Murray-Vimont was hired as Scotty Baesler's Legislative Liaison, a position which according to the Lexington newspaper the Herald Leader (Aug. 12, 1986) was created especially for her. She even gave herself the title of "Lexington's Lobbyist."
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UK BASKETBALL MUSEUM: One of Jane's Many Tragic Scandals
On Jane Murray's campaign website, the UK Basketball Museum is listed twice. Notice how much personal credit she takes for the museum project. She claims responsibility for the "feasibility study," for organizing and directing the "consulting team," for "all meetings, functions, reports," for developing and managing the "design-build team," etc.
One obvious question is "Why does Jane list the UK Basketball Museum twice?" First, under her experience working for the "Legislative Liaison and Special Projects Director for the Mayor of Lexington" and then again under "JVA, Inc. Projects"?
The answer: Jane Murray literally used her position as a public servant to create a lucrative job for herself as Director of the UK Basketball Museum.
HOW JANE BECAME DIRECTOR OF THE UK BASKETBALL MUSEUM
One obvious question is "Why does Jane list the UK Basketball Museum twice?" First, under her experience working for the "Legislative Liaison and Special Projects Director for the Mayor of Lexington" and then again under "JVA, Inc. Projects"?
The answer: Jane Murray literally used her position as a public servant to create a lucrative job for herself as Director of the UK Basketball Museum.
While working as Mayor Baesler's Legislative Liaison and Special Projects Director, Jane Murray-Vimont applied for a major grant from the State of Kentucky and financially committed the City of Lexington to construct a series of "heritage and cultural projects," including a major downtown museum and cultural center, a children's museum, renovation of a historic Black theatre, and a basketball museum for the University of Kentucky. (The city was also committed to complete was the demolition and renovation of an entire block of downtown, the "Ben Snyder Block." We will describe that fiasco in our next article.)
Due to the commitments recommended by Jane Murray-Vimont and approved by Scotty Baesler, the city of Lexington was obligated to complete all of these ambitious "cultural" projects or repay a large amount of money ($9 million) to the State of Kentucky.
HOW JANE BECAME DIRECTOR OF THE UK BASKETBALL MUSEUM
Jane Murray may not seem to be a very sports-minded person, but that didn't stop her in 1994 from getting a pretty sweet job as the Project Manager responsible for building the Basketball Museum for the University of Kentucky, a project she had committed the City of Lexington to many years before as "Project Director" for the "Lexington Cultural Master Plan" (according to Jane's website).
Lexington was already in trouble for not completing the projects it had received grants for, including the UK BB Museum and they were desperate to get the project going. Murray-Vimont, using her influence still working for Congressman Baesler in 1994 got the museum contract and later moved out of Washington in 1995.
The story below is from a Lexington newspaper (Feb. 10, 1999). It tells of the fiasco that followed. Jane Murray's fund raising efforts were a complete failure.
The article says that the museum that Jane Murray claims credit for on her website opened
"....$2.2 million in debt in a state that loves its Wildcats, a five-year fund-raising effort-helped by $1 million in tax money for the City of Lexington-has come up more than $40 percent short of the $5.3 million needed."
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Here are just a few things pointed out in the article, all of which are tied directly to the failed leadership of Jane Murray-Vimont:
- Jane spent "$1.5 million" over a two-year period to raise "$1.7 million." (That is, she only "raised" $200,000.)
- Jane "had not understood the scope of the project in hard terms."
- Jane had originally told the Museum Board in 1993 that the museum would cost $2.5 million to build.
- In August 1997, Jane informed the Museum Board that the Museum was going to cost more than she had estimated.
- In September 1997, the Museum Board determined that the actual cost of the Museum, as Jane had planned it, was going to "exceed $6 million" and they terminated Jane's contract.
- After she was let go, the Board was unable to find Jane's contract, to determine if she had made improper disbursements to herself. (Jane had been in charge of all the museum's files.)
- Jane Murray-Vimont "declined to be interviewed for this article." (Wonder why?)
As the article stated, the Museum did open in March 1999, a year and half after Jane was let go. Unfortunately, it was not able to overcome Jane Murray-Vimont's poor planning, lack of financial understanding, poor fund-raising, and shoddy record-keeping.
 Jane Murray-Vimont'sUK Basketball Museum (now defunct) |
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There is something to be admired about a person who takes on a great challenge, even if they are not able to complete it in the long run. And if this were a story of Jane Murray's failure on a single project, we would not be telling it. We admire individuals with ambition and determination. Only those who don't attempt anything difficult, never fail.
Unfortunately for Jane this is not a single instance. Unfortunately also, for Portsmouth.
Jane Murray has shown a long pattern of mismanagement, failure, and embarrassment in the public sector.
This is why there no endorsements, no glowing recommendations, no smiling pictures of public officials dedicating the many improvements Jane Murray took credit for last year but never mentions today, hoping we will forget about them. This is why she never showed even a single letter of recommendation.
She has no friends left in Lexington or Washington.
This is why she returned to Portsmouth.
This is why she changed her name.
In the days ahead we will bring you many more examples of the trail of failure Jane has left behind and what is at stake for our city. As this story shows, the poor judgement and lack of leadership Jane Murray exhibits in our City Hall had its origins decades ago. Yet Jane Murray has the nerve to present the UK Basketball Museum scandal as an "accomplishment" to the Citizens of Portsmouth on her website.
Jane Murray: Lexington Cultural Center Scandal
Anyone who followed the Portsmouth Mayoral Campaign last year heard a phrase repeated over and over by candidate Jane Murray. At every appearance and each debate, Murray referred to the "Cultural Master Plan" that she developed for Lexington. She assured the voters of Portsmouth that she would use her skills, abilities and contacts developed in Lexington and Washington to create a similar cultural master plan for Portsmouth that would bring museums, visitors and 1000s of jobs to our area....IF she were elected. The Lexington Cultural Master Plan was and is featured prominently on Jane's website. This was a very impressive-sounding promise! After all, it didn't seem likely that Jim Kalb or Jerry Skiver would ever be able to create such a plan!
One of the tragedies of the 2009 election campaign was that the truth about Murray's plan's colossal failure in Lexington was never revealed to the public. This was information that was fairly easily available, that the citizens should have been informed of well before the election.
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Murray's "UK Basketball Museum Scandal" that we wrote about on Monday was tame compared to the other embarrassments she caused for Lexington and her former boss, Mayor and Congressman Scotty Baesler. The UK BB Museum fiasco could be written off as someone with great ambition reaching for a difficult goal and failing, and certainly that would be no cause for ridicule or shame.
But the museum failure is just one of series of failures that the citizens of Portsmouth need to be made aware of, especially since she is trying to sell the same snake oil in Portsmouth that she sold in Lexington.
JANE MURRAYS "BEN SNYDER BLOCK" DEVELOPMENT SCANDAL
During the mayoral election in 2009, Jane Murray made repeated promises that she would make Portsmouth "a regional cultural center" and implement a "cultural master plan" for Portsmouth. This master plan would include museums, and parks, and historical centers, as a part of her plan to "restructure" our entire city.
On her website, Murray lists the following achievements in her statement of qualifications:
Lexington Cultural Master Plan – project director for planning, coordinating, and implementing final plan which included more public monies for the arts, an arts & culture district, a children’s museum, and a new cultural center
Lexington Children’s Museum – project director for design/build and grand opening of KY’s first children’s museum; worked with a public committee and design team on planning and design
Lexington Cultural Center – director for project planning, design, and operations; headed team of museum planners, theatre consultants, architects, engineers, community members
University of Kentucky Basketball Museum – director for feasibility study; organized and directed professional consulting team, all meetings, functions, reports
At first glance it is an impressive list. However, as we reported a few days ago, there is much more to the story. Murray's responsibility for the UK Basketball Museum failure was a true financial fiasco for the City of Lexington and the University of Kentucky, which remains as $100,000 a year burden to the University to this day. We are amazed that she would even include the Museum on her resume. The only sense in which the museum was ever a success was the amount of money that Murray earned from her services in connection with the now-bankrupt museum.
Jane Murray's bankrupt UK Basketball Museum (now defunct) We believe that the protracted, embarrassing failure of the Basketball Museum, after a string of failures in government and business, was the real reason Jane Murray dropped her married name, Jane Vimont, in favor of her maiden name, and returned to Portsmouth. But the museum story merely opens the door on a much larger story of broken promises, failure, and scandal for the City of Lexington, the State of Kentucky, and Murray herself.
The basketball museum failure had its beginning several years prior with an even bigger fiasco and financial loss for the City of Lexington: the Ben Snyder Block scandal. It remains a nightmare for Lexington officials.
As you follow the story below please note the words in BOLD text and how they are interconnected. (Anyone who believes the Marting's project was a dastardly scheme should really be shocked by the Lexington "Art & Culture District" scandal.)
All information from Lexington Herald-Leader stories is indicated in parentheses. (LHL, date of article.) All Lexington Herald-Leader articles are available on-line for a fee at http://www.kentucky.com/.
BEN SNYDER BLOCK PROPERTY ACQUISITIONS
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| Baesler |
As we described in our previous article, Jane Murray-Vimont worked as Mayor Scotty Baesler's legislative liaison, beginning in 1987. In that position, Jane was responsible for the development of the City's "Cultural Master Plan" for Lexington to help revitalize the downtown area. Her responsibility included extensive travel to other cities and meeting with major lobbying and consulting firms.
Another of Jane Murray-Vimont's responsibilities was the acquisition of Downtown property, in an area that came to be called the Art & Culture District. (This district never materialized. The "cultural site" is now occupied by the Fayette County Courthouse. More on that later.) The major portion of the property was located in the "Ben Snyder Block," the site of the old Snyder downtown department store, a former City landmark. Jane Murray's involvement in the City's acquisition of this property has ramifications that continue to this day.
In 1989, two years after Jane Murray-Vimont joined Baesler's staff and served as his liaison for the planned cultural center, Baesler convinced the State of Kentucky to buy the Ben Snyder block at cost of $9 million dollars. In return Baesler committed the city to build a number of projects on the site, totalling nearly $100 million, or else the City would have to pay the state back the entire $9 million purchase cost. This caused quite a stir in Lexington, due to the enormity of the commitment, which included:
- A $60 million World Trade/Cultural Center with high-rise office tower
- A large parking garage
- 34,000-square foot museum "to celebrate the science and technology of Kentucky"
- A UK Basketball Museum
- Renovation of the Lyric Theater, a traditional Black Theater in downtown Lexington with a historic legacy, and
- Two new theaters, among other improvements
This is the Lexington Cultural Master Plan that Murray takes credit for in her statement of qualifications on her website, and mentioned frequently during her mayoral campaign.
Lexington Cultural Master Plan – project director for planning, coordinating, and implementing final plan which included more public monies for the arts, an arts & culture district, a children’s museum, and a new cultural center (from Murray's website)
As we will see, Murray's Cultural Master Plan was quite a failure.
For over three years, Murray-Vimont led the City's efforts to recruit developers to build the improvements the City had committed would be built on the Ben Snyder Block in accordance with the Cultural Master Plan. During this time, no developers could be recruited. None of them believed the City's Master Plan figures and projections were accurate (HLH, "Finances May Spell 'Curtains' for Cultural Center," 7/5/92).
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Murray-Vimont and Baesler went back to the state with scaled-down plans. The state ultimately accepted the new less ambitious plans, but still required certain things to be built as originally agreed.
- Rather than building the proposed "World Trade Center High-Rise," they allowed the City to substitute a much smaller "expansion" of the nearby Lexington Center. (The World Trade group that was supposed to be housed in the new high-rise relocated their staff to Louisville when the new building was scrapped. This was major loss and an embarrassment for Lexington.)
- The state allowed the city to buy an older parking garage nearby as a substitute for a new one, as originally promised.
- They accepted Baesler's commitment to build the basketball museum at the University of Kentucky, instead of at the downtown cultural center site.
- They accepted a children's museum as a substitute for the original museum which was to "celebrate the science and technology of Kentucky."
- They allowed to City to acquire two historical buildings (Embry's and Lowenthal's) which would be renovated and substituted for the two theaters in Jane's first plan..
- The Lyric Theater, a historic black theatre, still had to be restored.
All of these items, except the last one, were major changes (downgrades) to Jane's original "Cultural Master Plan" that the City had committed to financially.
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FEET TO THE FIRE
But despite all of the substitutions, the State still required Lexington to at least build a $14 million cultural center (way down from Jane's original $60 million promise) on the original site (the "Ben Snyder Block").
Otherwise the city would still have to pay back the $9 million that the State paid to buy the block.By 1992, Mayor Baesler was already preparing to run for Congress. He put the responsibility for getting the scaled-back cultural center built squarely on Jane Murray-Vimont's shoulders, the woman who was responsible for the "Master Plan" in the first place and had pushed for the use of state funds. She led an uphill, and ultimately fruitless, battle to convince the City Council to borrow over $14 million more from the State of Kentucky to build the downtown cultural center. In promoting her ideas, she gave the Columbus City Center Mall as an example of what was needed in Lexington. (The Columbus City Center is now defunct.)
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| Pam Miller, Lex. mayor following Baesler |
Two more years of fund-raising and lobbying by Jane Murray-Vimont failed. The cultural center project was dead. As the deadline of 12/31/1994 approached, the State demanded their money, but the City was at a loss as to how to repay it. But Baesler had been elected to congress and he and Jane Murray-Vimont were already in Washington, DC. The new mayor Pam Miller ultimately decided that the city would have to default on the $9 million debt to the State.
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Instead of Jane Murray-Vimont's "cultural center," Lexington's leaders built a County Courthouse on the controversial site. It's called the Robert F. Stephens Courthouse. By coincidence (?), that's where Jane Murray's ex-husband Richard Vimont still practices law today.
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Lexington County Courthouse (Not Jane Murray's promised cultural center) |
The state finally tired of the City's shenanigans, and sued Lexington for "misappropriation of funds." Eventually a settlement was reached that involved the City paying back only part of the money. Other terms of the settlement included the completion of several commitments that Jane Murray-Vimont had made on behalf of the Mayor, which still remained unfinished-or even un-started.
Even though she was now in Washington on Congressman Baesler's staff, as his former liaison, Jane Murray-Vimont sent to participate in the negotiation of the settlement. The terms of the agreement were finalized in a "Memorandum of Understanding" or MOU, which is now infamous in Lexington city government.
Even though she was now in Washington on Congressman Baesler's staff, as his former liaison, Jane Murray-Vimont sent to participate in the negotiation of the settlement. The terms of the agreement were finalized in a "Memorandum of Understanding" or MOU, which is now infamous in Lexington city government.
ARTS COMMUNITY OUTRAGE OVER "SECRET" MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING
The secret memorandum was agreed to in Feb. 1995. Jane Murray-Vimont (the champion of openness and transparency in Portsmouth government) was part of the closed-door meeting where the MOU was signed, as Baesler's representative. However, the group refused to release the MOU or the meeting minutes to the public. Local arts groups, who had been intimately involved, helping Jane with the cultural center planning for many years, were outraged! They wanted to know why the City was breaking all of its promises and where all the money committed to the projects had gone.
The arts groups filed an information request for release of the documents, which the City of Lexington ignored for many years, forcing the arts groups to take the City to court, under the Freedom of Information Act.. The full MOU was finally released in 2005. (Note that the MOU was not released until six years after the opening of the UK Basketball Museum in 1999.)
The State Court decided that the meeting Jane was involved in was a violation of state's "Open Meetings Act." The decision in the memorandum controversy is now incorporated into Kentucky's Open Meetings Act, or OMA, case law.
The arts groups filed an information request for release of the documents, which the City of Lexington ignored for many years, forcing the arts groups to take the City to court, under the Freedom of Information Act.. The full MOU was finally released in 2005. (Note that the MOU was not released until six years after the opening of the UK Basketball Museum in 1999.)
The State Court decided that the meeting Jane was involved in was a violation of state's "Open Meetings Act." The decision in the memorandum controversy is now incorporated into Kentucky's Open Meetings Act, or OMA, case law.
"The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government violated the OMA when it met in closed session to discuss its dispute with the state concerning the "Ben Snyder Block." 95-OMD-57. Even if the discussion concerned a sale or acquisition of property, a public discussion "would have no effect on the prices of the property" which had previously been agreed upon." Ky. Rev. Statute 61.81.810 (1)(b).
(No wonder Murray claims she is such as an expert on the Sunshine Law.)
To some extent, most of the scaled-down projects that Baesler and Murray had previously committed to, in order to try to pacify the state over the failure of the Cultural Center Complex, had been completed by the time of the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding. Only two major projects remained that had yet to be started.
1) A new Basketball Museum for the University of Kentucky
We already told you about this.
2) Renovation of the Lyric Theater
The Lyric Theatre was a historically Black theater that Lexington had acquired through eminent domain under Baesler and Murray-Vimont. It was to have been made into an African American cultural center as part of Jane Murray-Vimont's original "Cultural Center Master Plan." This how it looked when Jane Murray-Vimont developed the Cultural Master Plan, in 1988 and how it looked when she left Baesler's office in 1995. It's also the way it looked until late last year.
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Murray's 1995 Memorandum of Understanding agreed to penalties to the city of $500 per day if the renovation of the Lyric was not complete by 1/27/2010. But the museum sat abandoned until July 2009, when community leaders finally broke ground on the project, with penalties looming. (At last, the City of Lexington was keeping the promise to the community that Jane Murray had made and broken decades earlier.)
The Lyric's very fine facebook page can be found here. (No thanks to Jane Murray.)
To some extent, most of the scaled-down projects that Baesler and Murray had previously committed to, in order to try to pacify the state over the failure of the Cultural Center Complex, had been completed by the time of the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding. Only two major projects remained that had yet to be started.
1) A new Basketball Museum for the University of Kentucky
We already told you about this.
2) Renovation of the Lyric Theater
The Lyric Theatre was a historically Black theater that Lexington had acquired through eminent domain under Baesler and Murray-Vimont. It was to have been made into an African American cultural center as part of Jane Murray-Vimont's original "Cultural Center Master Plan." This how it looked when Jane Murray-Vimont developed the Cultural Master Plan, in 1988 and how it looked when she left Baesler's office in 1995. It's also the way it looked until late last year.
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Murray's 1995 Memorandum of Understanding agreed to penalties to the city of $500 per day if the renovation of the Lyric was not complete by 1/27/2010. But the museum sat abandoned until July 2009, when community leaders finally broke ground on the project, with penalties looming. (At last, the City of Lexington was keeping the promise to the community that Jane Murray had made and broken decades earlier.)
The Lyric's very fine facebook page can be found here. (No thanks to Jane Murray.)
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| The Lyric Theatre (Newly Re-opened) |
1995 THE END OF AN ERROR
In 1995 after years of various scandals and leaked stories to the press that she was leaving Baesler's staff (LHL 7/3/93, LHL 9/18/94, LHL 9/25/95), Jane Murray-Vimont finally severed her long-term professional relationship with Congressman Baesler. She announced that she was taking a position with Lord Cultural Resources of Toronto, Canada, a major consulting firm that develops master plans for museums and cultural centers. Murray-Vimont represented Lord in 1996. Whether she is still connected to Lord Cultural Resources is not known. (http://www.lord.ca/)
But according to the Seretary of State's Office of Kentucky, Jane Murray-Vimont already started Jane Vimont and Associates (aka JVA) in 1993. And JVA's first client and its major client was the UK Basketball Museum, the very project that the City was under the gun to complete under the memorandum of understanding that Jane helped to negotiate. And our story has come full-circle.
But according to the Seretary of State's Office of Kentucky, Jane Murray-Vimont already started Jane Vimont and Associates (aka JVA) in 1993. And JVA's first client and its major client was the UK Basketball Museum, the very project that the City was under the gun to complete under the memorandum of understanding that Jane helped to negotiate. And our story has come full-circle.
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