The nepotism ordinance that caused a bit of contention with county officials has been passed following decision by the Caldwell County Fiscal Court.
At a meeting Wednesday morning Judge-Executive Larry Curling reminded the court the nepotism ordinance would impact all elected officials going forward but would not impact any current elected officials or result in any current job loss.
County Clerk Toni Watson then spoke up and expressed she never once meant to dispute the court’s right to pass the ordinance but felt the process was not done transparently and did not include feedback from all elected officials. County Emergency Management Coordinator Joey McCaslin echoed Watson’s statements adding no one seemed to know nepotism within the county was an issue and also inquired as to why there was no discussion before presenting the ordinance to the court.
Judge Curling admitted that as Judge-Executive he should have gone to each elected county official and spoke with them about the issue and apologized for not doing so.
Following no more discussion the court unanimously approved the ordinance. When the ordinance was first presented to the court on July 15th Magistrate District One Elbert Bennett expressed his opposition to the ordinance after finding out it would effect all county elected officials but was absent from the meeting Wednesday and therefore was not able to cast a final vote in favor of or against. Magistrate Bennett is currently representing the county at the state level in Frankfort.
