Analysis

If Eldon Renaud had campaigned on a platform of controversy for city hall when he ran for mayor in 1995, it would have been a promise easily kept. After winning 58 percent of the vote, but before he was officially sworn in as mayor, Renaud began his tenure by arguing with then-Mayor Johnny Webb over the creation and function of the newly formed Greenbelt Advisory Committee. During the campaign Renaud was at odds with the then-City Commission and many members of the business community. He ran against what he called the good old boys network in city hall, charging there was favoritism in dispensing city contracts and cronyism in city government. If youre in, you get the bid, period. I think theres a lot of cronyism going on, Renaud said during the campaign. It was that type of blunt speaking that would be Renauds style in the campaign and would continue in his tenure as mayor. His blunt style seemed ironic in one sense because he was the co-director of communications at the General Motors Corvette Assembly Plant but would never be known for diplomacy or conciliatory rhetoric. Hitting a chord with votersBecause of his union background, he was also regarded with suspicion by the business community. During his campaign, the then-top three officials of the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce contributed $500 the maximum allowed to his opponent, City Commissioner Robbie Bond. Renauds election prompted Frank St. Charles, former chairman of the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce, to warn that businesses might avoid the city in the future. Hes a labor representative and the business community is pro-business. Its going to be difficult to introduce a mayor who is a union organizer to anybody considering locating in Bowling Green, St. Charles said. But during the campaign Renaud hammered on several issues that resonated with voters. He criticized the city for bringing in an Atlanta consulting firm to study and make recommendations about a city pay scale, claiming the expense was a waste of money and should have been carried out by city officials. Renaud also criticized and advocated repealing a city agreement with a local vehicle impound lot costing $85,000 a year. The city would later dissolve the agreement. He also said he would restore money to nonprofit agencies in the city after funds had been reduced when the city shifted money to the police and fire departments. While many politicians ignore issues they dont have to deal with, Renaud often jumped in, as during his 1995 announcement speech in which he took a political shot at City Manager Chuck Coates. Most cities endeavor to bring in new blood and new ideas into their cities by continually trying to attract fresh city managers every five to seven years. Bowling Green has retained the same city manager for over 18 years, Renaud said. The future mayor was not absolutely accurate in his statement. Cities do not generally change administrators in an arbitrary fashion merely to get a new city manager. However, the rational of getting new blood and ideas into the city allowed Renaud to express his displeasure with city government. During the campaign, Renaud briefly followed up his initial statement but apparently found little support for the idea so he basically abandoned it. His emphasis on the waste of consulting fees, the high cost of the impoundment contract and the alleged city hall favoritism won voters to his campaign. Although many observers felt the election would be close, Renaud carried all but six of the citys 29 precincts, surprising and upsetting many of his political opponents. I was very sincere when I talked about that (good old boy) network and I think they know the voters are going to be watching things that are being done. I think when you have a 20 percent margin of victory, people who dont wake up to that wont be there the next time, Renaud said after the election. A rocky relationshipThe relationship between the new mayor and the commission was rarely smooth during his first year in office. When Renaud wanted to appoint himself to the Bowling Green Municipal Utilities board, the four commissioners voted against him. When he argued with then-TKR Cable of Southern Kentucky about cable rates, no commissioner supported him either. He was also the lone dissenter when he wanted the city to add penalties to the citys job development incentive program. Renauds said companies that receive tax benefits for relocating in Bowling Green but dont meet employment estimations should be fined. His proposal basically said that if a company promised 100 new jobs but only created 80, it could be fined about $20,000.Sometimes people come in with grandiose promises. We take money from taxpayers and give it to them. They use that money and dont give the jobs, Renaud told commissioners. Commissioners noted that although some companies fell short of their employment goal, others exceeded it. Figures showed the city had lost money on only one loan to a company. Renaud would again find no support for a proposal. Perhaps the most controversial action taken by Renaud was September 1997 trip taken at city expense to Louisville and Frankfort with Bernice Garrett in an effort to have a prosecutor removed from a criminal case against Garretts son, raising the question of why a city mayor was involving himself in a criminal matter. In addition, although Garrett drove on the trip, Renaud filed out a travel voucher and was initially reimbursed by the city for what appeared to be a personal trip. After news stories about the trip, Renaud said was he wasnt paying attention when he signed the voucher and paid the city the $80.At one time, there was a possibility the attorney general would investigate, but the matter was dropped after Renaud reimbursed the city. Renaud had one other brush with the law in Bowling Green when he was arrested in July 1990 and charged with practicing law without a license. The charges stemmed from an incident in which Renaud then president of United Auto Workers Local 2164 allegedly gave legal advice to a union member whom he accompanied to the commonwealth attorneys office. Renaud was found innocent of the charges. Renauds disagreements about with commissioners during the remainder of 1997 and 1998 were generally the basic political give-and-take of government. Political conflicts between mayor and commissioners are not rare in local governments. Then came the city elections of 1998.An all-out battleThe blunt speaking and the political conflicts would heat up and later come to a 1999 boil when the city Board of Ethics would hear complaints about the mayor and two commissioners, three members of the BGMU board would resign after a political firefight, and the strife in city government would reach a new discordant high. The political disputes broke the surface in September 1998, when Eddie Beck resigned as general manager of Bowling Green Municipal Utilities. Beck had said the previous week that he had no plans to retire. Rumors were increased when the BGMU board was blasted by former board member Steve Rogers, who charged board members had forced Beck out. They had a bulls-eye on Eddie and a few other people down there, he said. Rogers also claimed the board, under the director of then-Chairman William Rabold, had began to micromanage the organization instead of setting policy. The abrupt resignation by Beck prompted some questions from citizens but then-Commissioner Jim Breece who also sat on the BGMU board said a replacement would be found soon and assured citizens there was nothing to be concerned about. Breece was considered an ally of Renaud and was running for reelection. Several other candidates, including Sandy Jones, Dan Hall and Jim Bullington, would say during their campaigning that a number of Bowling Green residents had questions about BGMU and Becks resignation. If Breece had won reelection, he could have been reappointed by Renaud to the BGMU board. If so, then the events of 1998 might never have occurred. However, Breece trailed the three challengers when the votes were counted. Jones would gather the most votes with 5,858.After the election, Renaud faced appointing a city commissioner to the BGMU board who might disagree with the prevailing board philosophy and want to shake things up. During an interview with Renaud after the election, Hall had expressed an interest in just that and noted he would like to be appointed to the BGMU board. There already were rumors that BGMU was lenient concerning an unpaid utility bill by City Commissioner Joe Denning, which meant he could not be appointed to the board. Renaud was faced with appointing Jim Bullington, an active Bowling Green businessman, or Sandy Jones, a successful Bowling Green businesswoman. The BGMU board is considered a important board in the city and the mayor had remarked to one person that since Jones had won the most votes, she should be appointed. However, that may have not been the only reason for Jones appointment to a board now mired in controversy. Soft-spoken, diminutive in size and non-flamboyant in manner, Jones is non-confrontational. In a interview with the mayor, she had expressed no real interest in BGMU. Thus, because of her personality she might have seemed the safest choice, someone who would not rock the boat. If that was Renauds belief, it would be a huge misjudgment. Believing things needed to be changed at BGMU, Jones would not just rock the boat, she would capsize the vessel and sent three board members swimming for their political lives. Focus turns to utility boardAlthough not flamboyant, Jones was tenacious. In an early February meeting of the board, Jones would ask the BGMU board to appoint Electric System Manager Jim Hawks as interim manager. She got as much support from the BGMU board as Renaud often received from city commissions. No one even seconded her motion. Jones had also asked to see the resumes of candidates for the interim managers job but was initially refused. Rabold would later say that was a misunderstanding. Rabold, along with board member Ed Wilbanks, was reviewing applications and said they would bring the top five to the full board. Knowing she had the backing of her fellow commissioners, Jones brokered an ordinance that would televise BGMU meetings, change the time of meetings, and establish a chain of command when there was no general manager. Renaud, allied with the BGMU board, opposed the ordinance. The BGMU board would sue the city, claiming the ordinance was illegal, and board member J.D. Droddy a Western Kentucky University professor and another ally of the mayor became a vocal opponent of the commission, calling members new and inexperienced. The tension between Jones and other members of the BGMU board would come to a head at its April 12 meeting. There, reading from a prepared statement, Droddy spent 90 minutes blasting Jones, accusing her of abuse of power, of misusing her position, of trying to intimidate fellow board members and of trying to stage what appears to be a coup, on the board. Although he didnt usually attend BGMU board meetings, Renaud did show up April 12 to listen to the verbal attack on Jones, although he was scheduled to speak to the Bowling Green Enterprise Authority, a fact Bullington would later comment on during a commission meeting. Renaud would follow a few days later by calling for an city Board of Ethics investigation into Jones behavior, suggesting she may have misused her power as a commissioner and alleging that because she knew she had two votes on the city commission that she felt she could dictate to the BGMU board. Both Renauds and Droddys attack on Jones angered the other commissioners. All publicly backed Jones, saying she was not the only one concerned with the BGMU situation. Jones did want the resignation of several BGMU board members, including Droddy, Wilbanks and Rabold. She believed they had talked privately about BGMU matters outside of public meetings and were trying to ignore the public and the City Commission in regard to BGMU.Renaud also called for an ethics investigation of Denning. Denning had run up about a $2,700 bill from BGMU over a two-year period before it bill was finally paid late in 1998. Renaud charged that the timing of the payment was suspicious. Coming so close to the election, it raised questions whether Denning paid the bill in campaign funds, which would be a violation of state law. Denning was incensed by the accusation and filed a counter-charge with the city Board of Ethics, asking Renaud be reprimanded because he made a charge that was a lie and he knew it was a lie. On May 3, prior to the Ethics Board meeting that would hear the charges against Jones, Droddy appeared before the City Commission to complain private investigators had been hired by the city and were asking questions about him. He would also blast the city attorneys also a favorite target of Renaud by telling the commissioners if they had good legal help, they would not be fighting a suit with BGMU.Jones would win a political victory a short time later when the Ethics Board throw out all charges against her. The board would give a minor reprimand to Denning, saying that the BGMU matter gave the appearance of impropriety and damaged public confidence. Now Renaud, who still faced ethics charges himself, began losing political allies. Rabold resigned from the BGMU board and Jones asked the City Commission to have a meeting to consider whether two other board members, Droddy and Wilbanks, had violated open meetings law. Ironically, Jones made the charges about the same time that Droddy was approved as the new BGMU chairman. Renaud suffered another political setback when the Ethics Board, after a long hearing, issued him a minor reprimand. Renaud had asked for a closed hearing but board Chairman Kay Zoretic said state law mandated an open meeting. Board members said Renaud was correct to refer the matter to the board but said he went to far when, in one sentence of his letter to board members, he suggested the information be forwarded to the proper state authorities. During testimony, Renaud admitted that Droddy helped him write his complaint against Denning. Although the penalty was the minimum the board could hand out, Renaud appealed. The court case is currently pending. Wilbanks would resign the day before the commission would meet to hear Jones charges. Appearing at the council, Droddy asked the city set up an independent commission to hear the charges, claiming the commissioners would not be fair. Renaud backed him and moved for such a commission, but the motion died without a second. Droddy then submitted his resignation but along with it filed additional ethics charges against Jones, claiming financial irregularities. The Ethics Board would later toss those charges out. The in-fighting continuesRenaud would continue to have disagreements with commissioners. They rejected several of his appointees, including one to the BGMU board and refused to approve his appointment of himself to the Bowling Green Enterprise Authority. Bullington noted that the mayor was absent during most of the organizational meeting, an indication of his interest in the agency. One night when the mayor was scheduled to speak, he was at the BGMU board meeting to hear Droddy lambaste Jones, Bullington noted. In a prepared statement, Bullington noted his objections to Renauds appointment and said he would not vote for it. Neither would any of the other commissioners. After his rejection, Renaud would remove Denning from his spot on the Bowling Green Housing Authority. The move angered commissioners but state law allowed Renaud to take the seat if he wanted it. With about 16 months to go on his term, Renaud has basically alienated himself in city government. Although most commission votes are unanimous, when there is a split vote, it almost always goes 4-1 against the mayor. In addition, Renaud has had sharp exchanges with the city manager and has publicly called for the removal for the current city attorneys. He also no longer has any political allies on the BGMU board.