George Gleitz doesnt know how long hell be managing the Warren County Attorneys Office, he said Tuesday. I suppose until Mike changes things, Gleitz said. He has the final say-so as to who is in charge. County Attorney Mike Caudill called him Sunday and asked him to take over, Gleitz said. Because of all the allegations against him and the investigation going on, its created kind of a cloud over us, he said. So he felt it was best to stay away and let us go about doing our prosecutorial jobs without as much interference, without all the sideshow thats going on. This is an appearance thing. We perform a very important job. He doesnt want, and we dont want, there to be any appearance of impropriety in what we do here for the county and for the state. Caudill is being investigated by the Kentucky Attorney Generals Office Public Corruption Unit, Kentucky State Police, Warren County Drug Task Force and the Bowling Green Police Department on allegations regarding misuse of the bad-check fees the office collects, fees on delinquent child-support payments and an escrow account Caudill apparently handled as a private attorney. Those affidavits have been sealed at the attorney generals request, leaving their source and specific charges unknown. Investigators executed two search warrants on Caudills county office last week, and are expected to give the records seized to the state auditor for examination this week. Caudills attorney, David Broderick, is still waiting for an inventory of items investigators took from Caudills office, a list the attorney generals office is usually able to provide immediately, he said. He expects the list in the next few days. In the meantime, Broderick said, he is still unsure of the scope and goals of the investigation, and so could not comment on them. The county attorneys office has had no further visits from investigators, Gleitz said Tuesday. Although Gleitz will run the office in Caudills absence, he is still officially an assistant county attorney, he said. Its really nothing official, Gleitz said. Mike Caudill is the elected county attorney, and he remains that. Im not moving out of my office. For the past few days, Caudill has not been in his office, Gleitz said. And many of the items he uses day to day are being sent to him. Hes got a lot of his personal stuff down here that were trying to get to him, Gleitz said. I kind of take it hes not going to be here much. Gleitz said he is in contact with Caudill, but declined to give his whereabouts. Caudill has been unavailable for comment, leaving word at his office to refer questions to Broderick, who spoke on the matter this morning though he contradicted Gleitz statement that Caudill has not been seen by his staff. With the publics interest in mind, what Mike has done is name his senior attorney George Gleitz to manage the office at this time, Broderick said. Mike has been in and out of the office. Were trying to address day-to-day issues, which we have done with Mr. Gleitz. Warren County Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon said that he didnt hear about Gleitzs appointment until Monday. I assume hes taking a leave, Buchanon said of Caudill. He has not discussed it with me. I havent talked with Mike, but I assume hes taking a leave during this investigation and has asked George Gleitz to take the position of his first assistant during his absence. Gleitz has served in the county attorneys office for almost 19 years, and has practiced law for 31 years, he said. Im the oldest one here, Gleitz laughed. Im actually older than Mike. The Louisville native graduated from Western in 1966 and was drafted into the U.S. Army, he said. After finishing law school at the University of Louisville in 1972, he returned to Bowling Green to do work for Warren County. I did all the legal aid in the county for two years, and I was also assistant public defender, Gleitz said. After some time in private practice, he worked in Caudills office during 1980 and 1981, he said. He left for several years, returning in 1987, and has been there full-time since 1988, Gleitz said. Caudill has been county attorney since 1978.For the bulk of the time Ive been here, I have been responsible for District Court, Division 2, he said. Im still going to be doing that. But although Gleitz has been with Caudill the longest, the first assistant county attorney and usually next in line to run the office is Amy Milliken. The law says that the first assistant to the county attorney is the person whos in charge if the county attorney is away from the office, Buchanon said. And the county attorney determines and names his first assistant. While Milliken is officially the first assistant county attorney, Gleitz was chosen for two reasons, Broderick said: his long association with Caudill; and his experience in dealing with prosecutions in district court, which makes up a large amount of the offices work. Amy does a lot of things in the county attorneys office, Broderick said. It hasnt changed her duties one bit. She is focused more on dealing with fiscal court and the civil side. Gleitz said his long association and experience with Caudill were probably the reasons he was chosen instead of Milliken. Weve been friends, he said. I was his law partner at one time; we had a private practice together. The change comes against a backdrop of office turmoil that began well before the current investigation, according to several sources both inside and outside Caudills office. About a month ago, Caudill approached Buchanon about hiring the son of a longtime friend, said a source inside the county attorneys office, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation. Buchanon confirmed the outline of events given by the source. He had talked to me about wanting to hire someone, and he had a secretarial position that he was going to eliminate and he had plenty of money to put that person on, Buchanon said. At which time, I of course said, Fine. When we looked at the budget, he had actually spent part of this money through increases to some of the other employees, which was fine. But I did not say that he couldnt do that; those funds were already spent from the budget. Caudill then proposed paying the person by taking others raises back. That is accurate, Buchanon said. I had been unable to find sufficient amounts to accommodate his request, and he wanted to make up the difference by cutting other employees wages, which I told him I did not think was a good idea. Caudill overreacted to this rejection with an obscene comment rejecting the countys partial funding of his office, the sources said. Some of the county attorneys office employees are funded through the state, some through the county, and some partially through both. According to the source within his office, Caudill then called a meeting of his employees and told them that Warren County Fiscal Court wanted to dictate how he spent his county-appropriated money, that he wouldnt stand for it, and so all employees paid out of county funds wouldnt have a job after Jan. 31.He continued by saying that if those employees paid with a combination of state and county funds could live on the state portion alone, they could stay, the source said. That was a Wednesday, Buchanon said. On the following Monday, according to the office source, Caudill told employees that he had fought hard to get their funding back from the county, and that they still had jobs. Buchanon said that he didnt think that had anything to do with the investigation, which may have already been going on. Although he and Caudill are of different political parties Buchanon is a Republican and Caudill a Democrat the two have rarely come into conflict during Buchanons 10 years in office, Buchanon said. In fact, according to Buchanon, he and Caudill have been friends since high school.