Rodney Kirtley

The Barren River Area Development District Executive Council was advised Wednesday to fight a state claim that the agency illegally paid about $82,000 in across-the-board bonuses from 2009 to 2014.

“What you did was entirely appropriate,” said attorney David Broderick, a Bowling Green attorney hired by BRADD, the 10-county development district for the region. The money to pay Broderick comes from local-share funds counties pay to the agency to round out grant expenses, BRADD Executive Director Rodney Kirtley said.

Broderick said there is nothing in the law that prevents BRADD from using administration-designated money to pay the across-the-board salary adjustments – or bonuses, as some officials have called them. Officials say the money could not have been shifted to deliver more programs because of time constraints.

Broderick is sending a letter to the state outlining BRADD’s legal position. The dispute over the Department of Aging and Independent Living money has dragged on for about two years.

“I’m going to put the ball back in their court,” Broderick said.

BRADD took money from DAIL funds and Kirtley assured the council Wednesday, and also in statements recently to the Daily News, that no services were stopped or altered in the region in those DAIL programs during that time period.

When asked for materials to support that claim, Kirtley told the newspaper that he has proof that no services were curtailed, information that is contained in about 3 inches of documents.

Kirtley recounted for the executive council on Wednesday a telephone conversation between him and a state official in which the official indicated that the state would settle the matter by allowing the agency to pay 10 percent of the amount, or $8,200. 

Broderick mentioned a $42,000 settlement amount has been discussed in conversations between the attorney and the DAIL commissioner and an attorney from the state Attorney General’s Office.

A state spokesman for DAIL on Wednesday could not confirm those settlement figures in a conversation with the Daily News. The DAIL spokesman was asked if he could quantify how many services DAIL could deliver for $82,000. The spokesman did not immediately return telephone or email messages later Wednesday.

Broderick said he will ask the state to put any settlement amount in writing. The attorney told the executive council that BRADD is the first to challenge DAIL on such a claim and that the state still has to formulate how an appeals process over the claim might actually roll out.

“They said we can’t tell you the appeals process – they don’t have one,” Broderick said. BRADD has to respond to the state by Saturday.

Allen County Judge-Executive Johnny Hobdy said the amount spent in legal fees to fight issue might eclipse common sense and that the agency should consider paying back the money. Broderick said if the dispute goes up the ladder to eventually land in the Franklin County Circuit Court, legal bills could amount to between $10,000 and $20,000.

Hobdy said Wednesday he talked to DAIL Commissioner Deborah Anderson on the matter and wondered if BRADD should cut its losses and pay the money.

“By us dragging this out, it could create some negative things,” Hobdy told the executive council.

Kirtley, Butler County Judge-Executive David Fields and Metcalfe County Judge-Executive Greg Wilson disagreed with Hobdy, saying BRADD’s reputation in the community is at stake. Kirtley said Wednesday that paying the money would admit guilt by the agency.

Broderick said the agency also has to consider how a decision to pay the money would impact future grants.

“Right’s right and wrong’s wrong,” Wilson said. “The state isn’t always right.”

— Follow business reporter Charles A. Mason @BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.