The Barren River Area Development District executive council voted unanimously on a voice vote Tuesday to pay $82,976.14 to the Kentucky Department of Aging and Independent Living.

BRADD had used the money to pay salary bonuses from 2009-14 before suspending the practice a couple of years ago. BRADD Executive Director Rodney Kirtley insisted the payments were salary adjustments and vowed to fight DAIL, even bringing in Bowling Green attorney David Broderick to pursue the action.

However, following a short closed session at the BRADD offices in Bowling Green, the executive council approved the payment. Kirtley was not in the room during the closed session discussion but entered afterward to witness the motion and council vote in open session.

“We felt it was in the best interest of the ADD,” said Metcalfe County Judge-Executive Greg Wilson, who chairs the executive council and the entire BRADD board.

“We had a long discussion about it,” said Butler County Judge-Executive David Fields. “They still don’t think they owe it.”

Fields said the BRADD board acted in light of Gov. Matt Bevin’s recent decision to wrest the DAIL program from the Bluegrass Area Development District in the Lexington area because that agency is being investigated by the federal government for improper expenditures.

“We want to get this behind us,” Fields said.

“It is the right thing to do. It is time to move on,” Allen County Judge-Executive Johnny Hobdy said after the meeting.

Hobdy advocated paying the state the money months ago.

DAIL, part of the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services, first brought the payments to BRADD’s attention on Sept. 9. DAIL was informed of the BRADD practice of providing twice-a-year lump sum payments varying from $350 to $1,500 to BRADD staff.

“The payments are interchangeably referred to by BRADD as ‘one-time salary adjustments, incentives and Christmas incentives,’ ” the DAIL letter to Kirtley said.

Once informed of DAIL’s position Sept. 9 that the bonuses were not allowable expenditures, BRADD responded with a query on Sept. 25 asking under what authority DAIL was operating. That was followed by a letter in March, again from Commissioner Deborah Anderson, with DAIL restating its legal stance.

Kentucky officials had said the DAIL money could have financed a lot of help for people in the region – more than 11,000 home-delivered meals, almost 2,000 hours of home management services or about 2,000 hours of personal care services.

Documentation showed the money came from the following programs: Kentucky Family Caregiver, National Family Caregiver, Kentucky Homecare, Kentucky Adult Day, Kentucky Personal Care Attendant, Title III, State Health Insurance Assistant Program, Aging and Disability Resource Management, a program that DAIL could not identify, Money Follows the Person program, Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Broderick previously told the BRADD executive council that if the dispute eventually landed in Franklin County Circuit Court, legal bills could amount to between $10,000 and $20,000. Kirtley on Tuesday said the legal bill for the DAIL claim is part of several legal projects Broderick is performing for the BRADD. Kirtley said he could not delineate the DAIL legal expense specifically.

Following the DAIL closed session, the executive council went into a second closed session to discuss personnel. Shortly after that session began, Kirtley joined the meeting, talking with the executive council for about an hour behind the closed door. When Kirtley left the room, he had a smile on his face and engaged in conversation with a reporter about the DAIL payment decision by the council.

The executive council then met an additional half an hour without Kirtley present, finally opening the door, making a motion to go back into open session and adjourning without further action.

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