Bouldin backs away from county roofing project

by OJ Stapleton Editor News Democrat Leader

Logan County Magistrate Thomas Bouldin will not be replacing the roof of the search and rescue building after all.

At a fiscal court meeting last month, the county government voted to give the contract for replacing the roof on the county building to Chris Collins Construction. That was the only bid submitted and Bouldin spoke up and told the court that his roofing business would likely be sub-contracted by Collins Construction to do the actual work on the project.

The court went ahead and voted 4-3 to give Collins Construction the bid and Bouldin was one of the three no votes.

Last week, it came to the courts attention that it is likely not legal for Bouldin to do the job - even as a subcontractor.

The Kentucky Revised Statute 61.220 states, Any member of the fiscal court, or any mayor or council member of a consolidated local government, who becomes interested, directly or indirectly, in any contract for work to be done or material to be furnished for the county or any district thereof, or who becomes interested in any claim against the county shall be fined not less than five hundred dollars ($500) nor more than five thousand dollars ($5,000) for each offense.

Bouldin, judge/executive Logan Chick and county attorney Joe Ross all said they were unaware of the wording in that particular statute which apparently forbids a magistrate from doing work for the county as a subcontractor.

As soon as I heard that it might not be legal, I said I was out, Bouldin said.

Bouldin also released the following statement about the situation.

Upon looking into the law, I, the court, and the county attorney were under the impression that it was permissible for my company to be solicited to provide services as a Tier II subcontractor, Bouldin said. Before the bid opening two weeks ago, I informed the court that a local contractor had solicited prices from me in regard to the project in question. When the motion to accept the bid was put before us, I actually voted against accepting the bid. In my opinion, it is never good practice to have only one bid because someone else may be able to do the same job more economically; therefore, I and three others voted no. However, the motion passed. I value doing whats right far more than any job, so the moment I knew there was any doubt that we had interpreted the KRS statute correctly, I let the contractor know I could not help him on this job and informed the members of the court, as well. My character and my duty to serve the citizens of Logan County in a most honorable way is my highest priority. For that reason, I wouldnt want there to be any conflict of interest.

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Bouldin backs away from county roofing project