Tom Fox sues City of West Buechel

West Buechel councilman sues city over $525

“It’s a mess. I mean, it’s just a mess,” Tom Fox said. “If they withhold a paycheck in bad faith, there’s a statutory penalty.”

 

 

WEST BUECHEL, Ky. (WDRB) -- A pay dispute has a West Buechel city councilman suing the city he represents, demanding the money he says he is owed.

In the small claims lawsuit, West Buechel City Councilman Tom Fox said the city is purposely withholding $525 of his pay.

“It’s a mess. I mean, it’s just a mess,” Fox said. “If they withhold a paycheck in bad faith, there’s a statutory penalty.”

Fox was appointed to the West Buechel city council in January to replace Ruth Janie Mosely, who resigned after a WDRB invstigation into whether or not she actually lived in the city she claimed to represent.

Council members in West Buechel earn $350 a month, plus benefits, but Fox said he got nothing until he sent Mayor Rick Richards a demand letter on June 5.

“I think it’s intentional, and I think it’s punitive,” he said. “I think it’s retributive, and I think it’s personal.”

Court records say two weeks after the letter, the city turned over a check for $1,250. Now, Fox wants the rest.

“That’s what small claims and district court judges are for,” he said. “If I can’t reach any sort of reasonable agreement with City Hall, then I’ll take it to court, and that’s what I’ve done.”

Major theft from West Buechel City bank accounts

STOLEN: More than $107,000 taken from city of West Buechel's bank account
Monday, November 27th 2017
WDRB 41

State officials claim the mayor took illegal steps to hide the vanishing funds from the public.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Taxpayer money is missing from the city of West Buechel, and state officials say the mayor took illegal steps to hide it from the public. 

A police report filed by Clerk Treasurer Kim Richards alleges that someone "wrote forged checks and made internet payments," draining $107,718 from West Buechel's BB&T checking account. The report indicates that there were at least 116 separate charges between February and June of this year, and no one from City Hall caught it. 

Instead, a banker with BB&T contacted the city's clerk treasurer and the bank's fraud department. 

No one from the city was willing to comment on camera publicly about the issue Monday. In fact, Mayor Rick Richards, the ex-husband of the clerk treasurer, has been fighting to keep it quiet for months. 

Tom Fox, a former lawyer and a current West Buechel taxpayer who records every city council meeting, said he doesn't trust city officials. He appealed to Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear's office, which found that the city violated open meeting laws by only discussing the forged checks in secret closed sessions.

"The express purpose of the Open Meetings Act is to maximize notice of public meetings and actions," Beshear's Oct. 5 opinion said. "The failure to comply with the strict letter of the law in conducting meetings of a public agency violates the public good." 

Loy Crawford, a West Buechel city council member, brought the stolen money issue up during the last city council meeting Nov. 14. 

"I've been asking a lot about missing money in this town, and whose name is on these checks," Crawford said. "That should be in open forum, shouldn't it?"

But Richards still shut down the conversation.

"To be honest with you, I am sick and tired of your games," he said.

West Buechel has a long history of bad bookkeeping. A 2007 state audit cited questionable uses of public funds and a lack of control over financial activity. A 2015 state audit found more than $500,000 in wasteful and questionable spending, including credit card purchases from the Home Shopping Network.

At the time of the 2015 report, Auditor Adam Edelen said the town of 1300 people is a mess.

"I’d say it has been run poorly, but I’m not sure it was being run at all," Edelen said in 2015. "When you don’t know what property you own, investments you’ve made or bank accounts you possess, how on earth can you effectively manage taxpayer dollars? If this city can’t be governed properly, perhaps this community needs to reexamine its current structure."

Fox said the administration has changed since 2015 but the money problems have not. 

"I don't feel like I'm being served by city government at all," Fox said.

A WDRB investigation earlier this month exposed West Buechel Councilwoman Ruth "Janie" Mosely's living situation.

There's doubt as to whether she meets the residency requirement to serve on the city council.

Mosely sold her West Buechel home, bought a new one 30 miles away in Taylorsville, Kentucky, and changed her drivers license and voter's registration to the new Spencer county address. During the course of Mosely's story, WDRB learned that Beshear's office opened a criminal investigation into West Buechel's finances, officers and operations. With the latest episode of missing money, the FBI has joined in the case.

West Buechel Mayor Rick Richards' IllegalUse of City Car

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) --
Residents complain of West Buechel mayor's drive to Florida in city-owned car
January 30, 2018

The mayor of West Buechel is facing backlash after using a city-owned car for personal use.

Mayor Rick Richards admits to using the car to drive down to Florida after Christmas to see family but said he paid for the gas. “I paid for a tire on it, I paid for the fuel on it, so I don’t call that on the taxpayers' dime,” Richards said Tuesday night. Richards said the city’s police officers take home their patrol vehicles, so he doesn’t see what all the fuss is about.

 “They are allowed to use their car for off-duty work, and as long as they are paying for their own fuel, apparently in the past no one has had a problem with that,” Richards said.

But many residents do have a problem with it. “I think it is definitely wrong for him to do that, to run out of town to a different state, obviously.," said Quentin Morris, who lives in West Buechel and said said he believes Richards must pay for using the car if for something not work-related. "But right now, I think he needs to do the right thing."

This is just the latest issue for the city following accusations of taxpayer money being stolen, forged checks, and the misuse of city credit cards to buy items from the Home Shopping Network, the last of which was done during a previous administration.

 “Taxpayer money has to be used for a public purpose, not a personal purpose,” said Thomas Fox, who was appointed as West Buechel Councilman last week. “(The mayor) needs to reimburse the city for the cost, for the rental value of the car, and then stop doing it. If he needs a car, he can go rent one or use his own."

Richards knows that citizens may have an issue with him using a city-owned car for personal use but doesn’t agree it was on the taxpayers' dime. "We have a difference of opinion," he said. Fox said he plans to bring up the issue at the next West Buechel Council meeting on Feb. 13.

West Buechel Imposes Illegal Fee on Truckers

Authorities say West Buechel's $125 fee for truckers may be illegal

One truck driver says he tears up the fee notices every time he gets them.

Tuesday, July 10th 2018

 

WDRB 41 Louisville News

West Buechel, Kentucky

The embattled city of West Buechel may be collecting an illegal tax that's gone unnoticed for years, and it was all brought to light by a truck driver's Facebook post.

The town of 1,300 has taxes and fees for just about everything, including a $125-a-year fee for any person, firm or corporation delivering to a business in the city. The town says the tax is for "the privilege of using the public ways."

But truckers like James Willinger of YRC Freight think it's a gimmick.

"We already got permits and licensing to deliver anywhere we want, pretty much," Willinger said.

It's sporadically enforced. City staff says fewer than 20 people paid last year.

"No one's ever approached me," Jason Edwards said while making a dairy delivery at Kroger. "No police officer or anybody has ever approached me about it."

It may be more than just a gimmick. In fact, it may be illegal. 

Senate Bill 153, which was passed back in 2015, "added explicit language to prohibit cities or counties from imposing fees or taxes on any private or for-hire commercial motor vehicle for the loading or unloading of property, including household goods."

Kentucky League of Cities says West Buechel's ordinance is in conflict with state law.

"It expressively states a city cannot impose that type of fee,"  KLC Municipal Law attorney Chris Johnson said. "They can impose other fees, but based upon the wording of the ordinance as it is and the current state law, there is a conflict." 

Johnson said every trucker or company who paid the fee may be due a refund.

A truck driver from Mississippi delivering to the Lowe's in West Buechel brought the problem to light with a Facebook post, saying a city code enforcement officer handed him an application for an unloading license.

The post went viral with the hashtag #NotDeliveringHereAnymore.

Willinger received the same warning and handles them in his own way. 

"I get them almost every time I come over this way, and I tear them up and throw them in the garbage," he said. "West Buechel might need the money, I don't know, but you're not getting ours, I can tell you that."

City leaders refused to comment on-camera about this story on Tuesday. A city clerk who has been inundated with calls about the tax since the post went viral said she asked the city to take up the controversial fee at Tuesday 6 p.m. council meeting.

ssippi delivering to the Lowe's in West Buechel brought the problem to light with a Facebook post, saying a city code enforcement officer handed him an application for an unloading license.

The post went viral with the hashtag #NotDeliveringHereAnymore.