Animal-care panel cancels after Humane Society asserts violation of open-meetings law

A new panel given the task of drafting standards for care of farm animals canceled its scheduled meeting yesterday, apparently because the Humane Society of the United States alleged Wednesday that the Kentucky Livestock Care Standards Commission was violating the Kentucky Open Meetings Act.

The cancellation was announced by the state Department of Agriculture, which later "said the meeting was canceled at the request of Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer," Janet Patton reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. The statement said, "Although he believes that the commission has followed the Open Meetings Act, he wants to make certain that everyone concerned with the issues the commission is working on has ample opportunity to make their opinions heard. Therefore, he believes that the public interest is best served by postponing today's meeting for several days to give all parties concerned enough time to plan for the session."

"The Humane Society alleged that the board has been acting in secret to prevent public involvement and "asked that the commission take no further action on recommendations made by species-specific groups or other advisory panels until the panels hold open meetings to consider all matters previously discussed in private, Patton writes. "Agriculture Department spokesman Bill Clary said Wednesday that the commission thinks it has complied with the state's Open Meetings Act." (Read more)

UK trustees vote to keep presidential search confidential until the final phase

The names of finalists to be the new president of the University of Kentucky will be released only if all of them agree to the disclosure, and if not, only the university trustees' preferred candidate will be introduced to the campus community before being hired, the trustees agreed yesterday.

Trustee Jim Stuckert, chairman of the presidential search committee, "said the confidentiality provision was critical to applicants," the Lexington Herald-Leader reports, quoting him as saying, "We've got people waiting in the wings predicated on these motions." Britt Brockman, chairman of the Board of Trustees, told Becca Clemons of the Kentucky Kernel Monday that the search committee "has been extremely impressed by the breadth and depth of the field." The committee is scheduled to meet today to screen candidates; interviews are scheduled for March 22-23. (Read more)

At yesterday's meeting Brockman called the decision “a nice compromise . . . between public interest and transparency.” He said it would ensure input from the campus community and UK alumni, Nancy Rodriguez of The Courier-Journal writes, "while also protecting the privacy of candidates who might otherwise be scared away from applying out of concern they might lose their jobs at other institutions." (Read more)

There were misgivings. The Herald-Leader's Cheryl Truman reports, "Staff trustee Sheila Brothers said that she would vote for the confidentiality motion, but wondered whether she was getting reliable information about the importance of a closed search, saying she thought there is 'a vested interest in keeping the process closed.'" (Read more)