Child Welfare Oversight and Advisory Committee

Over the course of the 2017 interim period a bipartisan working group of House members met several times to hear from stakeholder groups about issues related to Kentucky’s adoption and foster care processes.  I was fortunate to “audit” some of those meetings as an interested member of the Senate.  When the 2018 session began the working group’s end product became House Bill 1, which ultimately passed one vote short of unanimously.

HB1 contained a number of critical changes to the child welfare process for foster care and adoption, including imposing new timelines and restrictions to prevent cases from lingering overlong on court dockets and getting stranded in the inboxes of the state’s bureaucracy.  The bill also creates a new Child Welfare Oversight and Advisory Committee and I am honored to be named as a member by the Senate President:

Commonwealth of Kentucky
Office of Senator Whitney Westerfield

For Immediate ReleaseJune 8, 2018

Contact: John Cox

John.Cox@LRC.KY.GOV

Senate President Stivers appoints Senate Judiciary Chairman Whitney Westerfield to the Child Welfare Oversight and Advisory Committee

FRANKFORT, Ky. (June 8, 2018) – Kentucky Senate President Robert Stivers announced Thursday the appointment of Senator Whitney Westerfield (R-Hopkinsville) to the  Child Welfare Oversight and Advisory Committee. The newly-formed committee was created in statute with the recent passage of House Bill 1 from the 2018 Legislative Session.

House Bill (HB) 1 gives more rights to foster parents by cutting red tape and reducing regulatory burdens associated with adopting a child in Kentucky. The Child Welfare Oversight and Advisory Committee was created by HB 1 to review, analyze, and provide oversight on child welfare, including but not limited to foster care, adoption, and child abuse, neglect, and dependency.

“As an adoptive parent, I understand the challenges and anxieties associated with Kentucky’s adoption process,” Senator Westerfield said. “I look forward to applying my experience in the courtroom and as the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman to the child welfare process where too often children fall through the cracks. I was proud to carry House Bill 1 in the Senate, I am proud to serve on this committee, and I am anxious to get to work to further improve our adoption and foster care programs in the Commonwealth.”

A meeting schedule for the Child Welfare Oversight and Advisory Committee is expected to be announced in the near future. For more information on the committee, please visit http://www.lrc.ky.gov/committee/statutory/SWOAC/home.htm. For the full text of HB 1, please visit http://www.lrc.ky.gov/record/18RS/HB1.htm.

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Veto Recess

One of the critical functions of government at the state and federal level is the system of "checks and balances" on power held by any one branch.  The General Assembly passes legislation but the Governor has the authority to either sign the legislation into law or veto the bill.  In the event of a gubernatorial veto, the legislature has the authority to override that decision.

The GA has exercised this authority in the past, overriding Governors' vetoes.  (I have seen a split legislature overturn a Democratic Governor's veto, and a Republican-controlled legislature overturn a Republican Governor's vetoes.)  This year the General Assembly preserved its authority to override a veto on a number of the most critical (and contentious bills) by passing them prior to the start of the veto recess.  By doing this, the legislature has reserved the final two days of session, after the veto period has expired for bills passed to date, to consider any vetoes for a possible override vote.

Earlier today, Governor Bevin issued two veto letters; one for the biennial budget and one for the tax/revenue bill passed alongside it.  You can view the Governor's veto letter for each bill linked below.  The General Assembly returns to session for its final two days on Friday and Saturday of this week.  Stay tuned for updates on if or when we consider overriding the vetoes.

This Governor held a press conference explaining the veto on both bills, and sometime later in the day the Senate President and Speaker Pro Tempore of the House issued the following joint statement:

Commonwealth of Kentucky
Senate President Robert Stivers
House Speaker Pro Tempore David Osborne
 
For Immediate Release
April 5, 2018

Contact: John Cox
John.Cox@LRC.KY.GOV
 
Contact: Daisy Olivo
Daisy.Olivo@LRC.KY.GOV

SENATE PRESIDENT, SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE RELEASE JOINT STATEMENT RESPONDING TO GOVERNOR BEVIN’S VETOES
 
FRANKFORT, Ky. (April 9, 2018) – The following is a joint statement from Senate President Robert Stivers (R-Manchester) and House Speaker Pro Tempore David Osborne (R-Prospect) reacting to Governor Matt Bevin’s announcement to veto House Bill 200 and House Bill 366:
 
“We believe Governor Bevin is misguided in his interpretation of the budget and the revenue bills, as we are comfortable with LRC staff revenue projections. To our knowledge, the Governor has had no discussions with any legislators on the details of this budget and what he might consider to be a shortfall. We believe Governor Bevin would be best served to meet with legislators to understand their thoughts and rationale before making a final decision on vetoing the revenue and/or budget bills.”
 
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NOTE: You can find links to each of the Governor's 2018 veto letters here, which is updated as new vetoes are issued.

We Should Ban Child Marriage

A bill proposed by Sen. Julie Raque Adams that would provide court oversight on petitions for a marriage license for 17 year-olds (SB48), is set for a second hearing in my committee tomorrow morning, and I plan to call the bill for a vote.

After working with Donna Pollard (Survivors' Corner) and the Family Foundation we have arrived at an amendment to the bill the requires parental consent, but critically requires a court to review the petition to prevent the same kind of abuse that Donna Pollard experienced as a child.

Contrary to what was believed by so many on social media, the bill sponsor and I worked together on this amendment and the bill was never not going to be heard.  I said as much after our first hearing on the bill back in February.  I’m looking forward to seeing it pass committee in the morning and then hopefully be voted on the Senate floor soon thereafter.

For those asking, the amendment (known as a “proposed senate substitute”) is attached below.

Senate Bill 1 - Funding Our Future

Earlier this evening, Senator Joe Bowen (R, Owensboro) filed Senate Bill 1, the much anticipated pension reform bill that seeks to put Kentucky on a path to fiscal solvency and benefit sustainability.  The following press release was issued (the links to the bill and a section-by-section summary is at the bottom):

SENATOR JOE BOWEN FILES PENSION REFORM MEASURE AS SENATE BILL 1

FRANKFORT, Ky. (February 20, 2018) – State Senator Joe Bowen (R-Owensboro) on Tuesday filed Senate Bill (SB) 1, representing the highly anticipated pension reform proposal from the Senate Majority Caucus. SB 1 contains significant changes from the initial pension reform proposal released in October of 2017.

Senate Bill 1 would not force any current or future state employees or teachers into a defined contribution (401(k)-style) retirement plan. It also would not require all employees and teachers to pay an extra three percent of their salary for a retiree health benefit. And, the bill does not create an incentive for employees and teachers to retire at their earliest possible eligibility by ending the ability to accrue more service credit in their current defined benefit plan.
“We are committed to funding our plan, meeting our obligations to state employees, and to making systemic reforms to ensure these systems will be financially sound for current and future employees,” Senate President Robert Stivers (R-Manchester) said. “When this bill passes, we will over time eliminate the unfunded liability that has been estimated to be as much as $60 billion.”

“When a pension reform proposal was first released in the fall of 2017, there were several issues raised by teacher groups, state employees, retirees, and taxpayers,” House Speaker Pro Tem David Osborne (R-Prospect) said. “This plan is our attempt to address many of those issues brought to us. We listened to the concerns, and this bill represents a compromise that will bring our pension systems to the appropriate funding levels over a 30-year period.”

“This bill represents countless hours of work by countless individuals that will directly address the unfunded liability in Kentucky’s ailing pension systems,” Bowen said. “We listened to key stakeholders, experts, and taxpayers, and we are confident our new plan balances the need to stabilize the system while honoring the commitments we have made.”
To access Senate Bill 1 in full, please visit www.lrc.ky.gov.

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The Road to Amendment

This post was originally published in the Kentucky New Era, January 29, 2018.

October 2015 was a significant month for public policy in Kentucky.  The Interim Joint Judiciary Committee made its appearance in Hopkinsville, and it was at this meeting that I heard the testimony from West Powell that changed my mind about felony expungement.  As you read this, Kentucky now has a felony expungement statute for the benefit of convicts who’ve turned their lives around.  But few people know that was also a red-letter day for victims, as it was the first meeting I had regarding Marsy’s Law.

John Tilley and I hung around the City Council chambers after the rest of the committee members left and we heard the story about Marsalee “Marsy” Nicholas for the first time.  I left the meeting excited about the idea of creating Constitutional protections for crime victims, and my work to do so began in earnest.

I filed SB175 in 2016, and the amendment was debated in committee before eventually passing the Senate with only a single no-vote.  The bill passed the committee vote in the House before being stopped at the one-yard-line because of politics.  I was told at the time by the former Speaker that the leadership liked the bill but “we want to work on it,” which was an unmistakable euphemism for “we don’t like that its your bill.”  I went back to the drawing board.

I continued to advocate for the bill in the interim of 2016, and had the opportunity to work with the former state representative from Greenup County, who had previously also served as a judge.  He proposed a two-bill approach: the constitutional amendment and enabling legislation to spell out some of the finer details.  I liked the idea, and it stuck.

In 2017 I filed the bill again, believing we had a solid draft ready to move forward.  But we were foiled again, this time by Senate and House leadership who elected not to advance any constitutional amendments.  This was disappointing, but I pushed ahead, undaunted.

“Senate Bill 3 completes criminal justice reform — reduce reoffending by putting a real face to the crime: the victim’s.”

I continued to hear questions from stakeholder groups, usually asking “what if” questions, the kind we often had to look outside of Kentucky to states with Marsy’s Law already on the books to answer.  Dozens of drafts were written and revised.  Hundreds of emails were bounced around, testing phrasing, sentence structure and calibrating the core set of victims’ rights based on case law, other states’ experiences and importantly, tailored it to fit Kentucky’s justice system.  The bill was presented again to different interim committees, for questions and feedback.  By the time 2017 was drawing to a close we believed we were ready for 2018, and the hope to get the bill passed this year was the greatest it had been.  If we failed to pass Marsy’s Law this year, it would mean a delay of two more years before another ballot for a constitutional amendment would come around.

January 2, 2018, the first day of session, I filed SB3 and SB30, the constitutional amendment and enabling legislation, respectively.  Marsy’s Law had the support of nearly two dozen co-sponsors, from the right and the left, from the east and the west, and from rural and urban legislators.  We continued to meet with legislators who had questions and soon believed we had enough support to move forward.  SB3 was heard in committee on January 10, where it passed unanimously.  Later that same afternoon, in a strong statement of support for Marsy’s Law, Senate leadership advanced SB3 to the floor for a vote, making it the first to pass through the Senate in 2018.

The strong support did not stop there, as the House leadership promptly referred Marsy’s Law to committee and then to the floor where it passed with an overwhelming majority on January 24.  A day later, the bill was officially received by the Secretary of State, its last procedural step before voters get their say in November.

Our voices, and the voices of victims and survivors across Kentucky, were heard resoundingly in Frankfort.  Not only was Marsy’s Law the first bill to pass the Senate in 2018, it was the first bill to pass the House too, making a bold, bipartisan statement by the General Assembly that victims shall no longer be treated as mere witnesses to crimes, but should be recognized and granted fundamental rights to empower them and restore their dignity in a criminal justice system that for too long has ignored them!

Sponsoring Marsy’s Law, fighting for its passage and seeing it succeed, has been a highlight of my time in Frankfort.  But now we begin the work to educate the voters of Kentucky.  I look forward to November when we can stand shoulder to shoulder across Kentucky knowing we’ve made a lasting, historic stand for victims — giving constitutional strength to their voices for the first time.