Lawmakers Watching Consultant Contract Spending

In these tight budget times, Kentucky lawmakers are keeping an extremely close eye on the state's personal service contracts with outside consultants.For instance, consultant John Thompson of Lexington has a contract with the Department of Education to vet individuals appointed to fill vacancies on local boards of education.  Thompson doesn’t work every day, but when he does, he makes 300-dollars a day, with a 90-thousand dollar annual cap.  But Lexington Rep. Jesse Crenshaw wonders why the state even needs Thompson’s services.“It seems to me that you all would have someone else in the Department of Education that could perform this service," he says. "I don’t why you need to contract out.  I know you want to keep politics out of it, but why can’t you keep politics out of it with someone who’s already on your staff?”Crenshaw and Rep. Brad Montell voted against the contract, which moved forward on a 2-2 tie vote.  That was just one of almost two thousand personal service contracts and agreements tackled by the Government Contract Review Committee during a four hour meeting.