Jane Murray Gets An Early Thanksgiving Present

If the political scene in the City of Portsmouth were a war zone, then you could say that Jane Murray has just become the victim of a "friendly fire" attack. Her fledgling administration has just been "nuked" by the latest bombshell from the C.A.V.E. people (Citizens Against Virtually Everything). Of course they were aiming at their enemy, the current Mayor of Portsmouth, Jim Kalb, but in fact his administration will not be affected. They missed Kalb hit Jane Murray.

In their ongoing effort to tie the hands of their elected representatives on City Council and in the Mayor's office, some "concerned citizens" put a measure on the ballot to amend the City's charter to prohibit the City from issuing bonds for more than $100,000 without a vote by the citizens. In a special election in February 2009, voters passed this amendment by a slim margin: 584 for/575 against. The case was ultimately appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court which upheld the passage of the ballot measure in a decision announced last week. So the City is now bound by the $100,000 limit.

This will present quite a challenge for the Murray administration. Even in a city the size of Portsmouth $100,000 does not go that far.

The answer is: It really doesn't matter.* They all cost over $100,000. That means for Murray to finance the purchase of any of these items, she will have to get a measure put on the ballot and hope that the citizens are in a generous mood. If they aren't then it won't be long before the City's sanitation fleet looks as rag-tag as Shawnee Sanitation. (Of course the City can arrange to "lease-purchase" items that cost more than $100,000 but surely the eagle-eyed CAVE people will see through that ruse.) A special election in the City of Portsmouth costs $20,000 to $30,000, so hopefully Murray will limit her ballot requests to primary and general elections to keep costs down. But that can be a long wait if there is a major sewer or bridge failure or if one of the City large water or sewer pumps would have to be replaced in a hurry. Cities commonly issue bonds to pay damages as a result of lawsuits: these are called "judgement bonds." The City has two major lawsuits pending against it: one by Larry Essman, et al, and another by Jane Murray, et al. Each of these suits is expected to be at least $2,000,000. But as a result of the new charter limitiation, any settlement that may be reached would have to be $99,999.99 or less, unless the plaintiffs really think the voters of Portsmouth will agree to pass a tax on themselves just to put money in Essman's and Murray's pockets. And we suspect the plaintiff's legal fees are already close to the $100,000 mark.

So that smell coming from the CAVE people's kitchen may not be turkey. It may be Jane Murray's goose.

* (ANSWERS: 1. b, 2. a, 3. d, 4. c.)

The Equalizer: R.I.P.

Edward Woodward, the actor who played the Equalizer, has died. They don't make TV shows like that anymore. Too bad.

Click on the links below for a sample of the Equalizer in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB1NiNKwueE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzwVsy4Oe-0

Woodward knew how to deal with CAVE people.

New Blog in Town-"Irish Mob"

We noticed a new "follower" of our blog. The icon of Marlon Brando in our followers list includes a link to a new Portsmouth blog. As of today, the Irish Mob blog has three posts. The earliest post contains a much-appreciated shout-out to P-Town Underground. We remain undecided about the future of the Underground. For now we plan to continue with new posts on occasion. We also will keep our old posts on line, at least for a couple of months into Mayor Murray's administration. We believe the citizens deserve a record of her past history. We have added a link to the "Irish Mob," which seems to have similar goals to ours: to provide a positive influence in Portsmouth as a counter against the CAVE people. Dear Irish Mob, Best of luck with your blog. We will be following it. Sincerely, 3 P-Town Guys

Mayor-Elect Murray: Drug Task Force

As we have reported here, Jane Murray is nothing if not ambitious. Less than one week after winning election as Portsmouth's next mayor, eight full weeks before she takes office, Ms. Murray has announced an extremely ambitious endeavor. She has declared "War on Drugs in Portsmouth and Scioto County." On her website (http://www.janemurrayformayor.com/), she announced the anti-drug effort as the "first board ...in the Murray administration": The Drug Task Force. Here is Ms. Murray's announcement.

War on Drugs

I heard from so many of you about our new efforts to fight the pill mills and the pervasive problem of prescription drugs. We can definitely declare a War on Drugs in Portsmouth and Scioto County.

Please email me to let me know you will help in the fight. Also, please let me know if you are willing to serve on a Drug Task Force that I will form soon after taking office in January. Send along any particular information and/or bio you wish me to have.

Even if you do not serve on the Task Force, we will ensure that you and everyone will know when the Task Force meets. We are working on having live feeds via computer video streaming and/or on the Government Access Channel – 24. We’ll advise as we go along.

Despite our past criticism of Ms. Murray, we find this effort to be intriguing and we offer her our sincere best wishes. We will leave the sniping and sarcasm to others. Certainly nothing can be accomplished against drugs unless the community joins together, and that will not happen without leadership. We will see if Ms. Murray is up to the task. Its success will take the cooperation of the Sheriff and Chief of Police (good luck with that), who disbanded their joint Southern Ohio Law Enforcement Drug Task Force in 2003. We hope that the community will provide the support and participation that the effort will require.

Jane Murray Wins

We would like to congratulate all of the winners in yesterday's election. All of them, especially Ms. Murray, had impressive victories, and we sincerely wish them all the success in the world.

The Mayor-elect and the new City Councilmen certainly have their work cut out for them.

We wish them nothing but success.

3 Questions Jane Murray MUST ANSWER (Part 3)

OUR THIRD QUESTION FOR JANE MURRAY This question is for the candidate. But if she wins the election tomorrow and becomes the Mayor of Portsmouth, despite the information we have uncovered and shared on this website, it will become a question for the citizens of Portsmouth. The citizens are the ones who will have to live with, for better or worse, the results of their selection.

* We have revealed that in 1993 Jane Murray (Jane Vimont, at the time) formed a private corporation (Jane Vimont and Associates) of which she was the sole owner. She formed the company while still a key staff member for a US Congressman from Kentucky. She used secret insider information, gotten as result of meetings held in violation of Kentucky sunshine laws, to gain a lucrative contract for herself in 1995, worth several hundred thousand dollars. She left her client in shambles with a major museum project, her own brainchild, that went bankrupt a few years after the museum fired her for three years of poor performance. (http://p-townunderground.blogspot.com/search/label/ukbbmuseum) * We revealed the credit card abuse scandal that tarnished her reputation and the career of her employer, Mayor Scotty Baesler of Lexington. In 1995, a major Kentucky newspaper exposed her extravagant use of the cards for travel and gifts and the state auditor's determination that she failed to provide receipts. * She left behind broken promises and unfinished (or un-started) cultural projects all over the Lexington area when she left government. Late in her public career, as her development failures began to catch up with her, she cultivated self-beneficial relationships with consultants specializing in cultural centers and museum development, particularly Lord Cultural Resources of Toronto, Canada. The very services Portsmouth will "need" as Murray pursues the promises she has made to her supporters and the citizens of Portsmouth. OUR THIRD QUESTION FOR JANE MURRAY IS: If elected do you promise that you will not financially benefit from your position as Mayor beyond the salary and benefits provided by the City?

If she is elected it will be up to City Council and the Citizens of Portsmouth to safeguard the city's financial interests from Ms. Murray.

GRANDVIEW LAWSUIT

City Council should not agree to and the Citizens of Portsmouth should not accept any settlement or court-ordered penalty that would benefit Ms. Murray beyond her documented damages. As mayor she should not materially benefit from her own lawsuit.

But she appears to have purposefully positioned herself to do so. On 9-30-08, Jane Murray announced her effort to recall Fifth Ward Councilman Howard Baughman, and to try to fill his seat, via her committee "Citizens For Change In The Fifth." (http://portsmouthcitizens.info/blog/?p=494) In November, Baughman resigned rather fight the recall. Murray applied to City Council to be appointed to the seat. When another applicant was chosen, and she announced her intention to run for mayor. All of this effort was concurrent with Murray's filing of a lawsuit against the City. Conflicts of interest appears inevitable. Citizens should monitor any financial settlements proposed or agreed to by either the plaintiffs or City administration--since Murray will be both, if elected. 2) LORD CULTURAL RESOURCES Murray should also commit that she has not and will not make any personally beneficial financial arrangements with consultants or developers hired or recruited for any city projects? On multiple occasions, Jane Murray has pushed strongly for various museum and other cultural projects to be initiated by the City. The video at the following link (http://portsmouthcitizens.info/Council/Highlights/8-25-08/8-25-08(1)JMurray.wmv, at about the 2/3 mark) is just one of many requests by Murray on the issue Here she addresses City Council, 8/25/08:

"I did want to speak to you about larger issues about this government. Since I moved back in 2002 and bought a home, I have tried to bring my expertise to the table over and over to assist the City. I suggested we build a children's museum. I suggested that we look at building a vision of the future of the City of Portsmouth and all the planning that would go into that."

Considering Murray's past dubious relationships with Lord Cultural Resources of Canada and other consultants and the fact that she has yet to be closely associated with any successful museum or cultural center, we suggest that City Council scrutinize any similar proposal by Murray with great care, if she is elected. The citizens should demand it.

And, definitely, do not give her a credit card!

Jane Murray: A Bad Bet for Portsmouth

Anyone who has read our stories about Jane Murray and her dismal record must admit that she is NOT PLAYING WITH A FULL DECK. Everyone she has worked for in the past has gotten a RAW DEAL. But if two Council races go her way tomorrow, she will have THREE OF A KIND on City Council. Soon she could have FULL HOUSE OF FREAKS running City government. If she and her friends get elected, the whole town will get a ROYAL FLUSH. And that would be BAD DEAL for Portsmouth.

Jane Murray: Promises, Promises (Part 1)

THE LEXINGTON CULTURAL CENTER SCANDAL

Jane Murray has repeatedly promised that she will make Portsmouth "a regional cultural center" and that she will implement a "cultural master plan" for Portsmouth, just like she has done in other cities. This master plan will include museums, and parks, and historical centers, as a part of her plan to "restructure" our entire city.

On her website, Murray lists the following achievements in her statement of qualifications:

* Lexington Cultural Master Plan – project director for planning, coordinating, and implementing final plan which included more public monies for the arts, an arts & culture district, a children’s museum, and a new cultural center * Lexington Children’s Museum – project director for design/build and grand opening of KY’s first children’s museum; worked with a public committee and design team on planning and design * Lexington Cultural Center – director for project planning, design, and operations; headed team of museum planners, theatre consultants, architects, engineers, community members * University of Kentucky Basketball Museum – director for feasibility study; organized and directed professional consulting team, all meetings, functions, reports

At first glance it is an impressive list. However, as we reported a few days ago, there is much more to the story. Murray's responsibility for the UK Basketball Museum failure was a true financial fiasco for the City of Lexington and the University of Kentucky, which remains as $100,000 a year burden to the University to this day. We are amazed that she would even include the Museum on her resume. The only sense in which the museum was ever a success was the amount of money that Murray earned from her services in connection with the now-bankrupt museum.

Jane Murray's bankrupt UK Basketball Museum (now defunct)

We believe that the protracted, embarrassing failure of the Basketball Museum, after a string of failures in government and business, was the real reason Jane Murray dropped her married name, Jane Vimont, in favor of her maiden name, and returned to Portsmouth.

But the museum story merely opens the door on a much larger story of broken promises, failure, and scandal for the City of Lexington, the State of Kentucky, and Murray herself.

The basketball museum failure had its beginning several years prior with an even bigger fiasco and financial loss for the City of Lexington: the Ben Snyder Block scandal.

As you follow the story below please note the words in BOLD text and how they are interconnected. (Anyone who believes the Marting's project was a dastardly scheme should really be shocked by the Lexington "Art & Culture District" scandal.)

All information from Lexington Herald-Leader stories is indicated in parentheses. (LHL, date of article.) All Lexington Herald-Leader articles are available on-line for a fee.

UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY/LEXINGTON

After graduating from Ohio State University in 1975, Jane Murray studied sociology at the University of Kentucky where she got her Masters in 1977. While at UK, Jane Murray met and later married Richard E. Vimont, a Lexington attorney, who had received his Law Degree from UK in 1960. Vimont was an influential lawyer in Lexington which connections in the Mayor's office. Vimont went on to form the influential Lexington lobbying firm of Vimont & Wills. (Vimont still practices law at age 73, specializing in "corporate law, animal law, and equine law." He has also worked part-time in the Fayette County Attorney's office since 2006, when he sold his law firm Vimont & Wills. He and his current wife, a UK professor, have a successful horse farm outside of Lexington and are major donors to Democrat candidates.)

Vimont was a good last name to have in Lexington. It helped Jane Murray-Vimont to get several quasi-government jobs in Lexington and Frankfort starting in 1977. In 1986, Jane's husband, Richard was working in the mayor's office, representing Lexington on several issues. That was the year that Jane Murray-Vimont was hired as Lexington Mayor Scotty Baesler's Legislative Liaison, a position created especially for her. (LHL, 8/12/86). One of the issues that Richard Vimont would later work on for the City was the negotiation for the lease of property to build a children's museum. (LHL, 8/16/89).

BEN SNYDER BLOCK PROPERTY ACQUISITIONS

As Baesler's legislative liaison, Jane Murray-Vimont was responsible for development of a "Cultural Master Plan" for Lexington to help revitalize the downtown area. Her responsibility included extensive travel to other cities and meeting with major lobbying and consulting firms.

(NOTE: In her press conference Wednesday, Jane Murray slyly claimed that she did not go on "any of the trips mentioned in the [1996 Lexington Herald-Leader] article except for one." If true, this is a very sneaky denial. Murray's travel in and out of the US as Legislative Liason was extensive, as other news article from the period show.)

Another of Jane Murray-Vimont's responsibilities was the acquisition of Downtown property, in an area that came to be called the Art & Culture District. (This district never materialized. The "cultural site" is now occupied by the Fayette County Courthouse. More on that later.) This process of property acquisition was helped along by Jane's attorney husband, Richard. (LHL 7/18/94.) The major portion of the property was located in the "Ben Snyder Block," the site of the old Snyder downtown department store,a former City landmark. Jane Murray's involvement in the City's acquisition of this property has ramifications that continue to this day.

In 1989, two years after Jane Murray-Vimont joined Baesler's staff and served as his liaison for the planned cultural center, Baesler convinced the State of Kentucky to buy the Ben Snyder block at cost of $9 million dollars. In return Baesler committed the city to build a number of projects on the site, totalling $60 million, or else the City would have to pay the state back the entire $9 million purchase cost. This caused quite a stir in Lexington, due to the enormity of the commitment, which included:

• A $60 million World Trade/Cultural Center with high-rise office tower
• A large parking garage
• 34,000-square foot museum "to celebrate the science and technology of Kentucky"
• A UK Basketball Museum
• Renovation of the Lyric Threater, a traditional Black Theater in downtown Lexington with a historic legacy, and
• Two new theaters, among other improvements

This is the Lexington Cultural Master Plan that Murray takes credit for in her statement of qualifications and on her website, and mentions frequently at public events:

Lexington Cultural Master Plan – project director for planning, coordinating, and implementing final plan which included more public monies for the arts, an arts & culture district, a children’s museum, and a new cultural center (from Murray's website)

As we will see, Murray's Cultural Master Plan was quite a failure.

For over three years, Murray-Vimont led the City's efforts to recruit developers to build the improvements the City had committed would be built on the Ben Snyder Block in accordance with the Cultural Master Plan. During this time, no developers could be recruited. None of them believed the City's Master Plan figures and projections were accurate (HLH, "Finances May Spell 'Curtains' for Cultural Center," 7/75/92). Murray-Vimont and Baesler went back to the state with scaled-down plans. The state ultimately accepted the new less ambitious plans, but still required certain things to be built as originally agreed.

• Rather than building the proposed "World Trade Center High-Rise," they allowed the City to substitute the expansion of the nearby Lexington Center. (The World Trade group that was supposed to be housed in the new high-rise relocated much of their staff to Louisville when the new building was scrapped.)
• The state allowed the city to buy an older parking garage nearby as a substitute for a new one on the site paid for by the state.
• They accepted Baesler's commitment to build the basketball museum at UK rather that the cultural center site.
• They accepted the new children's museum as a substitute for the science and technology museum.
• They allowed to City to acquire two historical buildings (Embry's and Lowenthal's) which would be renovated and substituted for the two theaters.
• The historic Lyric Theater still had to be restored.

FEET TO THE FIRE But despite all of the substitutions, the State still required Lexington to at least build a $14 million cultural center there, or pay back the $9 million the State paid for the site. And by 1992, Mayor Baesler was already preparing to run for Congress. He put the responsibility for getting the scaled-back cultural center built squarely on Jane Murray-Vimont's shoulders, the woman who was responsible for the "Master Plan" in the first place and had pushed for the use of state funds. She led an uphill, and ultimately fruitless, battle to convince the City Council to borrow over $14 million from the State of Kentucky to build the downtown cultural center. In promoting her ideas, she gave the Columbus City Center Mall as an example of what was needed in Lexington. (The Columbus City Center is now defunct.) But Council was reluctant. As the Herald Leader said: "Over the last five years, Lexington has debated what a cultural center should contain and whether the city can afford to pick up the tab." One councilman said, "a $14 million project is such a dead weight right now that it scares me." Even Baesler's Vice Mayor (who became mayor after Baesler)Pam Miller was hesitant. She worried about the cost and said that a cultural center "is not going to be the turning point" in the City's economic problems. (LHL, 7/5/92, page A4)

Two more years of fund-raising and lobbying by the City and Jane Murray-Vimont failed. The cultural center project was dead. As the deadline of 12/31/1994 approached, the City could not afford to repay the $9 million dollars. But Baesler had been elected to congress and he and Jane Murray-Vimont were already in Washington, DC. The new mayor Pam Miller ultimately ignored the state's demands.

Instead of Jane Murray-Vimont's "cultural center," Lexington's leaders built a County Courthouse on the controversial site. It's called the Robert F. Stephens Courthouse. By coincidence (?), that's where Jane murray's ex-husband Richard still practices today. He has a nice office. They have great post cards.

But it is NOT a cultural center.

The state finally tired of the City's shenanigans, and filed a suit against Lexington for "misappropriation of funds." Eventually a settlement was reached that involved the City paying back only part of the money. Other terms of the settlement included the completion of several commitments that Jane Murray-Vimont had made on behalf of the Mayor, which still remained unfinished-or un-started. As Baesler's former liaison, Jane Murray-Vimont was involved in the negotiation of the settlement. The terms of the agreement were finalized in a now-infamous "Memorandum of Understanding" or MOU.

OUTRAGE OVER "SECRET" MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING The secret memorandum was agreed to in Feb. 1995. Jane Murray-Vimont (the champion of openness and transparency in Portsmouth government) was part of the closed-door meeting where the MOU was signed, as Baesler's representative. However, the group refused to release the MOU or the meeting minutes to the public. Local arts groups were outraged! They filed a Freedom of Information request which the City ignored. The arts groups took the City to court. The full MOU was finally released in 2005. (Note that the MOU was not released until six years after the opening of the UK Basketball Museum in 1999.) The decision in the memorandum controversy is now incorporated into Kentucky's Open Meetings Act or OMA.

"The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government violated the OMA when it met in closed session to discuss its dispute with the state concerning the "Ben Snyder Block." 95-OMD-57. Even if the discussion concerned a sale or acquisition of property, a public discussion "would have no effect on the prices of the property" which had previously been agreed upon." Ky. Rev. Statute 61.81.810 (1)(b).

(No wonder Murray is such as an expert on the Sunshine Law.) BACK TO THE BASKETBALL MUSEUM To some extent, most of the scaled-down projects that Baesler and Murray had previously committed to, in order to try to pacify the state over the failure of the Cultural Center Complex, had been completed by the time of the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding. Only two major projects remained that had yet to be started. 1) Renovation of the Lyric Theater, a historically Black theater that the City had acquired through eminent domain under Baesler and Murray-Vimont. It was to have been made into an African American cultural center as part of Jane Murray-Vimont's original "Cultural Center Master Plan." This how it looked when Jane Murray-Vimont developed the Cultural Master Plan, in 1988 and how it looked when she left Baesler's office in 1995. It's also the way it looked until a few months ago. The 1995 Memorandum of Understanding agreed to penalties to the city of $500 per day if the renovation of the Lyric was not complete by 1/27/2010. But the museum sat abandoned until July of this year, when community leaders broke ground on the project, with penalties looming. (When we visited the site, it looked like not much had been done. A time extension may be needed.)

2) The other major outstanding project that the state was still demanding in 1995 was the construction of the UK Basketball Museum.

In 1995 after years of various scandals and leaked stories to the press that she was leaving Baesler's staff (LHL 7/3/93, LHL 9/18/94, LHL 9/25/95), Jane Murray-Vimont finally severed her long-term professional relationship with Congressman Baesler. She announced that she was taking a position with Lord Cultural Resources of Toronto, Canada, a major consulting firm that develops master plans for museums and cultural centers. Murray-Vimont represented Lord in 1996. Whether she is still connected to Lord Cultural Resources is not known. (http://www.lord.ca/)

But according to the Seretary of State's Office of Kentucky, Jane Murray-Vimont started Jane Vimont and Associates (aka JVA) in 1993. And JVA's first client and its major client was the UK Basketball Museum. And our story begins to come full-circle.

Jane Murray; Promises, Promises (Part 2 of 2)

MORE SCANDALS AND BACK TO LEXINGTON By 1995, Jane Murray-Vimont's relationship with Congressman Baesler and his staff had soured, following a string of negative stories in the press and highly public snafus. She was also divorced from her husband, Attorney Richard E. Vimont who was a powerful influence in City and County government. It was clear that she was on her way out as Baesler's chief aide. Murray-Vimont didn't get along with Baesler's Washington staff, particularly Chuck Atkins, his Chief of Staff. The Lexington Herald-Leader reported: "...the constraints of the office have soured [Baesler's] chief legislative aide, Jane Vimont. She recently returned to Lexington to work out of his district office and is looking for another job. 'With 15 years of experience in government policy, [Washington] is really not a place for me in the long run.' " (LHL, 7/3/93) Later, at a time when Republicans were making inroads in Kentucky, Democrat Baesler was trying to distance himself from liberal associates. The article entitled "Baesler Is Hard Worker With Conservative Streak" (LHL, 10/13/96) referred to Jane Vimont as "one of his more liberal staff members." This indicates another reason that Murray-Vimont did not fit in. CREDIT CARD SCANDAL But Murray-Vimont was still working for Baesler, when the credit card scandal broke. (LHL, 7/25/95) Despite Murray's curt denials on her website and at her press conference last Wednesday, the credit card story was a serious issue and a major embarrassment for her boss at a critical time in his political career. And she was central to it. This story of her missing receipts, bizarre and expensive gifts, and extravagant travel resonated with the voters and Jane Murray-Vimont didn't handle it any better in Lexington than she has in Portsmouth. Read more about that story here: http://p-townunderground.blogspot.com/2009/10/3-questions-jane-murray-must-answer_25.html BEN SNYDER BLOCK APPRAISAL SCANDAL

However, the biggest snafu that hung over everyone's head like a grey cloud was the on-going Ben Snyder Block mess. It continued to haunt Congressman Baesler all the way in Washington. In 1994, The Lexington Herald Leader called it "The $9 Million Dilemma" (LHL, 9/18/94), in a front page article that featured Jane Murray-Vimont prominently, including her photograph. A key dispute involved the City's purchase under Baesler of a large parcel of real estate in the Ben Snyder block with state funds. Had Baesler decided to buy the block before or after deciding to build a downtown cultural center on the site? There were allegations of fixed appraisals, sweetheart appointments to boards, and pay-offs. The story said Baesler was "facing persistent questions about whether Lexington bailed out Southcreek's owners [a downtown developer]--his supporters and campaign contributors--with the state's money." Jane Murray-Vimont, as the City's cultural development point woman, was repeatedly referenced. The article cited her handling of appraisals that increased sharply in a short time.

The next day another front-page article appeared: "Cultural Center Unlikely, Leaving Lexington To Find New Use For Snyder Block." (LHL, 9/19/94), again featuring Jane Murray-Vimont.

THE BIRTH OF JANE VIMONT & ASSOCIATES, INC. (11/12/1993)

In November 1993, during Scotty Baesler's first year in Washington, Ms. Murray-Vimont formed a corporation, Jane Vimont and Associates. (She refers to it as "JVA, Inc." in her statement of qualifications.) But Jane did not leave her position as Congressman's Baesler's Legislative Director until two years later, late 1995. During this two year period, she spent much time in Lexington trying to clean up the mess she and the former mayor had made with all the cultural center issues. She attended meetings with developers, investors, and consultants. Also with state regulators and bureaucrats who were trying to make the City meet its obligations. Murray-Vimont was party to all of the inside information. She sensed opportunity and she shrewdly positioned herself to take advantage of it.

Specifically she was party to the secret February 1995, Memorandum of Understanding negotiated between the State and the City of Lexington. This memo listed which projects the State of Kentucky was going to force the Lexington government to construct. The group fought vigorously to keep the information away from the public, outraging the Lexington arts community, who tired of seeing there long-promised cultural projects languishing. They demanded openness from their government representatives including Murray-Vimont, but the group keep the information away from them for ten years until the State Attorney General determined the group had violated Kentucky's Open Meetings Act, or "Sunshine Law." The landmark ruling finally forced memorandum's release in 2005. (See "Jane Murray: Promises, Promises-Part 1")

In the meantime, Jane Murray-Vimont had access to the secret details. And Jane Vimont and Associates, Inc. was her means of taking advantage of her inside information.

UK BASKETBALL MUSEUM-INSIDE TRACK (LHL, 5/10/99)

Even before leaving government employment, Murray-Vimont's had already secured a lucrative contract for her new company. In 1994, she helped to incorporate the UK Basketball Museum, and the museum board, in turn, hired her as "project manager and fund-raiser", even though she was still employed on Congressman Baesler's staff. Of course, this was the very museum which Murray-Vimont had already committed the city to create as part of its state-ordered settlement. Over a three year span, the museum board paid her company $465,000.

Murray-Vimont's expenses were minimal. She was her company's sole proprietor and sole employee. The Lexington Center, which was expanded as part of the secretive Cultural Center settlement with the State, provided rent-free office space to Murray-Vimont and to the museum board, which otherwise would have cost $100,000 to $150,000 per year. Utilities, about $50,000 per year, were paid for with museum funds. With little overhead, Murray-Vimont's contract was indeed lucrative.

But her fund-raising results were dismal, focusing mainly on the sale of gold, silver and bronze medallions that were not as popular as she had hoped. Early on, the museum spent over $200,000 on her plan to give medallions to donors in exchange for gifts. The trinkets raised only $1.1 million toward Murray-Vimont's stated goal of $2.9 million, and the museum was left with over half of the 6500 medals when the program was terminated.

She leveraged as much City funds for the museum as she could manage, about a million dollars. Still revenues were woefully insufficient. Perhaps they might have been better if Murray had spent more time on it.

But she was busy with other "JVA, Inc." projects, as indicated on her website resume. As the Basketball Museum struggled, Murray-Vimont represented a Canandian Company, Lord Cultural Resources, in the collection of some unpaid invoices owed by the Muhammed Ali Center in Louisville which was also struggling at the time. (LHL, 6/18/96) Murray's website resume lists "Round One-project manager for a special exhibition on the life of Muhammed Ali" as one of her "JVA, Inc. Projects," but it fails to mention her collection efforts on the behalf of the Canadian firm.

After three years of floundering, the Museum Board terminated Murray-Vimont's contract. They hired a new director whose analysis was that "it was apparent that the museum organizers," which of course included Murray-Vimont, "had not understood the scope of the project in hard terms. It would cost millions more than anyone thought."

But as described in our previous articles, the Museum ultimately failed despite the new director and the board's best efforts. It really was doomed from the start, being based on the flawed feasibility studies and planning by Jane Murray-Vimont. As she reorts on her website:

"University of Kentucky Basketball Museum – director for feasibility study; organized and directed professional consulting team, all meetings, functions, reports. "

Murray claimed that she resigned from teh museum. But the Board only stated that they had terminated her contract. Murray refused to be interviewed by the newspaper (not surprisingly) about her departure. But the museum said she had taken a job in Canada.

RETURN TO OHIO

If she actually did work in Canada, it may have been because she had worn out her welcome everywhere else. The latter part of her career with Lexington city government was extremely rocky, and surely tarnished her reputation. Her Lexington Cultural Disrtict was still a vacant lot. She was divorced from an influential Lexington attorney. She was deeply involved in reneging on several promises she and/or her boss had made to the State of Kentucky, including a tainted $9 million dollar land deal. Her Washington job was a bust. She had burned her bridges with the "arts community" with her egregious violation of Open Meeting Act requirements. Perhaps the biggest bust of all, one that she could not blame on anyone but herself, was the UK Basketball Museum colossal failure.

Perhaps it was inevitable that she would return to Portsmouth. She claims she came back to care for her ailing mother who lives in South Shore. But she must not need much care. Murray said in a mayoral debate that she warns her mother not to come "into town" and drive on our "dangerous" city streets.

Since her return to Portsmouth in 2002 she hasn't done much. She let her Kentucky corporation lapse in 2002. Another company she owns, Creative Design Images, has also lapsed according the Ohio Seretary of State website. She applied to be a substitute teacher at Northwest High School in 2003. Her application was approved pending a federal background check.(http://www.northwest.k12.oh.us/docs2/District/BoardMinutes/2003/minutes092303.PDF) Her website resume lists her experience as "Music Producer and Writer (2005-present)," but may just be a euphemism.

COMMUNITY ORGANIZER

Her biggest activity in the last seven years has been stirring up things in Portsmouth. She filed a major lawsuit against the City she hopes to be mayor of. It may be very lucrative if she wins it.

She led a recall effort against her City Councilman, who resigned rather than be put through the inevitable hell she and her cohorts surely had in store for him. Then she was irate at City Council for not appointing her as the man's replacement. All of her past problems have not dminished her sense of entitlement.

She has been working behind the scenes with two Councilmen and the wife of a Councilman to undermine every effort by the current mayor to make improvements to the City.

What will she do for the City if elected? If you've read this far, you've learned enough to know that Murray has left a trail of tragically failed projects behind her wherever she has gone. We have no doubt she would have the same result here.

Hopefully the information we have found and shared on this website will assist the voters of Portsmouth to select the best candidate to serve the citizens of Portsmouth. Time will tell.

Every elected official needs to be watched carefully. Especially those like Ms. Murray, who don't believe the have the need to explain themselves.

If you sense desperation in the Murray Campaign, even panic, as these damaging and thoroughly documented facts about her government and business failings continue to mount, perhaps now you know why. There is no way she can answer or dispute these charges.

And if she loses this race.................there's nowhere else for her to go.

Kevin Johnson, Gay Rights Activist: Candidate for First Ward Council

ATTENTION ALL CITY WORKERS!! KEVIN JOHNSON WANTS TO CHANGE YOUR PERSONNEL POLICIES!! Last Wednesday there were TWO press conferences held at the Laborers Local 83 Union Hall. Only one was mentioned in the Portsmouth Times or on WSAZ. Jane Murray's portion was ridiculously short--less than ten minutes. (She invited poor Mr. Yohe to come all the way from Huntington to cover it.) Then, Kevin Johnson, Candidate for First Ward City Council had his turn. He spoke for a few minutes to explain his priorites for the City. His speech begins at about the 9:30 mark in the following video. What are Mr. Johnson's priorities for the City? Improved streets and water lines? Sewers on Grandview? Lowering taxes? Downtown revitalization? No. Johnson's no. 1 priority is changing the City's personnel policies. When on City Council he plans to form a "Personnel Policy Sub-Committee." He wants to change the City Charter and City administration, too, to bring us poor, dumb Appalachians "into the 21 st Century:"

"Those of you who work in the City, and I hope there are some here, try to find personnel policies. It's almost impossible."

Huh??? What are you smoking Mr. Johnson? Our AFSCME friends have told us that Personnel Policies are given to EVERY new employee when they come to work for the City and that copies are available from the Unions and from the Mayor's office upon request. Did you even ask for a copy, Mr. Johnson? Or did you just make up this ridiculous lie as a pretense? After reading our previous articles about your history in San Francisco, several City employees want to know, what you want to change about the City's personnel policies and City Charter? Because, as you said:

"We have a LOT of changes to make."

Kevin Johnson, "Gay Rights Activist" (San Francisco Chronicle)

As reported only here, last week, and in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2002, Mr. Johnson is a gay rights activist (their words and his, not ours.) who moved to Portsmouth where he intends to continue his political agenda. The Chroncile reported on 3/16/02, "Every act, even something seemingly so innocuous as a late-afternoon coffee chat, must have political and social ramifications. Johnson is an activist, so he can't help it."http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/03/16/MN190632.DTL

The article also says that Kevin Johnson's biggest political claim to fame in the San Francisco area was the passage of same-sex marriage benefits in Concord California, a "conservative" Bay Area city. The reporter asked Johnson what his plans were for the Portsmouth community, and concluded:

Doubtless, [Kevin Johnson] won't stay quiet for long in Portsmouth, Ohio."I've already got a list of 700 names back there, people with political issues to call," he says, letting loose another raspy belly laugh. "Gawd, I love it!"

Johnson lived in Portsmouth just long enough to meet the 5-year residency requirement when he began his pursuit of the First Ward Council Seat. The first thing he mentions to City workers is that he wants to change their personnel policies. Well, Portsmouth City workers can put one and one together, Mr. Johnson. And they don't liked what it adds up to.

City workers say their "stone-age" personnel policies are just fine the way they are, even if they don't match up to San Francisco standards.