Dear Editor,

I am writing in regard to the recent newspaper article about Boyle County Clerk Trille Bottom’s failure to prepare the 2015 franchise tax bills totaling $498,492.

I was not surprised that the bills are over a year late as conducting business in a timely manner isn’t her strong suit, particularly in regard to getting the fiscal court minutes recorded in the official book contained in the vault of the courthouse. State law, KRS 61.835 says: “The minutes of action taken at every meeting of any such public agency, setting forth an accurate record of votes and actions at such meetings, shall be promptly recorded and such records shall be open to public inspection at reasonable times no later than immediately following the next meeting of the body.”

I have made numerous trips to view the minutes only to find they are from one to two months behind. When I called this to the clerk’s attention she said I was the only person that ever asked for them.

This does not negate her responsibility to have them available to the public, despite the information supposedly being on her personal office computer, which the public doesn’t have access to. The citizens are being kept in the dark as to the actions of the court due to the irresponsibility of the clerk.

And since the clerk contends that putting them on the web is just a courtesy, you will only get some of the minutes as the court meets twice a month and the last entry as of this letter was Aug. 9, 2016.

It doesn’t take months to get the minutes on public record and it shouldn’t take a year to prepare tax bills.

I agree with part of Ms. Bottom’s quote to the newspaper of “not being efficient and job duties get lost in the shuffle” but I disagree that not having enough staff is to blame. She had time to spend $6,519 for conventions and travel according to the state audit; maybe she should have stayed in Danville and done her job.

Deb Arnold

Danville