Remaining under fire for failing to disclose that a recent elections board appointee was his cousin until weeks following the vote, Fayette County Commissioner Lee Hearn asserted a different defense at the close of the April 28 commission meeting.
Hearn pointed out that a current member of the elections board, whom he did not name, has a wife who is an elected official in Fayette County.
He was referring to elections board chair David Studdard, whose wife Sheila is the county’s elected clerk of court.
Hearn noted that there have been “no protests, not a single eyebrow raised as a result of that.”
David Studdard is the Republican Party-appointed representative on the three-member elections board.
Hearn, however, has suffered stinging criticism from a handful of citizens speaking at public meetings.
In his comments last week, Hearn said that as a commissioner, he expects to get attacked from time to time, but he feels there are questionable motives among those critical of the board’s appointment of John Addison Lester III, his second cousin, to the elections board.
“If the people who have been after me about this issue had been half as diligent about looking at other things related to the board of elections, I think it adds some credence to their motives,” Hearn said.
When Lester was appointed to the position on a 3-2 vote by the commission at its Feb. 24 meeting, Hearn failed to disclose publicly that Lester was his cousin. Instead Hearn referred to Lester as a friend he knew through church.
It wasn’t until the commission’s April 6 commission meeting that Hearn admitted that Lester was indeed related to him; the disclosure came immediately after County Commissioner Steve Brown asked Hearn directly if Lester was indeed a relative.
Brown and fellow Commissioner Allen McCarty had been the two votes against Lester’s appointment, as both asserted that the county’s long-time elections board appointee Marilyn Watts had plenty of experience and was capable of continuing in the role.
The majority of the board disagreed, as Hearn was joined as voting in favor of Lester by Commissioners Robert Horgan and Herb Frady.
At the board’s April 14 meeting, Hearn apologized for not disclosing his familial relationship to Lester.
Hearn’s comments Thursday night came at the end of the meeting reserved for “commissioner reports.” But the time for public comments is near the beginning of the meeting, and that’s when several residents again blasted Hearn for the oversight, which he apologized for at the commission’s April 14 meeting.
The most stinging criticism came from resident Denise Ognio, who asked Hearn to reconsider the matter.
“We feel like you have done us dirty, and I’m saying, ‘Do the right thing,’” Ognio said. “… I’m going to keep saying it until I’m tired of saying it, and I’m not tired.”
Resident Steve Smithfield called for Commissioners Frady and Horgan to either defend the appointment of Lester or vacate it instead.
“The news of this appointment is the talk of the county,” Smithfield said.
Resident Josh Bloom also urged the commission to remove Lester from the position.
“Sir, if I had a cousin whom I went to church with, I would introduce him as my cousin Bob, not ‘the gentleman I go to church with,’” Bloom said.
