David O’Neill

Looks like Lexington Democrats are getting some education about the True Family Business in their mailboxes.

Just take one dip and end it, Renee!

The only sane choice these days, I say:

Rene True was elected Fayette County’s tax assessor in 1985. When he went to work for the state in 1992, his sound-alike wife, Renee (note the double “e”) True, was appointed to replace him.

During their years in office, the operation was a true family affair.Rene hired Renee to work in the office. She put her mother, aunt and, after a divorce, new husband on the payroll.

Renee True retired in January 2009 to get in under the deadline to benefit from generous state retirement incentives.

Before that, she was part of a legal fight establishing the right of county tax assessors to practice nepotism. The ruling, now under appeal, freed PVAs from the constraints of any official ethics code, state or local.

Renee True’s habit of hiring her kin became an embarrassment when then-Lt. Gov. Steve Henry tapped her as his gubernatorial running mate in 2007. She told a reporter that Rene True had hired her mother and that she (Renee True) was unaware that her mother had retired and been rehired.

She said this even though she (Renee True) would have been the one who rehired her. Renee True’s husband, William Harper, resigned as a real property supervisor in the Fayette PVA’s office shortly before she joined the Henry ticket.

So we have a retired elected official who’s most famous for nepotism hoping to collect a salary and a pension for the job that she gave up less than two years ago.

Add to that her current attempts to mislead the public into thinking she is the incumbent — in at least one flyer she identifies herself as Fayette County PVA — and you have compelling reasons to vote for the real incumbent: David O’Neill.

True’s shortcomings are not the best reason to vote for O’Neill, however. The best reason is the good work O’Neill has done in the last 16 months to modernize and professionalize the operation.

We won’t have poor Renee True to kick around anymore…

At a neighborhood association forum on Friday night, David O’Neill presented the audience (Renee “True” also in attendence) with evidence that her campaign was engaging in fraud, sending out campaign lit that said she was the current Fayette County PVA. This confrontation of truth drove her to tears, and then she angrily confronted someone recording the event and demanded that they “give me my videotape”.

Um, wow.

Luckily, she shared the same lie/excuse with the Herald-Leader as the crowd that night. Enjoy:

True said she used the PVA title below her signature on a flyer inadvertently. “It was an oversight and was discovered after the brochures were delivered,” she said in an e-mail. “We then researched and found that it is common practice for candidates to use the title of the office they are running for.”

She called O’Neill’s objections “a campaign ploy. … Desperate people do desperate things.”

Yes, it was a total mistake! I mean, it’s accurate!

Also, lots of hot double-dipping action:

True, 48, acknowledges the lucrative retirement benefit played a role in her retirement but said she also wanted to spend more time with her four children.

Soooo, she wanted to get retirement benefits, continue getting her salary, and apparently play with her children instead of actually working? Takes guts to admit that, I suppose.

Also, the True’s look after the family:

She also pledged to abide by all ethical regulations. True was among 11 PVAs from around the state who were the target of a YEAR Executive Branch Ethics Commission investigation for employing relatives. True’s mother, Linda Taulbee, worked in the PVA office.

State conflict of interest rules prohibit public servants from hiring, promoting or supervising family members. But a Franklin Circuit Court judge ruled last year that the ethics commission did not have the authority to bring ethics charges against PVAs. The case is now before the state Court of Appeals.

True still chafes at the ethics investigation: “At the time I hired her she was the most qualified individual,” she said of her mother. “She worked an honest day for honest pay.”

Yes, Renee knows all about honesty. Just ask her.

UPDATE: Oh, and Sue Wiley is currently trashing her as a liar right now on the radio. Renee, you don’t even have the blue bloods on your side anymore!

Here’s what Renee True (former PVA who resigned in disgrace and is running again so she can get her double dip back on) is handing out in Lexington:

Renee True is NOT the Fayette County PVA, as her lit tries to say (she’s not shy when it comes to lying, either). She resigned midway through her term in a cloud of scandal, for nepotism and trying to draw a retirement pension while maintaining her job.

The current PVA is David O’Neill, who is an actual real Democrat wanting your vote on May 18th so we can keep Renee True(friend of Glenn Beck and Kent Ostrander) retired.

UPDATE: Here’s the back of the flyer that’s even worse. “Re-elect” Renee True. Also, she has high “ethics and integrity”. On some planet she does, I suppose…