Department Of Agriculture Investigation Wrapping Up

• {Frankfort, Kentucky}...The Kentucky Personnel Board is about to wrap up its investigation of job changes in the state Department of Agriculture. Mark Sipek, executive director of the board, told the panel Monday that it will receive a report at its December 9th meeting on the investigation of the agriculture department's decision to move two employees late last year from politically appointed non-merit positions to merit jobs, which would protect them from dismissal after Commissioner Richie Farmer leaves office at the end of this year. Danita Fentress-Laird and Kathryn Willis voluntarily vacated their merit jobs as assistant directors in July after the personnel board's investigation became public, and they returned to their previous posts as political appointees. In August, the personnel board deferred acting on an anonymous request to expand its hiring investigation in the agriculture department after an agriculture department employee alleged that Jennifer Ledford, who was hired earlier this year by the department as a political appointee, was improperly given a merit job.