LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The council court was back in the chambers Tuesday for the second day of the removal trial of Councilmember Anthony Piagentini, and more witnesses and evidence were called into question.
The original ethics complaint against Piagentini was filed by Kevin Fields, the CEO of an organization that was seeking the same grant money Piagentini's future employer received.
Attorneys on behalf of the Charging Committee called Grace Simrall as their first witness of the day. Simrall was the chief of Civic Innovation and Technology for Metro Government from 2016 to 2023. She, along with Margaret Handmaker, scored applications from work groups applying for American Rescue Plan grant funds, expenditure funds of COVID relief funds.
"The proposal from [CEO Council] submitted an application and it scored very low, it ranked 29 out of 30 eligible projects," Simrall said.
Simrall said she was "very concerned" about the CEOc application because portions remained ineligible to check the boxes to receive the COVID relief grant money.
"This would be in fact, for the CEOc, a startup for them," she said. "They did not have the staff yet for this project, they had not ever done this before, as far as we can tell at least everything they submitted in their application, and it would be really difficult to achieve the outcomes."
Simrall said she was "very surprised" when she learned that Piagentini was seeking a job with CEOc, saying, "when it was disclosed, there was an audible gasp in the room." She added that if Fields had not file an ethics complaint, she would have.
Bill Hollander was called as the second witness of the day. Hollander served two terms as a Metro Councilmember for the 9th District.
He was at the council meeting where Piagentini abstained from voting on the ordinance he co-sponsored for the funding.
Hollander said Piagentini's abstention on the Dec. 1, 2022 council vote for his co-sponsored ordinance for the $40 million allocation of federal funds did not abide by the rules laid out by the federal government.
"The rules said that undisclosed personal or organizational conflicts of interest - whether in fact or appearance - were not allowed in allocating federal recovery money," he said. "So I think we would potentially have had a problem with the federal government."
The former councilmember said when he learned of Piagentini's new role he was "surprised and concerned."
However, when Piagentini's attorney Brooken Smith questioned Hollander on if anyone asked the Piagentini why he abstained, Hollander said no one questioned him.
Smith showed multiple videos of other metro council meetings where other councilmembers abstained and did not disclose why.
Hollander said abstentions were rarely questioned -- citing trust in council members.
More witnesses and evidence are expected to be presented Wednesday.
Background
In October 2023, the Louisville Metro Ethics Commission found Councilman Anthony Piagentini guilty of six of the seven ethics code violations he was accused of. They recommended he be removed from the council.
Piagentini's charges stemmed from allegations he leveraged his power as a local lawmaker to get a new job.
In 2022, he co-sponsored a proposal to allocate $40 million from the American Rescue Plan to the Healthcare Workforce Innovation Coalition. While he abstained from the final vote, he took a consulting job with the group leading that coalition, the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council, around the same time of the vote.
He appealed the decision in November, claiming the Commission violated his due process rights, arbitrarily exercised their authority by deviating from procedural requirements, and said their findings were not supported by evidence.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg terminated a $40 million contract with the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council in the wake of Piagentini's ethics trial.
In a previous statement to WHAS11 News, the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council said it was the grant administrator on behalf of the Healthcare Workforce Innovation Coalition.
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