Our mayor has had another interesting week. On top of his daughter having her court date set, he was fined by the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance for not paying his fines he owes to the Tennessee Registry of Election Finance.
The Registry met outside of Nashville for the first time last week, only to level a notable fine on Rutherford County Mayor Bill Ketron. According to the Chattanooga Times-Free Press, the watchdog group that performs audits and enforces campaign finance laws, unanimously decided to fine Ketron $10,000 for failing to pay a previous fine for more than 150 days.
"I've got a real problem with Mayor (Ketron)," Board Secretary Tom Lawless said in the Times-Free Press article. Ketron now owes $20,000 in fines related to his campaign's failure to file the 2018 year-end supplemental campaign financial disclosure for his state Senate account.
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Ketron declined to respond to a request for comment from the DNJ, stating the issue is "still under investigation." Seems to me like it can't be under investigation if they have already issued two fines. Maybe next time he should just say "no comment."
Anyway, Registry Executive Director Bill Young told the intrepid Scott Broden that the second fine was leveled because Ketron was alerted to the hearing and "didn't file any written response, nor did he show up."
Doesn't he know that ignoring a problem won't make it go away and often makes it worse?
Another notable development is the Registry's move to issue new subpoenas after Kelsey Ketron's indictment on 70-some counts. She was arrested Monday, Nov. 4, 2019, and served the indictments at her Murfreesboro home. She was taken into custody and booked into the Rutherford County Adult Detention Center where she resided for several days.
The State District Attorney’s Office selected the Hamilton County District Attorney’s office to prosecute the case after Rutherford County District Attorney General Jennings Jones and his staff recused themselves due to a conflict of interest.
The Registry wants to know more about Kelsey Ketron's role as former campaign treasurer for Ketron's campaigns (the very same campaigns that he has been fined for). So the board is looking into the finances of Ketron senate and maoyral campaigns as well as those of his political action committee Quest PAC. According to the DNJ, the campaigns have a total account balance of more than $196,000.
Meanwhile …
Kelsey got her court date, according to another article in the DNJ.
Kelsey Ketron, whose CBD store on the Square recently closed, is set to appear April 20 to face 30 counts of Impersonating a Licensed Professional, 14 counts of Money Laundering, 12 counts of Aggravated Perjury, five counts of Fraudulent Insurance Acts $250,000 or more, five counts of Forgery $250,000 or more, two counts of Fraudulent Insurance Acts $60,000-$250,000, Fraudulent Insurance Acts $10,000 - $59,999, Theft of Property $10,000 - $60,000, and Theft of Property $60,000 - $250,000.
And Vickie Ketron still wants you to know she isn't related to any of these people.
