There’s not much to write about a political squabble over pens.
The Hardin County Board of Ethics spent most of its agenda in closed session Friday. Board chairman Caleb Bland, a local attorney, said he could not disclose if the board discussed an ethics complaint filed by Jim Weise against Hardin County Sheriff John Ward.
During the board’s meeting, Ward and his attorney Adam Cart and Weise were present in the building and all were called into the conference room where the board met privately.
According to previous reporting, Weise filed an ethics complaint against Ward regarding logo pens at the sheriff’s office, which is in the Hardin County Government Building.
The pens are available for customers in the sheriff’s office and, according to Weise, no other pens were available at the time of his complaint.
The pens have Ward’s name, title, the image of a badge with a checkmark in it, and what the sheriff calls his office’s mission statement, “Safer Streets. Stronger Community.”
According to Bland, he could not say why the men were present during the meeting or called back into the conference room.
“I cannot disclose the existence of any of that,” he said about a possible complaint that both parties have spoken on record about and the occurrence of a possible hearing on the matter with the board. “We have not acknowledged the existence and, according to the ordinance, we’re not required to do so.”
Neither Ward nor Weise would speak on the record about their appearance Friday at the government building.
