Beshear requests AG's review of CPE appointment

This by Nancy C. Rodriguez at the Courier-Journal:

Upset over the Council on Postsecondary Education’s decision this week to hire Brad Cowgill as its permanent president, Gov. Steve Beshear asked the state’s attorney general today for an opinion on whether the council violated state statutes in making the appointment.

Cowgill, the state budget director under former Gov. Ernie Fletcher, has served as the council’s interim president since Sept. 1 of last year.

On Monday, the council voted 10-2 to hire Cowgill as its permanent president, starting May 1.

In a letter dated today and sent to Council Chairman John Turner, Beshear asks that the council refrain from executing a contract with Cowgill until Attorney General Jack Conway issues an advisory opinion.

The council’s decision to hire Cowgill came after Beshear had twice — in a letter and later in a meeting — expressed his desire to Turner that the council follow state statute and conduct a national search to fill the post, and also hire someone with “an established reputation as a professional in the field of postsecondary education.”