Day four of Councilman Anthony Piagentini's trial concludes, will pick back up March 11

Louisville Metro Council Court continued to weigh the removal of member Anthony Piagentini Friday evening.

The hearing comes after the Ethics Commission's findings last year that he violated the ethics code.

In the first week of Piagentini's trial — with a day break for the regularly scheduled Metro Council meeting — the Council Court heard testimony from six witnesses. The Charging Committee's lawyer, Kent Wicker, has another engagement the week of March 4, meaning the hearing will not resume until March 11.

Day Four: Ethics Commission investigator testifies

Ethics Commission investigator Jim Griffin was cross-examined by one of Piagentini's attorneys, Michael Swansburg, for more than two hours Friday.

The cross-examination mainly consisted of Griffin and Swansburg reading documents. Some were transcripts from the Ethics Commission hearing, held Aug. 21-24, 2023. Many of the witnesses from the Council Court trial are the same ones from the Ethics Commission hearing.

Emails and cell phone logs were also read by Swansburg and Griffin on Friday. Swansburg focused on the timeline of correspondence between Tammy York Day, CEO Council chief executive officer, and Piagentini.

Piagentini received an email with a nondisclosure agreement from Day on Nov. 17, 2022. That evening, Piagentini attended a Budget Committee meeting where he called the CEO Council's project "transformational."

Piagentini had not seen the email before the committee meeting, he testified during the Ethics Commission trial. The Charging Committee's attorneys questioned this Wednesday.

During the cross-examination, Swansburg asked Griffin if it was possible that Piagentini glanced at his phone, saw the email, and did not open it.

"It is," Griffin said.

However, Griffin said he tries to view these situations with "common sense" and how an "everyday human" would function. If Griffin was in Piagentini's shoes and knew that on the same day, he was presenting at a committee meeting "that involves Tammy York Day, I'd probably pay attention to an email," Griffin said.

Day Three: Deputy Mayor David James, other officials testify

If Deputy Mayor David James — then president of the Metro Council — knew Piagentini was considering a job with the CEO Council, he would have sought advice on whether to hold the Dec. 1, 2022 vote to approve grant money for the organization, he said Thursday.

When Piagentini removed himself as a sponsor and recused himself from the vote, James said at the meeting it was "due to (Piagentini's) business interest."

James assumed Piagentini was removing himself because he was involved in the health care industry broadly, he said Wednesday while answering questions from council members. He did not know Piagentini was considering a job with the CEO Council.

"I think most people on the council at the time knew that Councilman Piagentini worked in the health care industry for quite some time," James said.

If he had been more specific about the conflict, James would have "called the meeting to recess and asked the county attorney for some advice," he said.

During questioning, Councilman Kevin Kramer asked why Piagentini would have been allowed to serve on the workgroup at all, given his ties to the health care business sector.

"Councilman Piagentini had served on that workgroup the entire time," Kramer said. "If his reasoning of abstaining on the night of was because of his previous involvement in the health care industry, then he would have been in violation the whole time he was in on the workgroup. I think my question to you is, wouldn't that raise a red flag?"

Kramer then questioned if James had truly assumed Piagentini was referring to a broad business interest or if "somebody put those words in your mouth."

"I want to make sure they're your words, not someone else's," Kramer said. "Someone suggested that the reason you stepped in and said, 'He's abstaining for business interests' is because you knew of his other work and you said, 'Yeah, okay.' But then you also testified that that would be a conflict of interest if he was on that workgroup and then abstained because of his previous work. I'm trying to figure out which it is."

"I don't think that's exactly what I said," James responded.

"That was my point, thank you," Kramer said.

Here are other notable moments from the third day of the trial:

• Aly Burress, a project manager with the Louisville Accelerator Team — the people tasked with assisting workgroups to determine how to spend American Rescue Plan money — was called as a witness. Burress had a meeting for the CEO Council project Jan. 24, 2023, after the council approved the grant and Piagentini accepted the consulting position. He seemed supportive of the CEO Council's project, she said.

• Burress attended a subsequent meeting Jan. 30 where Piagentini was present and said he seemed to be advocating in support of the CEO Council.

• On the stand, Griffin said he has been a Republican since 2018. He spent more than an hour reading passages of numerous documents from the Ethics Commission trial, including documentation of call logs.

• Wicker referenced an email sent by Tammy York Day, the chief executive officer of the CEO Council, to Piagentini on Nov. 17, 2022. It contained a nondisclosure agreement and did not include any information about a possible job.

• Another document showed that on Nov. 18, 2022, Piagentini signed the NDA and had a six-minute phone call with York Day. Wicker asked if Griffin thought the length of the phone call indicated Piagentini already knew the NDA was about a job. Griffin responded by saying it "sure gives the appearance of it."

Day Two: An 'audible gasp'

Grace Simrall, the former chief of innovation & technology for the Louisville Metro Government, testified that if Kevin Fields had not filed an ethics complaint against Piagentini, she would have.

Simrall advised Piagentini and current Council President Markus Winkler in the workforce development-focused workgroup to allocate the American Rescue Plan money.

In a meeting with government officials — including Mayor Craig Greenberg and senior staff — Simrall said there was an "audible gasp" in the room when Piagentini's job with the CEO Council was disclosed in January of 2023. Simrall was "surprised" and said she felt an obligation to report him based on what she learned at an annual ethics training.

"It's very clear about what types of things should be reported and we follow the process," Simrall said.

When asked why she did not report Piagentini by his attorney, J. Brooken Smith, she said Fields had already filed a complaint.

Here are other notable moments from the second day of the trial:

• Simrall said the Metro government sponsored the Optimize conference and received complimentary tickets as part of that sponsorship. She could not say whether or not Piagentini received his free ticket from the government.

• Former council member Bill Hollander, who represented District 9, took the witness stand. Hollander said there were federal rules concerning a conflict of interest "whether in fact or appearance" for the ARP funding.

• Hollander said he did not know Piagentini had "any relationship" with the CEO Council but it was "clearly something that we would have wanted to know" to ensure the Metro Council was abiding by federal rules.

• According to a document provided by Wicker, Metro Council rules state that a conflict of interest or perceived conflict of interest should be disclosed by the council member "as soon as" that member believes they have one.

• Hollander said it was unusual for Metro Council members to not give specifics about their conflicts of interest when they disclosed one. Wicker referenced an example of Piagentini giving a more specific reason for a conflict of interest at another council meeting.

• Smith gave two examples of other council members disclosing conflicts of interest without giving a specific reason for their conflict. Wicker argued those council members had not, to his knowledge, received $240,000 consulting jobs based on them.

• Hollander said he first learned Piagentini was involved with the CEO Council through a Christmas card after the ordinance had already passed. That card was then moved into evidence.

Day One: Piagentini's lawyer calls for immediate executive session to consider removal charges

In an uncommon move, attorney Michael G. Swansburg Jr. called on the court to retire to executive session to consider Piagentini's removal based on information already available from the Ethics Commission's trial.

"The record is already out there and available to you in the public. All you need to do is review the evidence, read the testimony, look over the exhibits, review the findings of fact," Swansburg said at the end of his opening argument.

Councilman Rick Blackwell, who served as the council's chair in place of Council President Winkler — who has the flu — denied this motion.

Swansburg will advise Piagentini to exercise his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent "throughout the entirety" of the trial, he said in his opening statement, because the Charging Committee added perjury as a charge in the hearing.

"Given the Charging Committee's determination to escalate the allegations against him to potential crimes and to use his words against him in a potential manufactured criminal referral, we see no other choice," Swansburg said.

Kent Wicker, attorney for the Charging Committee, said in his opening statement that Piagentini was "knowingly making false statements while under oath" during the Ethics Commission trial.

Regardless, the Council Court does not have the power to convict Piagentini of a criminal charge.

At the end of his opening statement, Wicker called on the court to judge Piagentini's conduct objectively, regardless of their relationships with him.

"We may say that Mr. Piagentini is on trial, but it's really the Metro Council that's on trial," Wicker said. "You passed a code of ethics. Were you serious about it? Did you mean it? Are you serious about it now? Because what you do in this case will tell all your constituents and everyone in the community whether the members of this council can be trusted to hold each other accountable for what they do."

The only witness called was Margaret Handmaker, who led the Louisville Accelerator Team. She provided information to Piagentini and Winkler as they considered various workforce development proposals, like the one made by the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council.

Handmaker was questioned by Wicker, Smith and several council members for nearly two hours. Unlike a traditional court, the Council Court members — who serve as the "jury" in the trial — are permitted to ask questions.

How did we get here?

Piagentini has been accused of using his position to land a $40 million grant for the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council, a nonprofit, to receive federal American Rescue Plan money. He removed himself as a sponsor of the ordinance and did not vote on it at the Dec. 1, 2022, Metro Council meeting, citing a conflict of interest.

The day after the vote, he accepted a one-year consulting position with the organization, Louisville Public Media originally reported.

Fields, the president and CEO of Louisville Central Community Centers Inc., which also applied for the grant, filed a complaint alleging Piagentini violated a city ordinance by using his position for personal gain, resulting in the ethics trial.

The Ethics Commission ultimately found Piagentini in violation of six ethics rules and recommended he be removed from office. Members of the Metro Council created a Charging Committee and the formal charges were read in front of the council. They added two criminal charges, making the total number of charges eight. Piagentini and his attorney, Smith, filed a motion to dismiss the criminal charges, but ultimately the Council Court voted to deny it.

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Now, that court is set to weigh Piagentini's removal from office.

At least 18 members of the council would have to vote for Piagentini to be removed. If removed, Piagentini could appeal to Jefferson Circuit Court. He has already filed a lawsuit to appeal the Ethics Commission's findings.

Evidence and arguments will be heard by the Council Court, which will include all of the members of Metro Council besides Piagentini.

Check back here for updates on the hearing.

Reach reporter Eleanor McCrary at EMcCrary@courier-journal.com or at @ellie_mccrary on X, formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville Metro Council weighs Anthony Piagentini's removal