Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear in a ruling issued yesterday said that the Univ. of Louisville "did not break the state's open meetings law" when BOT Chair David Grissom "called fellow members to talk about suspending" former AD Tom Jurich, according to Phillip Bailey of the Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL. Grissom in September said that he had called "every trustee to get their take on how best to respond to the scandal." Under state law, BOT meetings are "required to be open to the public and must be publicized in advance." But Beshear said that UL interim President Greg Postel had the "authority to suspend Jurich and did not require any action by the board to do so." He also said Postel could notify UL board members "as long as no discussion of the various alternatives is conducted or action is taken." Beshear added that there was "no violation in terms of the decision" to suspend former men's basketball coach Rick Pitino because that was the "purview of the board" of the Univ. of Louisville Athletic Association (Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 10/31).
JURICH SPEAKS: Jurich said Postel and Grissom "indicated as early as July that they may be moving their support away from Pitino." Jurich said that Postel "did not ask him to fire Pitino but that he would have dealt with the coach on his own had he known about any wrongdoing." Jurich: "If I would have known he had did something, he was guilty of something, I would have. I'd have dealt with it then. But I had no evidence. I point-blank asked him if he had anything to do with this. He said absolutely not. Looked me right in the eye and said absolutely not" (COURIER-JOURNAL.com, 10/31).
