Lawmaker Master of the Deal

By Sarah Vos, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.

Mar. 10–The wheeling and dealing that prompted an agreement to rebuild Eastern State Hospital and give more space to the University of Kentucky and Bluegrass Community and Technical College came not from anyone in Lexington but from a former used-car salesman from Elizabethtown named Jimmie Lee.

Lee, a state representative for 15 years, pulled together what many say is the most creative public policy real-estate swap seen in years.

Lee says it’s his background as salesman not as one of the legislature’s most prominent advocates for social services — that helped him pull the deal together.

“I’m used to wheeling and dealing,” Lee said. “I’m just wheeling and dealing now with people who make a little more money than I did when people came in to buy a car from me.”

Under the agreement announced 10 days ago, the state would build a $129 million psychiatric hospital at UK’s Coldstream Research Campus. The old hospital campus would become the community college’s new campus, and UK would take over two of the community college’s buildings on its main campus. The city of Lexington would put up bonds to pay for the new hospital, and the state would lease the hospital from the city until the bonds are paid off. The deal still has to be approved by the legislature through the budget process and by the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council.

Unlikely advocate

Lee is an unlikely advocate for mentally ill or physically disabled people and others who depend on state-funded social services.

His first two terms in the state House were so unremarkable in terms of social services that when he was appointed chairman of the budget review subcommittee for human resources in 1999, lobbyists didn’t know what to think.

“We were all kind of wondering who this was and what he would be like,” said Sheila Schuster, director of the Advocacy Action Network, who has lobbied on mental health issues for almost three decades.

But as chairman, Lee has become an expert on Medicaid and the myriad state social service programs. He has earned the respect of fellow legislators and advocates alike.

“He cares more than anybody, and that makes him extremely effective,” said Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond, chairman of the House Appropriations and Revenue Committee.

Lee is good at his job, said Sen. Tom Buford, R-Nicholasville, who chairs the Senate budget review committee on human resources.

“He studies it constantly,” Buford said. “His ultimate goal is to be the leader in the Medicaid services area.”

Bart Baldwin, president of the Children’s Alliance, says that, when he’s lobbying on behalf of the programs he represents, other legislators — Republican and Democrat, senators and representatives — almost always ask whether he’s spoken to Lee.

“They know that he’s pushing forward things he’s vetted,” Baldwin said. “He’s not just going to push forward every issue that comes his way.”

Lee says, half-jokingly, that his transformation from car dealer to advocate was directed by the Lord. He is an usher at Severns Valley Baptist Church in Elizabethtown and a lifelong Southern Baptist. He says that the role he now plays in the legislature is his calling.

Marathon hearings

Lee, 70, is tall and broad-shouldered with a graying pompadour. He wears hearing aids, eyeglasses and brownish gray suits. During the biannual budget sessions, he holds marathon hearings, where people with mental illnesses and physical disabilities, their families and others testify about the state’s social service programs and their importance.

At times, despite the heart-breaking stories, the sessions feel like love fests. Lee always promises to stay as long as needed and to hear every person who comes. He never cuts anyone off and listens to all the stories, said Steve Shannon, executive director of the Kentucky Association of Regional Programs, which runs the state’s regional mental health centers.

“He’s very sensitive to the people who will testify,” Shannon said. “He tells them, it’s a hard budget year and we’re going to do our best for you.

“And he does.”

Lee was born in Henry County. Near the end of World War II, his family moved to Louisville so his father and an older sister could work in the factories. He met his future wife, then Jo Nell Carney, in grade school, and they started dating when they were 16.

In the 1950s, after Lee was stationed in Morocco in the Air Force, the couple moved to Elizabethtown. Lee got a job working for a Ford dealership. After seven years, he and Jo Nell set up their own business, a used-car lot and repair shop.

The Lees were active in the local Democratic party, and Jimmie Lee became its chairman. In 1992 Lee ran for a vacant House seat and won. He sold his business and became a full-time legislator.

His introduction to social services came in 1996 when he chaired a task force on foster care. “I didn’t really do a great job,” Lee said last week. “Because I didn’t understand foster care that well.”

But Lee took the task force’s mandate seriously, said Debra Miller, a member of the task force who then worked for Kentucky Youth Advocates. Miller is now director of health policy for the Council of State Governments.

“What became apparent as he chaired this committee was that he had both an understanding and an empathy for the issues that were under consideration,” Miller said.

After Lee was appointed chairman of the budget review subcommittee, he decided to educate himself on the section of the budget he oversaw. He began visiting social service programs across the state.

“The more that I visited those programs, the more I was convinced that we were not doing a good job taking care of people,” Lee said. “I thought I could do better.”

How the deal started

The deal to build a new Eastern State began coming together last fall when Lee spoke to UK’s lobbyist about what could be done to get a new hospital. Many of the parts — moving Eastern State to Coldstream, relocating the community college — had been discussed before.

Lee’s role was to bring all the players — the city of Lexington, UK, the community college, the state — together.

“He knew everybody’s interest, individually and collectively,” said Mike McCall, president of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System.

Lee said the principle was the same as selling a car.

“You put a number of people in a room,” Lee said. “You all have the same interests. And if you work hard enough and you listen well enough and you pick up the keys, you can put together a deal.”

In this case, the parties had to work out how UK could give land at Coldstream to the state, who would pay for asbestos removal and relocating graves at Eastern State and how to finance a new psychiatric hospital, given the state’s budget problems.

All of the players had an interest in the deal, Lee said. UK wanted more space, the community college wanted a home where it could grow, Lee and the state wanted a new psychiatric hospital and the city wanted to redevelop an eyesore.

“I wasn’t alone,” Lee said. “Everybody won.”

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