[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 27 (Tuesday, February 13, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S1898]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO DANNY ORAZINE

  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I rise today to honor a great 
Kentuckian, Mr. Danny Orazine, for his 13-year service as county judge-
executive to the people of McCracken County.
  Mr. Orazine is the epitome of a man dedicated to serving his county 
residents, all the while ensuring a strong relationship with the city 
government as well. He is a modest, ethical, and fairminded man who has 
given much to McCracken County, and I am proud of the work he has done.
  On Monday, December 25, 2006, The Paducah Sun newspaper published an 
article highlighting Mr. Orazine's many years of service. I ask 
unanimous consent that the full article be printed in the Record and 
that the entire Senate join me in thanking this beloved Kentuckian.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               [From the Paducah Sun, December 25, 2006]

              Reflections: Orazine Returns to Simple Life

                            (By Brian Peach)

       Danny Orazine isn't a politician. At least he doesn't think 
     of himself as one. This coming from the man who has spent the 
     past 21 years in McCracken County public office--time that 
     was every bit as challenging as he would have liked.
       ``Honestly, I don't really like politics,'' the outgoing 
     judge-executive said in a recent interview. ``I'm a simple 
     person.''
       He's not flashy. Not begging for the spotlight. He'll wear 
     a suit when he needs to, but he'd rather lose the tie 
     whenever possible.
       Look no further than his truck for proof of his modesty.
       He still drives a 1983 Ford pickup that he bought new. It 
     has about 250,000 miles on it.
       ``I've got the same house, same wife, same truck,'' he said 
     with a laugh, adding that a new paint job on the truck has 
     kept it looking good. He'll have to give back his county-
     issued car, but that's OK. He'll just turn to his trusty 
     pickup a little more often.
       He considers himself a strong Democrat, but he's not crazy 
     about partisan politics.
       ``I normally worked closely with Democratic governors,'' he 
     said, adding that he still considers his relationship strong 
     with Gov. Ernie Fletcher and his Republican cabinet. The two 
     joked recently at ground-breaking and ribbon-cutting 
     ceremonies, and he said it's because partisan politics don't 
     come into play.
       ``I'm a simple person,'' he said.
       At one point, he thought of walking away.
       ``In the middle of my first tenure, I was about ready to 
     resign,'' he said.
       But he stayed on, and was re-elected twice, serving 13 
     years as judge-executive after eight as a county 
     commissioner.
       It was sewers that got him into office. They were the big 
     issue back then. After that, he just hung around.
       ``We just didn't get sewers in the smaller districts,'' 
     Orazine said, referring in part to the Hendron area 18 years 
     ago.
       The sewer agency was finally formed in July 1999 with the 
     merger of separate city and county sewer agencies. He said 
     the goal was to merge the water districts into one as well, 
     but today, ``I would never ask the water districts in the 
     county to give up theirs for the Paducah Water Works board.''
       Paducah Mayor Bill Paxton recently asked Orazine to serve 
     on the city water board, and he accepted.
       He'll leave behind a big corner office and lots of 
     responsibilities, but take his love for the community with 
     him. He's been offered a couple of full-time jobs since his 
     defeat, but he said he wants to get away from ``the politics 
     stage.''


                             Running Clean

       On his window sill are pictures--family and friends--as 
     well as a $20 bill, laminated and labeled: First Campaign 
     Contribution to Danny Orazine from Don Utley, Aug. 21, 1991.
       He was elected judge-executive two years later. On his wall 
     are many pictures, including a large one of Paducah native 
     and former U.S. Vice President Alben Barkley, and one of his 
     campaign posters that Orazine said was from 1948.
       He has never been offered a bribe, he said. ``I used to kid 
     about never being offered a bribe. Guess they didn't think 
     that I had enough clout to get it down. . . . Hopefully they 
     just thought I wouldn't have accepted it.''
       He said advice from Julian Carroll stuck with him over the 
     years: If you'll only take your paycheck, you'll never have 
     any problems.
       ``I have adhered to that,'' Orazine said, pointing out that 
     among his first responsibilities at the end of this year will 
     be turning in his eight-year-old county-issued Ford Taurus.


                             Time of Change

       He's leaving office, and it's in large part due to county 
     residents feeling it was time for a change. They picked Van 
     Newberry to replace Orazine in the May primary. He said his 
     was a good, tough run.
       Zoning issues and building code enforcement were just a 
     couple of the ``monumental ordinances'' that he said the 
     fiscal court passed, and that weren't entirely popular with 
     the voters. About six years ago, the fiscal court required 
     that all new homes undergo a five-point inspection. The 
     problem was that some people decided to build homes on their 
     own, and may not have realized that the inspection also 
     checks for earthquake protection, given the proximity to the 
     New Madrid Fault.
       ``People might cut a plan out of a magazine and come in 
     with it,'' he said. But most of those plans account for 
     possible seismic activity. ``We were stuck with not having a 
     building code or having seismic in it.''
       The county opted to keep the more stringent codes, and the 
     five-point inspections--which Orazine said have led to a few 
     building delays during the busy construction season. ``It 
     took a while to catch up,'' he said. ``Now (in the winter), 
     the building has slowed and they're caught up.''
       As for the city and county working together on such 
     projects as a comprehensive plan, Orazine never viewed that 
     as a step toward a metro government. Even so, he admitted 
     that at times, ``It's hard to tell where the city ends and 
     the county begins.''
       Many city residents have moved into the county over the 
     past several years, and the city is occasionally annexing 
     county land into the city, often at a developer's request.
       ``Anything, good or bad, affects both the city and county 
     now,'' he said. ``We have to prioritize what we're going to 
     prioritize, and talk over those things we place as 
     priorities.''
       The downtown riverfront, though located in the city, will 
     benefit the entire area, and it's something the judge says 
     must naturally include the county, and that includes 
     financial support.
       County government, he notes, ``is very lean by nature.'' 
     That's mainly in regard to the budget. Comparatively 
     speaking, Paducah's is about $28 million, while the county's 
     is about $20 million.
       ``If we didn't have the grants and money that the state 
     gives us, it'd be about half the city's,'' Orazine said of 
     the budget. ``That's why we're hesitant about hiring people 
     over here. . . . That's just the nature of the county.''
       He looked to the city's fire department in saying that the 
     county couldn't afford to pay its firefighters. Grants help 
     keep the five volunteer fire districts operational.
       ``There's a lot of pride that goes into them,'' he said. 
     ``Probably the biggest factor in the metro-government 
     discussion, moneywise, is I think you're going to have to 
     keep your volunteer firefighters.
       ``If anybody ever proposed (a paid county fire department), 
     oh my, property taxes would go so high. I wouldn't want to be 
     anywhere near public office when that happens.''
       That all comes back to the idea of a metro government. He 
     said county residents' pride in fire departments and parks 
     being operated by volunteers adds to the pride when they do 
     look nice, albeit, he said, not as nice as Noble Park.
       ``The county was just not ready for it,'' he said of metro 
     government suggestions. But because he worked so closely with 
     the city during his tenure, particularly with Paxton, ``I got 
     associated with that, but I never went there and had no plans 
     to. That sure didn't keep me from working with the mayor.''
       Paxton said Orazine ``is one of the most ethical, fair-
     minded people I have ever known,'' and it made him easy to 
     work with. ``I enjoyed every minute of it,'' Paxton said. ``I 
     think the city and county benefited from not only the 
     closeness of my relationship with Danny, but also (his 
     relationship) with former Mayor Albert Jones, who was 
     extremely close with the judge.''


                             Helping Youth

       Another area Orazine looks back on with a smile is 
     everything he has done to help youths.
       ``I got a special place for juveniles,'' he said of his 
     desire to help them. ``I didn't get into trouble (as a 
     teenager), but it was a wonder I graduated--It took me five 
     years to get through high school.''
       Now, thanks to his push, the county puts about $1 million 
     each year toward helping children and teens, in large part 
     through the McCracken Regional Juvenile Detention Center.
       Orazine is also a member of the state Office of Juvenile 
     Justice Advisory Board, which he has served on since it was 
     founded in 1998. He also serves on the Juvenile Detention 
     Council Board locally. As his tenure as judge-executive ends, 
     he plans to resign from those boards. That means fewer trips 
     to Frankfort for the state board meetings.
       He lasted a term and a half before hiring a county 
     administrator--a position incoming Judge-Executive Van 
     Newberry wants to abolish. Orazine said he was becoming 
     overwhelmed with the large and small projects.
       ``In the midst of all that, an employee of the courthouse 
     came in'' complaining about the texture of the toilet paper--
     ``that it was too rough,'' he said, still sounding 
     exasperated at having to handle minor tasks when he had more 
     important things to deal with.




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