- In Lexington and in Washington DC, Murray went by her married name, Jane Vimont, and she worked as an assistant to Scotty Baesler, when he was the mayor of Lexington and later when he was a congressman.
- In Lexington, Jane Murray was responsible (as former mayor Baesler's "Special Projects Manager") for the City's "Cultural Master Plan," a plan to build to build a major "Cultural Arts Center," with museums, theatres, etc., in Downtown Lexington. After over $8 million for planning and property acquisition, the Center was never built. Lexington was sued by the State of Kentucky over the fiasco, and was forced to pay back million of dollars. Murray's failed cultural plan is a financial burden to Lexington to this day. (Click here to read entire story.)
- In 1995, Murray was hired as development director of the UK Basketball Museum, a project she had promoted as Baesler's Special Projects Manager. Murray was responsible for all planning, feasibility studies, and fund raising. The City of Lexington and the University of Kentucky poured millions of dollars into the proposed museum. In 1998 the Museum Board terminated her contract, when they discovered that Murray's fund-raising goals were never met, the cost was going to be millions more than she had told them, and the project was way behind schedule. The museum finally opened after Jane was terminated, but it went bankrupt in 2005. (Click here to read entire story.)
- Murray also falsely claims to have performed early studies for the Muhammad Ali Museum in Louisville when she was really only a bill collector a Canadian Museum Consultant. (Click here to read entire story.)
- Murray's career featured several more scandals, including a major newspaper investigation for abuse of government credit cards in Lexington, conflicts with Baesler's staff in Washington, and violations of Kentucky's Sunshine Laws.
Murray changed back to her maiden name and moved to Portsmouth in an attempt to escape the scandals of her past. She has an ongoing lawsuit against the City of Portsmouth and she initiated a recall attempt against her Councilman, before running for mayor. In 2009, she won the election with 44% of the vote of the Citizens of Portsmouth, and immediately began a vindictive agenda of revenge against all of those she perceived as having slighted her, beginning on her first day in office.
Considering the failures and scandals of Murray's past, it is no wonder that her first eleven months as mayor have been pure turmoil. She has been a major financial burden and embarrassment for the City of Portsmouth.
ELEVEN MONTHS OF TURMOIL:
January.....
- On January 4, her first day as Mayor, Jane Murray fired three respected, highly qualified city department heads, with no prior notice. (Water Works Director Sam Sutherland, Wastewater Director Richard Duncan, and Service Director Chris Murphy.) She called a news conference and publicly accused the three men of "gross negligence and mismanagement," among other accusations. (WSAZ: Portsmouth's First Female Mayor Takes Office.)
- City Solicitor Mike Jones warned the Murray (in a memo to her and City Council) that her unfounded accusations against the fired employees could "could be viewed as defamatory in nature and expose the city to potential civil liability." The memo was leaked to the Portsmouth Times. (Portsmouth Times: Actions By New Mayor Bring Warning From City Solicitor.)
- Murray told WSAZ TV that, regarding all union-related issues, she was "consulting on union contracts with former city employee Roy 'Bubb' Payton who was convicted last year on felony charges involving city property. Murray said her probe shows Payton was the victim." (WSAZ-TV.) Payton remains a key, behind-the-scenes advisor to Murray, despite having been convicted of a long list of charges, including falsification to obtain prescription drugs and theft of city property, including a garageful of mowers, weed-eaters, tools, a heavy equipment trailer, and other items. Payton had pled guilty.
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| Roy 'Bubb' Payton-Key Murray Advisor (Convicted Felon and Admitted Prescription Drug Abuser) | <><><><><><> <>
- Murray hired Jeffrey Peck of Lexington Ky to be her "Commissioner of of Engineering and Public Services," a position she made up on her own and promised to pay him $80,000 per year. (By the city charter, only City Council can create new positions and authorize salaries.) On many occasions, she introduced introduced Peck as Civil Engineer, but in fact Peck has no engineering degree of any kind and cannot legally be referred to as an "engineer" in the State of Ohio. (Portsmouth Times: "Mayor: City Meets EPA Guidelines.")
- Despite her unfounded accusations against the men, Murray was forced to offer Sutherland and Duncan their positions back. Sutherland returned to operate the Water Plant, but Duncan refused. As a result, the City Sewage Plant was out of compliance until August when another sewage plant worker was approved by the EPA. (Portsmouth Times: "Sutherland Re-Hired.") Murray refused to apologize for her false allegations against Sutherland.
- Murray conspired with Bill Beaumont (whom she had hired to be Mr. Peck's "Assistant Commissioner of Engineering and Public Services", another fraudulent title) to arbitrarily and illegally cancel the City's contracts with Portsmouth Insurance Company and award a "no-bid" contract to a close relative of Beaumont's, who owns an insurance agency in Jackson Ohio. Murray was eventually forced to re-instate Portsmouth Insurance's contract had been competitively bid.
- Murray gave another no-bid contract to a local contractor, Jack Vetter, to renovate her office-another illegal action which council had not authorized. (Over the months since Murray has awarded several more un-bid contracts to Vetter's Construction Company.)
- The Ohio Department Of Transportation (ODOT) had conducted and paid for a study of traffic lights in the City of Portsmouth and had directed that many of them on State Route 52 (11th and 12th Streets) be taken down by the previous mayor. In January, Murray ordered the lights re-installed. Based on her actions, ODOT stated that the City was jeopardizing its state funding. In response to ODOT's letter City Council directed Murray to take the lights taken down, but Murray refused. Instead she had the lights covered with plastic garbage bags and left in place. These eyesores remain in place to this day. (Portsmouth Times: "ODOT Says Traffic Study Ignored.")
February.....
- At a key meeting to the show the support of community leaders for jobs and at the Piketon A-Plant, Murray embarrassed the City of Portsmouth by casting the only "NO" vote against a major supporting resolution. All other mayors and county commissioners in a 12-county area voted for the resolution but Murray voted against it and even invited an anti-nuclear activist to the meeting to lecture the other community leaders. Murray's bizarre action forced City Council to pass it's own special resolution of support which it passed unanimously. (Portsmouth Times: "Murray Votes No On Piketon Plant Resolution") We hope friends and relatives of A-Plant workers will remember this ridiculous vote. (P-Town Underground: Geoffrey Sea.)
-The Portsmouth Traffic Committee is made up of knowledgeable citizens appointed by the mayor and city council to advise City Council with regard to traffic related issues, usually presided over by the Police Chief. Its meetings are open to the public and any interested citizen is generally allowed to speak. At the January meeting, Jane Murray issued a 'gag order' to the Police Chief and ordered him not allow anyone to speak except for Jeff Peck, her so-called Commissioner of Engineering and Public Service. She stated that since the meeting was related to "traffic control engineering, only Peck was to speak because he was "the only engineer." If she did not know from the beginning that Peck was not an engineer, she surely knew it by then, so this was another lie she told to the citizens of Portsmouth. (Portsmouth Times: "Mayor Picks 'Official Presenter'.", "Abrupt End to Traffic Meeting.")
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