Louisville Metro Council Member Anthony Piagentini and his attorney J. Brooken Smith have spent the week denying allegations that the council member broke ethics laws.(Lily Burris / LPM )The Ethics Commission found Council Member Anthony Piagentini violated six ethics laws when he negotiated a job with a nonprofit, the Louisville Healthcare CEO Council, while supporting its bid for a $40 million grant from the city. The commission fined Piagentini $3,000 and recommended Metro Council remove him from office. Mayor Craig Greenberg took back the funds allocated to the Healthcare CEO Council then diverted them to city parks and libraries.Piagentini’s colleagues ultimately chose not to remove him after a separate trial.He has consistently disputed the Ethics Commission’s ruling and officially appealed its decision in Nov. 2023.On Friday, Judge Sarah Clay said the commission’s findings that Piagentini violated local ethics laws were “supported by substantial evidence” and there were “no clear errors of law.”“The Court finds sufficient evidence that [Piagentini] had actively solicited private employment with CEOc while it was a grant seeker before the Metro Council Work Group on which he was one of two Council Members,” Clay wrote. “The favorable overtures made toward him regarding employment could reasonably be seen as intended to influence or gain access to his official powers, even if Plaintiff claims they were not made for such purposes.”Clay affirmed the commission’s ruling that Piagentini used his position as a Metro Council member to obtain something of value, get unwarranted advantages or privileges and that he did not properly disqualify himself from “a matter where he had a financial or private interest.”The judge did rule against the Ethics Commission on one issue: its attempt to enforce the $3,000 fine. Clay said the commission is not a separate legal entity and it will be up to the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office to collect.A representative for the County Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Friday.Piagentini told LPM News Friday afternoon that he was "disappointed" by the court’s decision.“Judge Clay’s decision is precisely what I was afraid of: It’s not thoughtful,” he said. “There are parts of her decision that she basically just accepts what the Ethics Commission said and doesn’t even acknowledge the counterarguments in why she sided with them.”Piagentini said Clay and the Ethics Commission both refused to address the “alternative evidence.” He said he did appreciate the judge’s ruling related to the fine.More than two-and-a-half years after the Ethics Commission trial, Piagentini said he is ready to move on and he does not plan to appeal. Piagentini said he believes that the Metro Council trial already exonerated him.“This was for a moral victory,” he said. “I was going to try to vindicate myself in what I feel was a process that was really devoid of due process and really screwed up.”He said he also did not want to continue to argue with an Ethics Commission that the Kentucky General Assembly has decided to dissolve at the end of the year. ...read more read less