The local Facebook group Henderson County Concerned Citizens say email correspondence it has obtained shows a questionable exchange between Henderson County Judge-Executive Brad Schneider and a representative of renewable energy companies that occurred in 2024.
Schneider, meanwhile, said the claims come the group as a “product of election season.”
“I think it’s all ridiculous,” he said. “It’s ridiculous.”
In one email, Schneider, who is on the board of the Henderson Leadership Initiative, invites Yellowthroat and Rock Bluff Energy (Yellowthroat is no longer pursuing a project in the county, and it is currently unclear the status of the Rock Bluff project) to sponsor sessions of HLI for $1,500 and speak to the members of that year’s class. The email is from Schneider’s personal email account and written to Tiffany Allison, who worked as a spokesperson for renewable energy companies in the county at the time.
Shannon Hill, a member of Henderson County Concerned Citizens, or HC3, said this was a case of Schneider using his position to influence a company to give money. Hill has been a vocal opponent of renewable energy projects in the county for months now and has attended virtually every county government meeting since last summer, many times voicing her opinions during public comment in meetings.
She said she has nothing against HLI or requesting money for it, but other people on the HLI board should have made the request.
“There’s other people that could have solicited the funds,” she said.
Schneider said that though he is the county judge-executive, he’s also a citizen of the community and he serves on boards, and he should be able to try to find support for those nonprofits like anyone else.
He also challenged HC3 to point out any favors that have come to the businesses mentioned in the email exchange. He said they don’t exist.
He also said that Henderson Fiscal Court does not vote on single projects. He said the fiscal court votes on ordinances.
“The idea that there’s some quid pro quo is just ridiculous,” he said. He added that it was merely a request to a business to support a nonprofit.
Hill, though, said there are ethical issues for an elected official soliciting funds for outside organizations to which they belong and cited the Henderson City-County Code of Ethics.
Hill said she is planning to file a formal complaint with the city-county Board of Ethics. She said, however, there’s not simple instructions on how to file, and the term of the city-appointed member has expired. (The board of ethics includes a county representative and Corydon representative as well.) She was told to call one of the ethics board members, she said.
Schneider said he was unaware of which point in the code of ethics Hill would reference in a complaint. Schneider said the big sticking point between him and HC3 is that they’d like him to simply tell the renewable energy companies to go away. He said he can’t do that because it’s not the law. He said if an entity wants to do business in the county, there is a process that must be followed by going through the process which can involve the Codes Department, Henderson City-County Planning Commission and/or fiscal court.
This article has been updated with the correct status of projects mentioned in this report.
