Louisville's new Jefferson County Clerk David Yates has drawn scrutiny from good-government advocates after hiring a close friend and business partner as his chief operating officer, a position overseeing elections and information technology, according to a Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting investigation.

Three weeks after taking office in October 2025, Yates hired Troy LeBlanc's mother, Alice LeBlanc, as a consultant for $3,000 per week to evaluate the clerk's office operations. In December, after Alice LeBlanc recommended hiring a chief operating officer, Yates offered the position to Troy LeBlanc at $153,000 annually—despite LeBlanc's public profile listing no prior government or elections experience.

The hiring follows a decade-long relationship between Yates and LeBlanc that extends far beyond employment. The men have invested millions of dollars in real estate together through shared LLCs. Their wives co-own a property management company. In 2023, Yates represented LeBlanc as his attorney in a civil suit. Both Alice and Troy LeBlanc donated the legal maximum to Yates' campaign.

LeBlanc, who describes himself as "lord of bourbon and vape" on social media, owns a chain of vape stores and co-owns a distillery in Anderson County. He is now coordinating an eight-person review of the clerk's office to address election errors that allowed 1,800 addresses to receive incorrect ballots for years, the report found.

The clerk's office defended the hiring, stating that Yates had "the opportunity to work with Mr. LeBlanc professionally" and found him qualified based on his executive experience. However, ethics experts cautioned that legal hiring authority does not automatically ensure ethical conduct.

"The legal standards are the floor, not the ceiling of what the public expects," said Abigail Bellows, senior policy director for anti-corruption at Common Cause, a Washington-based watchdog group. University of Kentucky ethics professor Eric Weber added that business success "has nothing to do with the proper regulation of what the government needs to do."

Yates was appointed by Mayor Craig Greenberg after longtime Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw's death in September 2025. He won the Democratic primary in May and is set to serve a full four-year term.