Date: June 28, 2005 2:41:59 AM PDT
Subject: [ctrl] Multiple investigations
Monday, June 27, 2005
1056/rss02&template=printpicart
Taft faces a widening scandal
Multiple investigations affect more GOP officials
By Jon Craig
Enquirer Columbus Bureau
Gov. Bob Taft said he failed to report golf outings with lobbyists.
COLUMBUS - After months in which a growing scandal ensnares more and more
state officials - including Gov. Bob Taft - State Sen. Mark Mallory says he wonders
what's next.
The answer, according to the chairman of the state Republican Party, is possible
indictments.
A handful of people - mostly Democrats and liberal activists - are calling for, or
predicting, Taft's resignation.
For now, the scandals involving the Bureau of Workers' Compensation fund, its
unusual investments and the cozy relationship between Columbus Republicans and
the people who invested money from the fund are just the subjects of investigations.
The rapidly developing case now involves the Public Integrity unit of the U.S. Justice
Department, Franklin and Lucas county prosecutors, the Ohio Ethics Commission,
the legislative inspector general and the state inspector general.
When the Ohio General Assembly approved Taft's $51.2 billion budget last week, it
included $750,000 for Ohio Inspector General Thomas P. Charles to investigate
more than $225 million in lost investments at the state Bureau of Workers'
Compensation.
Investigators who raided investor Thomas W. Noe's coin shop in Maumee last month
left with 128 boxes of records, including memos and financial information of the
major GOP contributor.
That evidence is now locked down, in possession of a joint state-federal task force,
and fueling lots of rumors.
The investigation intensified last week as Taft disclosed that he failed to report golf
outings with lobbyists and others doing business with the state.
While Legislative Inspector General Tony W. Bledsoe recently informed Noe that he
had failed to register as a lobbyist, Noe's lawyer said treating public officials to social
events including golf is a part of doing business.
Lawyer William Wilkinson wouldn't say who paid or how many times Noe golfed with
Taft.
If Taft knowingly failed to report the gifts, it's a first-degree misdemeanor punishable
by a fine of up to $1,000 and six months in jail.
Taft's disclosure prompted several Democrats and Ohio Citizen Action, a nonprofit
watchdog group, to call for his resignation.
But Taft told reporters at a public appearance Wednesday in Mansfield that he will
not resign. "I have a year and a half to go. I have a lot of work I want to get done," he
said.
The charges accumulate
The Plain Dealer of Cleveland reported Sunday that companies hired to manage
investments for the insurance fund have donated millions of dollars to the campaigns
of top Ohio Republicans while contributing little to Democrats.
Almost two-thirds of the 212 money managers hired gave a total of almost $5 million
to Republicans from 1997 through 2004, the paper found.
Taft, elected to two terms during the period of the newspaper's analysis, received
$700,000 in contributions from those companies, more than any other Republican in
a statewide office. The companies also donated to Attorney General Jim Petro,
Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell and state Auditor Betty Montgomery. All three
Republicans are candidates for governor next year.
One contractor, Cincinnati-based Fifth Third Bank, contributed $558,000 to
politicians, most of them Republicans.
Fifth Third spokesman Larry Magnesen told the Plain Dealer that the donations were
not meant to influence but "support candidates who are pro-growth and pro-
business."
National City, whose subsidiary, National City Investment Management Co., has a
contract with the bureau, contributed $938,000 to politicians - the most of bureau
money managers during the eight-year period.
"We support candidates who we believe have an understanding of the business and
economic issues facing our state," banking company National City said in a
statement.
The Plain Dealer reported Friday that the top Republican in the House - Speaker Jon
A. Husted - paid just $50 a night over the Memorial Day weekend to stay with his son
in a $428,000 Florida Gulf Coast home with three Statehouse lobbyists.
In an interview with the Enquirer, Husted said he spent two days producing receipts
and records. He said $50 was the fair market value.
"These kinds of things are certainly a distraction for me and others," the Kettering
Republican said. "There's no question that the environment that exists in Columbus
is one where everybody is trying to eat the other person.
"I think we have done a good job in trying to run the House in an open and honest
manner, in a way that shows we are trying to lead the state with integrity."
Other state lawmakers, including Mallory, a Democrat, have their doubts.
"I think it's clear that one-party rule in the state of Ohio has led to a series of
problems," said Mallory, the Senate's assistant minority leader. "We have got to have
a series of checks and balances."
Even Ohio Republican Party Chairman Bob Bennett warned a group of fellow
Republicans at a Belmont County fund-raiser last week: "There could be more bad
news about Republicans still to come."
"The word around Columbus is that some indictments could be forthcoming, and
that's the way it should be," Bennett said, according to the Wheeling, W.Va. News-
Record. "We have to get these officeholders off the playing field if they're guilty,
prosecute them and put them in jail."
'A perpetual rumor'
Noe's lawyer, Wilkinson, who also represents former House Speaker Larry
Householder in a 16-month-old federal investigation of campaign fund-raising, said
he has no idea how GOP Chairman Bennett would know indictments could be
forthcoming.
"I've heard that for 53 consecutive weeks. It's a perpetual rumor,'' Wilkinson said.
"It's a different reporter (asking) about every week."
Rep. Tom Brinkman of Cincinnati, one of just eight Republicans to vote against Taft's
two-year budget, expressed relief that he has been on the outside looking in as more
Republicans get investigated.
"It's good to be an outsider sometimes," he said. "At least you can look in the mirror.
That certainly is a good feeling to have."
The golfing governor
While Taft is not a member of any golf club, he regularly let others pay greens fees
across the state, teeing off with Noe at an exclusive club in Toledo and making the
rounds with his once-trusted chief of staff, Brian K. Hicks, according to published
reports.
Hicks has quickly built a successful consulting business, running the campaigns of
two Supreme Court justices and raising millions for the national Republican
Governors Association and the failed Third Frontier ballot issue. One of Hicks'
$30,000-a-month clients, Public Financial Management of Cleveland, advises state
Treasurer Jennette Bradley about investments.
Taft also golfed with Husted and Curt Steiner, former chief of staff to U.S. Sen.
George Voinovich when he was governor. Steiner took a $275,000-a-year job in July
2004 as lobbyist and public relations chief for Ohio State University after working six
years as a government consultant. He told the Columbus Dispatch that Taft always
paid for the golf outings.
"It's clear (Taft) knew what was going on," said Catherine Turcer, legislative director
at Ohio Citizen Action who called for Taft's resignation. "Clearly he knew he was
going to get caught. This is a systemic problem."
Referring to state department heads and board members who have quit or been
fined for failing to disclose gifts including golf, Turcer said, "Taft is somebody who's
always been fairly harsh" about ethical lapses by others.
Except Husted, none of Taft's golf partners could be reached.
Taft declined comment on the advice of his lawyer, William Meeks. Meeks has
represented other key figures caught up in state government scandals for ethics
violations including the failure to report gifts such as golf.
Meeks represented Randall A. Fischer, the former head of the Ohio School Facilities
Commission, who quit in 2002 after it was discovered he failed to file annual
financial-disclosure reports.
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Alamaine
Grand Forks, ND, US of A
www.ctrl.org
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