Ohio rated as lax on ethics

Center for Public Integrity...
Ohio rated as lax on ethics
State officials take exception to report
Mar. 19, 2012

The year-long study (http://www.stateintegrity.org), sponsored by the Center for Public Integrity, Public Radio International and Global Integrity, researched 330 “Corruption Risk Indicators” across 14 categories of government: access to information, campaign finance, executive accountability, legislative accountability, judicial accountability, budgeting, civil service management, procurement, internal auditing, lobbying disclosure, pension fund management, ethics enforcement, insurance commissions and redistricting.

COLUMBUS — The arrest of a state lawmaker last week on corruption charges provided fodder for a new national study released today that says state governments, including Ohio, are ripe for corruption. It says states do a poor job of delivering transparency and accountability to their citizenry.

The administration of Gov. John Kasich decried the findings. Rob Nichols, a spokesman for Kasich, said he called the Center for Public Integrity, one of the groups that undertook the study, to get its list of contributors, but his request was denied.

“The same group that criticizes us about transparency is not willing to share their donor list,” he said. “We don’t know who they are. If they’re willing to share, then we’ll comment.”

The center, Public Radio International and Global Integrity conducted the first-of-its-kind State Integrity Investigation over the past year.

Last week’s arrest of state Rep. W. Carlton Weddington, D-Columbus, on felony and misdemeanor charges by the FBI represented the first time in 100 years, officials said, that a sitting state lawmaker in Ohio has been indicted on bribery charges.

The fact that the FBI made the arrest indicates Ohio does a poor job of monitoring corruption, said Gordon Whitkin, managing editor of the center. “A large percentage of these cases are handled by the feds rather than state authorities,” he said.

“I find that offensive,” said Tony W. Bledsoe, Ohio’s legislative inspector general. “We cooperate with law enforcement agencies that have the resources to root out corruption.”

Catherine Turcer, a government watchdog with Ohio Citizen Action, said she found some of the grades assessed the state as unduly harsh. Senate President Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond, Chris Davey, a spokesman for the Ohio Supreme Court, and Paul M. Nick, executive director of the Ohio Ethics Commission, also took exception to the report.

Turcer, Bledsoe and Nick were all contacted when the Ohio portion of the study was being conducted.

“I wonder,” Turcer said, “if this is about encouraging us to have a discussion about what makes a good democracy.”

Not a message of actual corruption

Overall, Ohio got a D grade. No state received an A. The report gave Fs to Ohio for legislative accountability, lobbying disclosure and redistricting.

The way the Legislature redraws congressional, state senate and house districts has long been a source of frustration for politicians and the public. A referendum is pending for the November ballot to change the redistricting method and there are efforts among lawmakers to come up with a better process.

“I understand that grade,” Turcer said.

“This is not a message about actual corruption,” said Caitlin Ginley, the study’s manager.

“The risk of corruption remains high in every state capitol,” said Bill Buzenberg, executive director of the center. “Some have laws in the books, but they implement them poorly. We hope to strike a nerve with policy makers.”

It struck Bledsoe’s nerve. An agitated Bledsoe pointed out his office just released its annual lobbying report for 2011 on Friday, then rattled off seven cases in the last eight years involving legislators who faced criminal or ethical violations to rebut the low grades in legislative accountability and lobbying disclosure. Nick added his own list.

“We’re not a law enforcement agency,” he said. “Our work behind the scenes bears results.”

Niehaus, who is chairman of the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee and is briefed on pending cases, said, “It is absolutely false for someone to suggest that it took the feds to come in” on the Weddington case.

“The FBI was invited,” Niehaus said. “We have a very robust process for compliance with ethics legislation. I’m told our ethics laws are among the most stringent in the country. We have a very good record of compliance.”

Public record grade ‘about right’

Dennis Hetzel, the executive director of the Ohio Newspaper Association, said the C- the state received for public access to information “was about right. Our public records and public meetings laws are pretty restrictive.” He said the number of exemptions written into the law to keep material secret continues to grow, making it harder for citizens to know what government is doing.

The report gave the state its highest grades in internal auditing (a B) and the budget process (a B-). Still, it criticized the state for not acting more on audit findings.

Turcer said the state does have its share of problems, including a lack of a law preventing former legislators from lobbying their former colleagues, often called a revolving door law. Both she and Bledsoe noted Ohio had such a law until it was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge in a case brought by former state Rep. Tom Brinkman, Jr., R-Mount Lookout. The Legislature has not revisited the issue to create a law that would pass constitutional muster.

Turcer said lawmakers aren’t inclined to make tougher laws regarding lobbying and, she said, the state election commission doesn’t follow through about collecting fines it imposes on campaigns. She said the state has “very good disclosure of political financing online, it’s just hard for ordinary folk to navigate.”

The study listed a number of examples of pay-to-play in Ohio’s past, including a case from 13 years ago and, more recently, former Gov. Bob Taft’s ethics conviction in 2005 and former Attorney General Marc Dann’s run in with law in 2010.

Public Safety Director Tom Charles was Ohio’s inspector general during the Taft and Dann investigations. His spokesman said Charles makes it a practice not to comment on former cases.

‘Methodology is a mystery’

But Nick, who also was involved in those investigations, said he couldn’t understand the “perplexing grade for Ohio.”

“We follow the facts without regard to the partisanship of the individual,” he said. “We charged a sitting Republican governor in a Republican administration. We charged a sitting Democratic attorney general in a Democratic administration. Our record of enforcement proves our independence.”

The report gave a D+ to the management of Ohio’s state pension funds. Iit failed to acknowledge the convictions of seven employees and board members of the State Teachers Retirement System in 2003, and the subsequent changes in the law governing the funds to improve accountability. Additional legislation is pending.

The state’s judicial system also didn’t escape criticism, getting a D- in judicial accountability.

“Ohio enjoys one of the most effective and impartial systems of justice in the world,” said Davey. “Judges are elected in the transparent, accountable process of elections. They are held to a strict code of conduct and accountability, and they file annual disclosure statements that a publicly available. It is a mystery what methodology was used to draw these conclusions about the Ohio judicial branch.”

The report said the administration of Kasich “has steered clear of any scandal. But some of his closest friends and campaign advisers became lobbyists vying for lucrative state contracts.”

Here’s how some other states ranked.

Best states

New Jersey (87 percent, B+)

Connecticut (86 percent, B)

Washington (83 percent, B-)

California (81 percent, B-)

Nebraska (80 percent, B-)

Worst states

North Dakota (58 percent, F)

Michigan (58 percent, F)

South Carolina (57 percent, F)

Maine (56 percent, F)