Reply #42: How about getting the Ohio Ethics Commission to investigate

[senegal1]

From their website:

The Ohio Ethics Commission promotes ethics in public service to strengthen the public's confidence that Government business is conducted with impartiality and integrity.
The Commission has jurisdiction over Ohio's public officials and employees at the state and local levels of government, except legislators, judges, and their staffs.
8 East Long Street, 10th Floor, Columbus, Ohio 43215 • Phone: [phone] • Fax: [phone]

I think it only takes a citizen complaint to ask for an investigation (but I don't really know).


Here are two points which could show conflict of interest and an attempt to profit:

On Oct. 21, 2004, a U.S. District Court judge, who was adjudicating a complaint regarding Blackwell's decisions on provisional ballots, stated in an order rejecting Blackwell's policy that "Blackwell apparently seeks to accomplish the same result in Ohio in 2004 that occurred in Florida in 2000."

Now, here is an excerpt from an interview with Ken Blackwell done by PBS host Tavis Smiley (Feb. 5, 2004):
Tavis: …Let me ask you before my time runs out here. As I mention again, you are the Secretary of State, but there's a big rumor that you're gonna run for Governor in Ohio and that, if elected, you would be only the second African-American elected Governor in this country since Reconstruction. The first Republican--Doug Wilder, of course, being a Democrat in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Are you really gonna run? And how serious are you about this?
Blackwell: I'm very serious. I've had the good fortune of being the mayor of my hometown. I've been the Treasurer of this fine state here in Ohio. I've been a U.S. Ambassador and an Undersecretary of the U.S. Department of HUD. I think I'm ready to put on the hat of Governor and to lead this state to growth and prosperity and opportunity…
Tavis: Let me ask you whether or not you think the Buckeyes, the folk in Ohio, are ready for Kenneth Blackwell, a black Republican, as the top executive of the state.
Blackwell: I think so. The fact of the matter is that folks elected me Treasurer of this state. I was the top fiduciary in the state. That's a statewide election, and now I, in fact, oversee all elections in the state, so when people of this state trust me with their votes and trust me with their money, I think they're ready to trust me to be their Governor.
Tavis: How much campaigning are you gonna do for George W. Bush between now and November?
Blackwell: Well, we're gonna do a lot of work in Ohio. Let me just tell you--Ohio is the battleground state. There hasn't been a Republican president elected or reelected without carrying Ohio, and George Bush, when you factor out Ralph Nader, only won Ohio by one percentage point. This is a battleground state. It's gonna go right down to the last day…
End of PBS excerpt.


The Ohio Ethics Law in lay language also from their site:

Employment Conflict/Freelance Activities
No employee shall use or authorize the use of the authority or influence of his/her office to secure anything of value for himself/herself, which is of such character as to manifest a substantial and improper influence upon him/her with respect to his/her duties.
Employees are prohibited from soliciting or accepting anything of value that is of such a character as to manifest a substantial and improper influence upon them with respect to their duties.
Employees are prohibited from using the authority or influence of their official position to advance the interests of their private business.
Employees are prohibited from selling services or property that are their duty to provide as part of their official duties.
Employees are prohibited from using state time, facilities, or resources to promote or conduct their private business.
Employees are prohibited from conducting demonstrations for potential clients during scheduled working hours.
Employees are prohibited from holding outside employment if such employment could impair their judgment with regard to their official decisions and responsibilities.
Employees will not be permitted to abuse personal leave, vacation leave, or compensatory time to conduct business related to outside private employment. Such leave will be granted solely on the basis of operational need.
This policy in no way prohibits the negotiated language in any applicable labor agreement.
Acceptance of Gifts
No public official or employee shall accept, solicit, or use his/her position to secure anything of value from a party that is interested in matters before, regulated by, or doing or seeking to do business with the agency with which the official serves. R.C. Section 1.03 defines "anything of value" to include money goods, and chattel, and every other thing of value, except items of nominal or de minimus value ($25 or less).
Employees who are required to file a financial disclosure statement pursuant to R.C. 102.02 must report gifts in excess of $75 and meals in excess of $100.
To avoid the appearance of impropriety, employees should follow the ‘pay your own way’ maxim and refuse even gifts of nominal value.
Frequent Flyer Miles
No public official or employee shall accept, solicit, or use his/her position to secure, for personal travel, discounted or free air travel tickets or other benefits based upon mileage accrued while traveling in his/her official capacity as a state official or employee.
Hiring Practices
No public official or employee shall use the authority or influence of his office to secure employment (authorization of any public contract) for any member of his family or any of his business associates, within the political subdivision with which he serves. At the state level of government, political subdivision refers to the public official’s or employee’s agency or department.
Revolving Door Restrictions
The "revolving door" provision of the Ohio Ethics Law, Section 102.03(A) of the Ohio Revised Code, prohibits a present or former public official or employee, for 12 months after public service, from representing, or acting in a representative capacity for any person on any matter in which the public official or employee personally participated. However, former public officials or employees may represent private clients before their former department or other public agencies immediately following their departure from public office or employment, provided the representation is on matters in which they did not personally participate while in public office or employment, or on new matters arising after their departure from government service. A former public official or employee may be retained or employed, within 12 months after public service, to represent or assist the agency with which he/she was previously employed.
Present or former public officials or employees are prohibited from disclosing or using confidential information they acquire in the course of their official duties.
Present public officials or employees may receive compensation other than from the agency with which they serve for services rendered before public agencies other than their own or may represent private clients on matters in which they have not personally participated before public agencies other than their own, provided they have complied with the filing of the statement required by Section 102.04(D) of the Ohio Revised Code and carry on such representation on personal time and with personal resources.
Present public officials and employees may sell or agree to sell goods and services to any public agency through competitive bidding or to public agencies other than their own by filing the statement required by R.C. 102.04(D).
Fundraising Policy
This policy sets forth some general guidelines related to charitable solicitations, fund-raisers, and other charitable activities conducted by state employees during normal working hours. This policy (1) strictly prohibits any form of gambling; (2) limits the number of state sanctioned charities which can actively raise funds on state time; (3) provides guidance on the types of fundraising activities that are acceptable; and (4) allows non-charitable, employee oriented fundraising activities at the discretion of each individual director or designee.
The Combined Charitable Campaign (CCC) was established specifically to allow employees to support a large number of charities in a single unified charitable solicitations drive. The CCC is the primary state-sanctioned fundraising activity. Any activities sponsored by individual charities that belong to the CCC should not be officially supported by a department or the state. Individual employees, however, are permitted to participate or encourage fellow employees to participate in these activities as part of their individual efforts to support these charities.
Operation Feed and Adopt-a-School are not members of the CCC and are permitted to sponsor events and fund-raisers on state time. Participation in Operation Feed and Adopt-a-School by employees is strictly voluntary. In so far as possible, activities in support of these events should not involve cash donations or other fund-raisers. Operation Feed is established to collect food, and donation of food items remains the preferred method of supporting this charity. Likewise, donations of time and services, rather than money, are the preferred methods of supporting your adopted school. Activities such as dress down days, bake sales, candy sales, etc., in support of Operation Feed or Adopt-a-School are permissible in the Director’s discretion.
Also in the Director’s discretion, fundraising events may be held to raise money to benefit individual employees. Examples include purchasing retirement gifts or funeral flowers and collecting donations to assist a fellow employee with some family or medical hardship or to support employee recognition awards. Other permissible fundraising activities include individual voluntary efforts such as the annual Scout Cookie sale, sales of candy bars to support a child’s school, and various walk-a-thons, swim-a-thons, etc. for organized charities, even if those charities are members of the CCC.
If such discretionary charitable activity is permitted, precautionary measures must be taken to assure that all money collected for a stated purpose actually goes to that purpose. Money collected on behalf of an individual state employee (i.e., retirement gift) should be reasonably accounted for and secured in the workplace. Money collected by employees as part of their individual efforts to support a charity (i.e., child’s school candy bar sales) should not be left at the workplace. Fundraising activity of this nature must be strictly voluntary and should be conducted during the lunch hour or other break times if the activity will be disruptive to the workplace.
Gambling on state property is illegal. No games of chance in any form will be permitted for the CCC, Operation Feed, or any fundraising event. Examples of games of chance include raffles, door prizes, cake walks, or any other method of obtaining an award or prize by luck or chance. No state employee should ever solicit a vendor, retail store, restaurant, or other such priva y with whom your department does business to donate food or other items to benefit the CCC, Operation Feed, or any other charitable event. Any requests to conduct events that appear to be a game of chance, questions concerning donated items, or requests to conduct fund-raisers for religious organizations should be discussed with legal counsel