complete mismanagement and incompetence in the governor’s office

State Senator Jimmy Stewart lays the blame for Ohio's library funding mess at Strickland's feet.....right where it belongs.

Pomeroy Daily Sentinel story

"When contacted by The Daily Sentinel, Sen. Stewart said he hopes those in support of maintaining library funding don’t hesitate to contact Gov. Strickland’s office.

“I believe this is a result of complete mismanagement and incompetence in the governor’s office in managing this budget,” Stewart said. “The governor comes out 11 days before the budget has to be signed and passed with a laundry list of irresponsible fiscal decisions. They’ve known for months there’s a problem...we should’ve been discussing these options for months. It just shows a complete dereliction of duty on Gov. Strickland’s part and I’m extremely disappointed in his performance and that of his staff.”"

Is there anything more permanent than a "temporary" government program?

Excellent article from the Buckeye Institute about corporate welfare.

Snow emergency II

As a follow up to a previous post;

Here's the logical conclusion to making our county Sheriff's....weather men.

This is from a letter to the editor of the Athens News recently:

"I think a Level 3 snow emergency should have been issued on the evening of Tuesday, Jan. 27, because the effects of the ice storm were already in place. Furthermore, the storm could be seen on Doppler radar, as well as the winter storm warning scrolling across our television screens and being sent as text messages.
Some of my friends had taken their children to evening activities, and I began to hear their stories about the awful conditions of the roads as they were driving home. The hill that leads up to Wonder Hills was a slab of ice. It was also dark, making matters much worse.
Can anyone tell me why Sheriff Pat Kelly waited until Wednesday morning? I would like to know. People could have been involved in serious accidents on Tuesday evening. We all know that evenings are the times when children are being taken back and forth to activities."

This person could have signed this "helpless in Athens"

So, these people know it's bad outside and they wait for the Sheriff to tell them if it's safe to go outside or not. They are watching the radar and still go out, just because the Sheriff hasn't declared a level 3. So much for thinking for yourself or being accountable for your own actions.

I wonder what our founding fathers would think of us now, they fought for freedom, in the dead of winter, and we've turned into a nation of people that can't think for ourselves....we want our local Sheriff to tell us if we can go outside or not....and if it's slippery outside and he didn't tell us (even though it's the middle of winter) shame on him!

As far as the authority to declare a "snow emergency", it's made up. There is no specific law that allows this. The law that the Attorneys General mention are 311.07 and 311.08. There's nothing pertaining to "snow emergencies" It's a real stretch to even make it fit under the "preserve the public peace" generic, cover it all words in the ORC.

How did we get from the ORC general statement of preserving the peace to allowing the Sheriff to stop traffic on all roadways in a county?

A morphing action of various Attorney's General decisions.

"1958 Op. Att’y Gen. No. 3039, p. 676; a county sheriff’s duty to preserve the public peace
authorizes him to keep the public highways free of damaged automobiles and remove injured and unconscious motorists and other persons from such highways"

1987 Op. Att’y Gen. No. 87-099 at 2-658; 1986 Op. Att’y Gen.
No. 86-023 at 2-121. “It is evident, therefore, that the sheriff’s duty to ‘preserve the public
peace’ under R.C. 311.07 [and R.C. 311.08] permits him, in the appropriate circumstances, and
in the exercise of a reasonable discretion, to take those actions reasonably necessary to protect the general public welfare.”

1997 Op. Att’y
"Gen. No. 97-015 (a county sheriff may, pursuant to R.C. 311.07 and R.C. 311.08, declare a snow emergency and temporarily close state roads and municipal streets within his jurisdiction when such action is reasonably necessary for the preservation of the public peace"

As far as which roads a Sheriff may close, it's clear that he can close any road he chooses.

http://www.ag.state.oh.us/legal/opinions/1997/97-015.htm

"Moreover, under the rationale used in 1986 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 86-023, there is no reasonable basis for distinguishing between the different types of roads and streets that are located within the county. As stated in the opinion, "_[t]he sheriff is the chief law enforcement officer in the county, with jurisdiction coextensive with the county, including all municipalities and townships._" 1986 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 86-023 at 2-120 (quoting In re Sulzmann, 125 Ohio St. 594, 597, 183 N.E. 531, 532 (1932)); see R.C. 2935.03(A). Accordingly, a county sheriff's duty to "preserve the public peace" extends throughout the entire county. As such, the county sheriff is not only required to "preserve the public peace" on county and township roads during a snow emergency, but is also required to do the same on state roads and municipal streets. Because the power to "preserve the public peace" includes the authority to take those steps reasonably necessary to protect and preserve the safety of the traveling public, 1986 Op. Att'y Gen. No. 86-023 at 2-121, the county sheriff may, pursuant to R.C. 311.07 and R.C. 311.08, declare a snow emergency and temporarily close the state roads and municipal streets within his jurisdiction when such action is reasonably necessary for the preservation of the public peace.2"

Not sure why we are letting our Attorneys General make laws when our legislature should be making specific laws, but there it is.

The Dispatch gets it.

They still don't ask the question on people's minds: What did Strickland know and when did he know it?

I know it's not in the GOP's nature to do this sort of thing, but the Senate should investigate what the Governor knew about this. Did he approve of this? Due to the lenient penalty, one wonders.

Dave Yost's blog has been on top of this.

Editorial: Weak response
Governor should have sent a stronger message about the abuse of office
Sunday, November 23, 2008 3:30 AM
Two serious examples of unethical behavior should be more than enough for Gov. Ted Strickland to demand the resignation of the head of a state agency. But instead of being removed from office, Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Department of Job and Family Services, was penalized with nothing more than a month of unpaid leave for misusing her office for political purposes.
In a report unveiled on Thursday, Inspector General Thomas P. Charles found that Jones-Kelley used a state computer and e-mail account to raise money for the presidential campaign of Barack Obama, violating the governor's policy against such abuse of position. She also authorized an attempt to dredge up dirt on "Joe the plumber," an Ohioan named Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher who gained sudden fame after questioning Obama on his tax policies during a Toledo-area appearance by the candidate. Republican Sen. John McCain used Wurzelbacher's question to challenge Obama in their Oct. 15 presidential debate.
Jones-Kelley justified the search of agency records on Wurzelbacher on the grounds that the agency occasionally reviews personal data on people who suddenly appear in the public spotlight. But Charles' report said Jones-Kelley had no legitimate reason for reviewing Wurzelbacher's records and that her explanations for doing so were not credible. Charles' report didn't conclude that the data-checking was politically motivated, but that's the only logical explanation. Officials in a Democratic administration were mining damaging information on an Ohioan who had challenged their presidential candidate.
This misuse of government power against a citizen is a grave matter. Americans should be able to challenge politicians without fear that government officials will try to damage their reputations. Fear of being targeted in that way can chill political speech and participation.
After Charles issued his report, the governor unveiled a directive calling for clear policies on when state employees can access private personal data and restricting such activity to legitimate government purposes. Agency directors must appoint data-privacy officers to help achieve better controls on access to sensitive personal data.
This directive is useful, but how much weight will it carry when state employees see how little penalty there is for violating it?
If two such glaring violations of public trust do not merit removal from office, what would the governor consider worthy of such punishment? For an administration that launched itself with much fanfare about its strict ethics policies, the response to Jones-Kelley's actions is inexplicable.
In light of the governor's failure to impose an appropriate punishment, the legislature has all the more reason to step in with statutes that spell out the limits for government workers with access to confidential information about Ohioans and penalties for those who overstep them.

Another one gone. Hello, Mr. Strickland.

BELLEFONTAINE, Ohio (Map, News) - German industrial conglomerate Siemens AG says it is closing a plant in Bellefontaine (behl-FOWN'-tin), leading to the loss of 434 jobs.

The layoffs will begin Jan. 5 and conclude by the end of March. The factory makes circuit breakers for commercial and industrial markets.

Spokesman Michael Krampe says the company's competitors have moved their production offshore and it's no longer cost-effective to make products at the Bellefontaine factory.

Siemens says no additional job cuts are planned at its other central Ohio locations, which include Columbus, Dublin and Worthington.

More workers accused of politicking on state time

Let's see, union workers politicking on state time, I wonder who they were supporting??

http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2008/11/13/copy/HATCH.ART_ART_11-13-08_B4_HJBSG3G.html?adsec=politics&sid=101

'Suspended agency director Helen Jones-Kelley isn't the only Ohio government employee under investigation for allegedly dabbling in politics on state time.

Three employees of the Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission are being investigated for possible violations of the federal law that prohibits engaging in political activity on government time or using official resources.

The union that represents the three, the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, is part of a coalition of unions that backed Obama"

That really wasn't a surprise, was it?