Coins For Change: Returning Trust to Ohio

SEC Warnings About Broker's Fees Ignored by BWC and Petro

The Following letters were revealed at today's BWC Oversight committee meeting indicating that the Bureau and Attorney General Jim Petro were warned by the United States Securities and Exchange Commisson that BWC was being ripped off by Stock Brokers. More on Stock Broker Contributions and Terry Gasper's "Approved List" of Brokers to come:

Download SEC.pdf

From Minority Leader CJ Prentiss:

Two letters were revealed for the first time to Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Commission members today that could show proof of a rampant kickback scheme in Ohio’s government. The portions of the letters were inadvertently revealed during today’s BWC Commission meeting by a consultant hired for the BWC investigation.

One letter was sent in November 2002 from the Securities Exchange Commission to the BWC; another was sent from the SEC to Republican Attorney General Jim Petro in March 2004. Both cited abuse of excessively inflated brokerage fees at the BWC and warned Petro of the impending problems, but to no avail. During the Commission’s meeting today in Columbus, the current interim BWC director stated that the letters were not recently made public because of a criminal investigation surrounding them.

Ohio Senate Democratic Leader C.J. Prentiss of Cleveland released the following statement in response:

"Today’s revelation of excessive brokerage fees is startling. Over two years ago, the SEC contacted the Taft administration about excessive fees and apparently nothing changed. And last year, Attorney General Petro was contacted by the SEC and still nothing was done.

This begs the question --- why no action? As we peel away each layer of the onion, are we going to find a kick-back scheme that was institutionalized by this administration to reward their campaign contributors? Why didn’t Governor Taft act? Why didn’t Attorney General Petro act? Who are these firms being paid excessive fees and who did they shower with campaign contributions? All the statewide elected leaders? This is just another reason why we need Watergate-style legislative hearings. Taxpayers need to know.

There is a culture of corruption in this state and it must end.”

Another view on how Bob Taft can be part of the Solution

Link: - toledoblade.com - .

Today the Worker's Comp Oversight Commission will consider refusing to do business with anyone who contributes to statewide candidates. Why not do it statewide?

Burden of Proof Shifts to Taft to Prove Executive Privilege Greater than U.S.President

The Supreme Court Issued the following order:

MOTION AND PROCEDURAL RULINGS

2005-1222. State ex rel. Dann v. Taft.

In Mandamus. This cause originated in this court on the filing of a complaint for a writ of mandamus. Upon consideration of respondent's motion for protective order and relator's motion to compel discovery,

IT IS ORDERED by the court that the motions are held in abeyance and that all further discovery and the filing of evidence is stayed pending further order of this court.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the parties shall file briefs addressing the following issues:

1) Whether the Governor of Ohio may claim an executive privilege to prevent disclosure of documents provided to the Governor by staff members or other executive-branch officials.

2) Whether the Governor of Ohio and other high-ranking government officials may claim an executive privilege, or other justification, to prevent discovery by deposition or as otherwise authorized by the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that respondent shall file his brief within twenty days of the date of this entry. Relator shall file his brief within twenty days of the filing of respondent's brief, and respondent may file a reply brief within ten days of the filing of relator's brief. No extensions of time shall be permitted, and the briefs shall otherwise conform to the requirements of S.Ct.Prac.R. VI.

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the court will hear oral argument addressing the issues to be briefed on November 9, 2005.

I regard today’s ruling by the Ohio Supreme Court as another victory for the people of Ohio and am gratified by the fact that the justices have once again rejected the Governor’s Watergate-like assertion of Executive Privilege—a privilege that does not and should not exist in our great state.

I look forward to filing the briefs the Court has requested in its order, to oral argument on November 9, and to prevailing in the fight to gain access to information that will lead to the end of the Republican culture of corruption that has permeated and damaged our state for far too long.

Tom Noe Releases Coin Documents

Governor Taft insists he had no knowledge of the Coin Funds.

Here are the Noe documents.pdf

The question remains: What did Bob Taft know about the Coin Funds and when did he know it?

From a Clevelander

Below is a message I received earlier today.

I've enjoyed Senator Dann's blog and appreciate the work he's doing to clean up our state. Two quotes I read in the papers yesterday took me aback and I would like to post my response for visitors to the site

Hey, Bill, honesty’s a family value, too

Yesterday, Senate President Bill Harris stated that Mr. Taft will have to “answer to the people of Ohio” for his decision to allow convicted former chief of staff Brian Hicks to remain on the boards of the Ohio State University and the Water Development Authority.

The problem is that Mr. Taft is no longer accountable to the people of Ohio since his failed term as governor is, thankfully, drawing to a close and it’s safe to assume he won’t be back on the ballot--although it is safe to assume from what we now know about he spent a lot of his time over the past six years that he will be back on the golf course.

It’s clear from Mr. Taft’s refusal to tell all he knows about the pay-to-steal system he helped create—and to order his current and former employees to do so as well—that he doesn’t much care what the people of Ohio think about him or his failed administration.

That means that instead of shirking their responsibility to the people of Ohio, something the GOP has done on issue after issue for two decades, Senator Harris and his members will have to join Democrats in holding Mr. Taft and other Republican officeholders and appointees accountable for their repeated betrayals of the public trust.

Unfortunately, the party of “family values” doesn’t appear to have the intestinal fortitude to defend a critical one: Honesty.

 
Are they dumb, or just stupid?

We may have unearthed the reason why the Republicans ignored the state’s ethics laws: they’re too dumb to understand them. The proof lies in the following quote from House Chief of Staff Scott Borgemenke who termed the rules "confusing and complicated."

"If a legislator gets a paperweight from a school kid and gets the same paperweight from [lobbyist] Neil Clark, they cost the same but one has to be reported and the other does not," Borgemenke said.

Okay, Scott, listen carefully and we’ll explain the difference.

When a kid gives a GOP legislator a paperweight he thinks he’s giving it to a leader who will do things for him like fix school funding or lower tuitions at public universities.

The kid is usually disappointed.

When a lobbyist gives a GOP legislator a paperweight it usually has a bunch of checks from special interests underneath it who believe they are contributing a lot of money to someone who will do things for them like grant them special tax breaks, protect them from liability for building and selling shoddy products, or give them a few hundred million taxpayer dollars to steal, uh, sorry, we mean invest.

They are rarely disappointed.

Get the difference now, Scott? Good, now pass this little primer around, it may really help you guys in the future.

Interim Report on BWC Management Practices...What do you think? Post Your Comments

Download bwc_report.pdf

An E-mail exchange with a constituant.

Sent: Monday, August 22, 2005 6:24 PM
To: Dann 32
Subject: Is Govenor Taft the most important issue

Dear Senator Dann

I live in Saybrook Township in Ashtabula County Ohio. I am very annoyed that you can not seem to let the Govenor Taft issue go. I go to bed at night worrying if I will be able to afford a tank of gas or if I will have to get a second job in order to pay my heating bill this winter. I wonder why my State Senator seems to view these issues as **unimportant.** Your constituents are worried about * survival* issues and you are totally focused on "getting Republicans." Are you totally out of touch with the hardships that face the people of Ashtabula County or is it that you just don't care? Exactly what is it that you want? If Taft resigns is that enough or will you find another Republican to focus on? I think people need to start asking *you* the hard questions like what have you done to help the people of Ashtabula County? You need to get over complaining about Republicans and focus on the real issues that affect the lives of the people in your district.

My Response:

A big part of the reason that our economy in Ohio is so stagnated is that our state government has been so focused on taking care of contributors that we haven't made the necessary investments to improve the condition of our economy.

My concerns are not about Taft but about a system that values political connections above doing what is necessary to improve the lives of average Ohioans. The tax on the gas that you are having trouble affording has been increased by six cents (George Distal and I voted no) but we were able to give tax cuts averaging $6000 per year to people earning $200,000 or more.

Your property taxes have increased because the leaders of the state do not have the political will to increase state support of public schools yet have allocated (over my no vote) 108 million dollars per year to charter schools run by a 3 million dollar republican contributor.

Make no mistake, the culture of corruption has made your life more challenging. That's why I will continue to fight it.

Best Analysis Yet

Link: Editorials - Telegraph Forum - www.bucyrustelegraphforum.com.

Simple Rules:

"Much of what is wrong comes down to a failure by public servants to follow a few basic rules: Keep your meetings open. Deliberate in public. Pay your own way. Get competitive bids. Where money is involved, keep relationships arms length and performance based. Golf only with friends and family"

Taft Golf Partners

Toledo Blade  has details on the interest in state business of Taft Golf Partners.

A Reasoned Approach

Link: The Tribune Chronicle - Your Mahoning Valley News Source.

Bob Taft and Golf are not the issues.

Ohioans should be outraged that because the leaders of our state have been too busy taking care of their campaign contributors to notice or do anything about the following facts:

1. Ohio is 49th out of 50th in Job Creation

2. College is no longer affordable to many middle and working class families. Failure to address this problem has allowed tuition to increase 50% over the past 5 years. The new budget locks in another 12% increase over the next two years.

3. Local Property Taxes have skyrocketed because the state has failed to address school funding despite repeated Supreme Court decisions that our funding scheme is unconstitutional.

We need systematic reform