Following 9 Public Records Requests Spanning His 14-Month Refusal To Fully Disclose Staff Resumes, Mandel Won’t Say How Treasurer’s Office Finally Obtained Them
COLUMBUS, OHIO – Stop the presses. Last Friday, after refusing for fourteen months to fully disclose the resumes of Treasurer’s office staffers Josh Mandel hired and declaring that they would not disclose the resumes of hired office employees who applied during his transition, Mandel’s official state office miraculously stumbled upon 33 missing staff resumes, including 9 resumes of staffers hired after Mandel’s swearing in, but refused to say how they were obtained.
From the Treasurer’s office response to the Ohio Democratic Party’s ninth request for resumes of Mandel office hires (view HERE):
“On June 12, 2012, the resumes of individuals that accepted offers of employment prior to January 10, 2011 were voluntarily presented to the office of the Treasurer of state.”
“Voluntarily presented…” is Josh Mandel serious!? Here are key questions Mandel must immediately answer:
- Were the 33 resumes obtained from the now-defunct Josh Mandel Transition Fund? If so, how did the Treasurer’s office obtain resumes for 9 staffers who began working for Josh Mandel after his swearing in?
- If the 33 resumes were not obtained from the Josh Mandel Transition Fund, from where were they obtained? Did the Treasurer’s office simply ask the employees for their resumes now to hide the fact that they awarded 34 employees with taxpayer-funded salaries without requesting their resumes or reviewing their qualifications?
- Why did it take nine public records requests spanning 14 months for Josh Mandel to finally reveal the 33 resumes which were disclosed?
View a timeline of ODP’s nine public records requests and ‘responses’ from the Treasurer’s office HERE.
“For 14 months Josh Mandel refused to fully disclose the resumes and qualifications of Treasurer’s office staffers in an effort to cover up the fact that he hired unqualified political cronies, and now he wants Ohioans to believe that he miraculously stumbled upon 33 of the resumes in question,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Andrew Zucker. “That’s flat-out absurd and Josh Mandel knows it. Until Josh Mandel states from whom or from where he suddenly received the resumes of 33 staffers he hired at taxpayer-expense, Ohioans will wonder what he’s still hiding as his reputation as a politician who can’t be trusted sets in stone.”
BACKGROUND
May 3, 2012: Mandel Spokesman Admitted His Office Does Not Have Resumes For 34 Of Its Employees. In May 2012, The Toledo Blade reported “A spokesman for Republican Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel on Wednesday said his office doesn’t have resumes for 34 of its employees, a little over a year after the Democratic Party said it asked for the employee resumes.” [Toledo Blade, 5/3/12]
Mandel’s Press Secretary Admitted Making Hires Prior To Mandel Taking Office. In May 2012, The Toledo Blade wrote “Seth Unger, press secretary for Mr. Mandel, told The Blade Wednesday that the treasurer’s office doesn’t possess the documents that had been requested. ‘We have given the Ohio Democratic Party every resume that they have requested which the Treasurer’s office has in its records. The resumes of individuals who applied, interviewed, and were hired prior to the Treasurer taking office were never brought into office. The Treasurer’s office is unable to produce records that it does not have in its possession,’ Mr. Unger said in an email to The Blade.” [Toledo Blade, 5/3/12]
The Josh Mandel Transition Fund Was Terminated On March 18, 2011. [Ohio Secretary of State]
After Nine Public Records Requests, Treasurer’s Office Said Missing Resumes Of Mandel Staffers Were “Voluntarily Presented” To The Treasurer’s Office On June 12, 2012 . In a June 15th response to the 9th public records request made by the Ohio Democratic Party for missing resumes of Mandel hires, General Counsel Seth Metcalf wrote “On June 12, 2012, the resumes of individuals that accepted offers of employment prior to January 10, 2011 were voluntarily presented to the office of the Treasurer of State. Since such resumes are now within the possession of the office of the Treasurer of State, these resumes became ‘public records’ on June 12, 2012, and are therefore currently available for production, and thus appear on the enclosed CD.” [TOS Response To Records Request, 6/15/12]
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Paid for by the Ohio Democratic Party, Chris Redfern, Chairman