Will Josh Mandel Continue Using Now-Defunct Transition Fund To Hide Up To 34 Staff Resumes?
After Gov. Kasich Attempted To Use His Own Transition To Hide Resumes Of Job Applicants, He & His Lawyers Determined Documents Had “To Be Made Public”
COLUMBUS, OHIO – Today, in yet another attempt to determine once and for all just how deep cronyism runs in the Treasurer’s office under Josh Mandel, the Ohio Democratic Party filed its ninth public records request for the resumes of office staffers Mandel has hired since his swearing in.
View a timeline of ODP’s nine public records requests and ‘responses’ from the Treasurer’s office HERE.
The ninth request follows ODP’s May 3 request, which went ignored by Mandel, and a report by The Toledo Blade from the same day in which his spokesman admitted the Treasurer’s office couldn’t account for 34 staff resumes while claiming, “The resumes of individuals who applied, interviewed, and were hired prior to the Treasurer taking office were never brought into office.”
Josh Mandel’s blatant attempt to cover up further evidence that he has hired unqualified political cronies is an affront to Ohio taxpayers. It also puts him at odds with Gov. Kasich after his own swearing in during 2011.
See below for an excerpt from today’s public records request outlining Kasich’s decision to disclose resumes from his transition fund to his official state office after consultation with his lawyers:
- Nov. 2010: In response to numerous media inquiries, a spokesman for Gov.-Elect Kasich claimed resumes of staffers submitted to his transition team website “are not subject to public record demands.” [Cincinnati Enquirer, 11/19/10]
- Dec. 2010: After meeting with his lawyers, Gov.-Elect Kasich concluded all resumes submitted to his transition team would have to become public record after his swearing in. “Ultimately, I’m going to lose this battle … it’s clear from Supreme Court rulings, at least at this point, I’m not going to win that,” he said, adding that, “unless there’s some legal way in which I can do this, these documents will have to be made public.” [Associated Press State & Local Wire, 12/1/10 & Daily Record, 12/2/10]
- Jan. 2010: Gov. Kasich’s official state office released the resumes of thousands of applicants for state jobs submitted to his transition group prior to his swearing in. [Associated Press State & Local Wire, 1/20/11]
“Either the resumes of 34 staffers Josh Mandel hired exist, and he’s using his now-defunct Transition Fund to hide them from the public eye, or worse, they do not exist, which means Mandel forewent a standard hiring process and carelessly awarded taxpayer-funded salaries to nearly half his employees without ever seeing their resumes,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Andrew Zucker. “Regardless, Josh Mandel’s pitiful attempts at hiding the resumes and qualifications of staffers he has hired to cover up further evidence of cronyism in the Treasurer’s office under his watch prove his arrogant disregard for Ohio taxpayers as he cements his reputation as a politician who can’t be trusted.”
See below for complete text of today’s letter:
June 12, 2012
The Honorable Josh Mandel
Office of the Ohio Treasurer of State
Mr. Seth Metcalf
General Counsel and Director of Legal and Legislative Affairs
30 E. Broad Street, 9th Floor
Columbus, OH 43215
Re: Public Records Request
Dear Mr. Metcalf:
This is our ninth letter and public records request since April 2011 for the resumes and cover letters of employees hired by State Treasurer Josh Mandel at the Treasurer’s office following our eighth request, sent on May 3, 2012, to which you still have not responded.
Although you have still not responded to our eighth public records request for this information, which we sent on May 3, 2012, you responded to a media enquiry by The Toledo Blade on the exact same day regarding the 34 resumes which we are requesting, a fact that concerns us and leads us to believe that you are deliberately ignoring our requests.
As a reminder, Ohio Revised Code § 149.43 directly states that responses to public records request shall be “promptly prepared” and made available “within a reasonable period of time.”
Your response to The Blade, which read, in part, “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,” also raises further questions. In particular, your response to The Blade implies that you are either unwilling to disclose public information about employees whose resumes were submitted through the now-defunct Josh Mandel Transition Fund, or worse, you are unable to produce them because they never existed in the first place.
If the latter is true, and the resumes do not exist at the Treasurer’s office or at the Josh Mandel Transition Fund, we ask that you state that directly in your response to us, which we eagerly anticipate.
If the former is true, and you are using the Josh Mandel Transition Fund to hide the resumes of employees hired in the Treasurer’s office, your actions are at odds with Governor John Kasich, who determined he was legally obligated to make all resumes of job applicants collected through his transition team available as public records after his swearing in:
- Nov. 2010: In response to numerous media inquiries, a spokesman for Gov.-Elect Kasich claimed resumes of staffers submitted to his transition team website “are not subject to public record demands.” [Cincinnati Enquirer, 11/19/10]
- Dec. 2010: After meeting with his lawyers, Gov.-Elect Kasich concluded all resumes submitted to his transition team would have to become public record after his swearing in. “Ultimately, I’m going to lose this battle … it’s clear from Supreme Court rulings, at least at this point, I’m not going to win that,” he said, adding that, “unless there’s some legal way in which I can do this, these documents will have to be made public.” [Associated Press State & Local Wire, 12/1/10 & Daily Record, 12/2/10]
- Jan. 2010: Gov. Kasich’s official state office released the resumes of thousands of applicants for state jobs submitted to his transition group prior to his swearing in. [Associated Press State & Local Wire, 1/20/11]
Additionally, whereas Gov. Kasich in 2010-2011 attempted to hide the resumes of individuals who had applied for jobs prior to his swearing in, we are requesting only the resumes of individuals Josh Mandel hired, information that surely should exist within State Treasurer’s office personnel files.
As such, below is our ninth public records request pursuant to Ohio Revised Code § 149.43 for the following specific records:
- All records, including without limitation documents and communications whether stored electronically or in hard copy, relating to the resumes and/or cover letters of the specific employees listed below who are or were employees of the Office of the Ohio Treasurer of State between January 10, 2011 and May 3, 2012. If resumes and/or cover letters were not requested by the Treasurer’s office and are not on file, please note which individual employees do not have such records on file at the Treasurer’s office.
Joseph Henry Aquilino
Christopher John Berry
Ryan Adam Bilsky
Gretchen Janet Blazer
Diana L Chime
Nicholas A Ciofani
Jeremy D Diamond
Judith Faye Diamond
Joseph Forkin
Scott Matthew Guthrie
Angela M Hawkins
Erin M Honold
Krista Marie Infante
William Lawson Johnston III
Megan K Kish
Dusten Kohlhorst
Haley Taylor Lodge
Michael R Lord
Walter S Lowe
Heather Lynn Menze
James Seth Metcalf
Brian James Miller
Brian Gregory Paul
Joel W Riter
Gordon Christopher Short
Christopher D Shumaker
Steven E Snyder
Eric Krenzler Synenberg
Davin Ivan Turkovic
Seth Foster Unger
Dexter Flynt Vaughan
Jacob Michael Wallace
Dana Beth Wasserman
Brittany LeAnn Williams
Please produce the requested records within a reasonable period of time. We anticipate that many of these records will be easy for your office to produce, and request that you produce them on a rolling basis as you are able to copy or otherwise reproduce them. We do not wish to wait until you have gathered all of the requested records before you produce them. Please let me know when you anticipate producing records.
If there is any information that will be excluded or any materials that will be redacted (other than Social Security numbers) pertaining to our request, we want to know those categories and under what privacy law or other provisions they are withheld or redacted.
Should any portion of this request be denied, in part or in whole, the law requires written justification for its denial, along with a citation of the appropriate Open Records Act exemption that applies for each record, or portion thereof, that is withheld or redacted.
In other words, if you are unable to produce resumes for the 34 Treasurer’s office employees listed above, you must include an explanation for the denial, including legal authority.
If you have any questions concerning this request, please contact me at (614) 221-6563 or at mcarrozzo@ohiodems.org.
Sincerely,
Michael Carrozzo
Ohio Democratic Party
Researcher
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Paid for by the Ohio Democratic Party, Chris Redfern, Chairman