At Bob Taft’s inauguration as governor, he calls his family legacy “a tradition of integrity” and “ethical conduct in office.” Ohio Governor Robert Taft served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tanzania in the 1960's.
Canton Repository says Taft's ‘Tradition of integrity’ has turned to dust
‘Tradition of integrity’ has turned to dust
Monday, August 1, 2005
January 1999: At Bob Taft’s inauguration as governor, he calls his family legacy “a tradition of integrity” and “ethical conduct in office.”
February 1999: At Taft’s first cabinet meeting, the executive director of the Ohio Ethics Commission describes what is and is not ethical behavior. A Taft spokesman says the governor didn’t preach to the cabinet members but “everybody got it loud and clear.”
October 1999: Taft orders top staffers and agency directors to take ethics training every two years.
March 2001: An Ohio Ethics Commission memo specifies that golf rounds should be reported as gifts.
July 2002: Randall Fischer, executive director of the Ohio School Facilities Commission, resigns after a judge rules he had no authority to approve school construction contracts. A week earlier, he had said he accepted free rounds of golf from construction company executives.
August 2002: Gino Zomparelli, executive director of the Ohio Turnpike Commission, quits after a state ethics report concludes commission employees accepted gifts, including rounds of golf, from contractors.
September 2003: Richard Frenette, director of the Ohio State Fair, resigns after Ohio Inspector General Tom Charles reports a “proliferation of gift giving” from vendors doing business with the fair.
February 2004: Charles reports that Ohio State Racing Commission members and employees, including Clifford Nelson, who had just resigned as executive director, routinely bet on horse races at state-licensed tracks and had accepted improper gifts.
April 2004: Jack Lundberg, executive director of the Ohio Board of Motor Vehicle Collision Repair Registration, which regulates car body shops, resigns. Charles reports Lundberg approved false payroll time sheets, took rent-free vacations in Costa Rica and used a state computer to download pornography, as well as campaign finance reports of his wife, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, and her election opponent. Taft believed this was “extremely disappointing and inappropriate behavior,” a spokesman said.
May 2004: Debra Carey, mother of the president of a coal industry trade group, resigns as the public’s representative on the Ohio Reclamation Commission, which hears cases involving landowners and neighbors of mines. Taft, who had appointed Carey, “agrees that was the right decision,” a spokesman said.
March 2005: Ethics investigators recommend criminal charges against two lawyers accused of giving $5,000 in cash and gifts to 32 employees of the Ohio Division of Liquor Control who issued licenses for businesses the attorneys represented. One attorney says the gifts were not bribes but were meant to say, “Thanks for everything this year, and Merry Christmas, and here’s 50 bucks.”
May 2005: Jim Conrad, director of the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, resigns amid a probe into millions of dollars missing from the investment fund managed by coin dealer Thomas Noe, a former Lucas County Republican chairman and campaign donor to GOP officeholders.
June 2005: Taft says he failed to file the proper ethics forms for 50 to 60 golf outings and other events.
July 2005: Brian K. Hicks, Taft’s former chief of staff, is convicted of filing a false ethics report for failing to disclose he had used Noe’s Florida home while paying below-market rates. “If he failed to live up to (high ethical) expectations in this instance, then I am disappointed,” Taft said. Taft, who had appointed Hicks to the Ohio State University and Ohio Water Development Authority boards, sees no need to remove him.
January 1999: At Bob Taft’s inauguration as governor, he calls his family legacy “a tradition of integrity” and “ethical conduct in office.”
