Ohio aide suspended for searches linked to 'Joe'
November 21, 2008: Gov. Ted Strickland yesterday resisted Republican demands that he fire his Ohio Department of Job and Family Services director after a state investigation found she'd improperly mined state computer databases for information on Samuel "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher.
Instead, the governor suspended Helen Jones-Kelley for one month without pay. She's been on paid administrative leave from her roughly $140,000-a-year job for the last two weeks. Read the full article here.
No records to back agency director's claims over 'Joe' investigation
November 13, 2008: The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has no records to support the assertion of its now-suspended director that computer checks often are run on people "thrust quickly into the public spotlight."
In response to a public-records request, the state agency said today that it had no records involving prior checks of the type that Director Helen Jones-Kelley authorized on "Joe the Plumber." Read the full article here.
State employee says she was ordered to check out Joe the Plumber
October 31, 2008: Vanessa Niekamp said that when she was asked to run a child-support check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher on Oct. 16, she thought it routine. A supervisor told her the man had contacted the state agency about his case.
Niekamp didn't know she just had checked on "Joe the Plumber," who was elevated the night before to presidential politics prominence as Republican John McCain's example in a debate of an average American. Read the full article here.
Fairborn mayor says no records are missing
October 1, 2008: Mayor Gary Woodward rebuked a claim by three council members that public records are missing from the city manger's personnel file.
In a statement issued Wednesday, Oct. 1, Woodward wrote that the background check, performance review and disciplinary action either didn't exist or were not public records.
He claims individual reviews by council members of McDonnell's performance and her background check are not public records under the Ohio Sunshine Law. Read the full article here.
Agency eases records policy
September 26, 2008: The Ohio Department of Public Safety has revised a public-records policy that one expert denounced as restricting employees' free speech and inviting denial and delay in releasing records.
The policy adopted June 26 put 3,944 Public Safety employees on notice that they would face discipline if they informed the public of the existence of public records or suggested that anyone file a records request.
That provision, denounced as "draconian" and "stupid" by Herschel Sigall, union lawyer for the Ohio State Troopers Association, was killed. Read the full article here.
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