Today, the Ohio Republican Party and the Republican Governors Association attacked the Cuyahoga County Executive’s Office for not releasing data related to 8 active investigations into threats made against County Executive and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald. By all means RGA and Ohio GOP, let’s talk about the Governor’s and Ed FitzGerald’s records on transparency.
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FITZGERALD |
KASICH |
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Campaign Finance |
FitzGerald passed an ethics policy prohibiting his political appointees from contributing to his campaign [Toledo Blade, 1/12/2012] |
Kasich has accepted at least a half million dollars from his political appointees [Columbus Dispatch, 9/11/2013] |
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Economic Development Funds |
FitzGerald oversees Ohio’s largest economic development fund after JobsOhio with strict public accountability standards: “The county tracks a list of all open and closed projects by year, and provided copies to Northeast Ohio Media Group for review for this post. All projects go before a public body, generally county council or the county board of control, for final approval.” [Plain Dealer, 10/3/2013] |
Kasich’s signature economic program, JobsOhio, has never enforced their conflict of interest policy, inflated their jobs numbers and their Board of Directors have direct financial ties to companies that have received tax credits and other assistance. [Dayton Daily News, 7/31/13] |
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Schedule Availability |
FitzGerald’s County Executive Office made his calendar available online and released his schedule after receiving FOIA request from Plain Dealer. County Commissioners did not previously release their schedules [Plain Dealer, 1/5/2014, PolitiFact 3/6/2011] |
Kasich’s administration released schedule after 7 requests that had at least one entire week blocked out [City Beat, 8/14/2012] |
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Inspector General |
FitzGerald hired Cuyahoga County’s first IG [Cuyahoga County Executive website, accessed 5/5/2014]
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Kasich’s IG contributed to his campaign and has headlined Republican fundraisers [Columbus Dispatch, 1/18/12, Ohio Secretary Of State, accessed 8/23/13] |
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Oversight of Tax Payer Dollars |
FitzGerald instituted the Board of Control and Contracts and Purchasing Board that review and approve all county contracts and purchases in a public setting [Plain Dealer, 3/28/2011] |
After declining to live in the Governor’s mansion, Kasich refused to release information on how tax-payer money was spent on security upgrades to his Columbus-area home [Dispatch, 1/2/2011] |