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Where legal work meets political money

July 24, 2014

Akron Beacon Journal // July 23, 2014

The occupants come and go, Republicans and Democrats, yet so much about the Ohio attorney general’s office remains the same, especially the connection between raising political money and awarding contracts for legal work. The past decade, Richard Cordray has received criticism for presiding over such a link. So has Jim Petro, and now Mike DeWine, the current holder of the office.

DeWine has invited scrutiny through his assurances, stressing publicly that his office selects lawyers based on their qualifications, that all is transparent, anyone able to find anything about the contracts. Yet that just hasn’t been the case. The Associated Press found that the attorney general abandoned a selection process developed by his predecessor (Cordray), leaving little documentation about the choices, let alone a way of revealing all about the decision-making.

Over the weekend, the Dayton Daily News pieced together a new troubling layer, after combing through campaign finance reports, email messages and other related documents. Consider some of the details.

…

Over the weekend, the Dayton Daily News pieced together a new troubling layer, after combing through campaign finance reports, email messages and other related documents. Consider some of the details.

One area where the attorney general makes outside hires involves selecting attorneys and collection agencies to pursue back taxes, defaulted student loans and other money owed to the state and public universities. This can be bountiful work. The state paid the attorneys and agencies $138 million between 2011 and 2013.

What the Daily News revealed is the timing of contributions, some of the bidding companies making campaign donations just as hiring decisions were being made. In the two months before the most recent selections, attorneys and debt collectors sent more than $215,000 to the DeWine campaign and the Ohio Republican Party.

Then, there is the good fortune of CELCO. The company was formed in April 2012, just days before the attorney general issued requests for proposals from collection agencies. A few weeks later, the firm submitted a bid, even though it lacked any experience and appropriate licensing credentials. Then, it prevailed, winning a contract for debt collection.

The Daily News noted that Pete Spitalieri of Hudson, a DeWine supporter and longtime contributor to the Summit County Republican Party, formed CELCO. He met four times with DeWine during the attorney general’s first 16 months in office, joined by Alex Arshinkoff, the county party chairman, lobbyist and fundraiser.

Finally, the Daily News pointed out that just-conceived CELCO would not have prevailed without a change to the scoring sheet, a 23 for experience written over with a 24 (out of 25).

Hard to shake the impression of a deal wired to a favored bidder. Or that David Pepper, the Democrat challenging DeWine in this election year, makes a worthy point about Ohioans deserving better from the attorney general’s office.

DeWine defends the decision by citing how successful Spitalieri has been in his business ventures. That just isn’t good enough. Neither is it sufficient to note the amount of collections, though the annual sum has slipped the past two years after a steady climb since 2001.

What the state needs is a truly transparent and accountable system for making and tracking these selections, ending the impression of a pay-to-play operation for attorneys, collection agencies and others contracting with the office.

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