A high-ranking Strickland Administration official tried to cover up his boss’s improper snooping on Joe the Plumber. The boss, ODJFS Director Helen Jones-Kelley, has received her slap on the wrist – a 30-day suspension – for her abuse of government power. Her acolyte has received neither sanction nor attention for his misdeed.His name is Doug Thompson, and he is Deputy Director of Child Support. He worked for Jones-Kelley in Montgomery County. His action is buried inside the Inspector General’s report.
Joe the Plumber had his fateful meeting with then-Sen. Barack Obama on October 12. Four days later, Jones-Kelley, Assistant Director Fred Williams, and Thompson were discussing Joe the Plumber. It is unclear why three powerful state officials were discussing a private citizen – child support enforcement and welfare benefits are handled at the local county level, not at the State level, and certainly not by the head of a mammoth state agency.
Onward. On October 24, the news media broke the story of Jones-Kelley’s check for dirt on Joe the Plumber. The Governor did not request an investigation -- the Inspector General’s investigation was undertaken by his own initiative.
The actual check was performed by an administrative assistant, who had no idea who she was looking up. As things began heating up, Thompson came to her and ordered her to send a cover-up email. From the report:
“She said Thompson dictated to her the exact wording of an email that she was to send and “literally demanded” that she send the email to Rick Copley, Chief Privacy Officer, explaining that this SETS inquiry performed for Brown was for child support purposes. We believe that this email orchestrated by Thompson was an attempt to deceive as there was no agency function or purpose for accessing Wurzelbacher’s records.” (p. 7).
Who was Thompson attempting to deceive? The Inspector General, the media, you and me. It’s called a coverup, and it’s morally in the same class as the original act.
More importantly, why was he lying? Why order a junior subordinate to send the deceptive e-mail? No one would expect her to know the reasons she was told to perform the inquiry. If the original inquiry was justified, why not explain it over his own signature?
The answer is obvious: he knew it was political, unjustified and contrary to law. He wanted to be as far away from it as he could, and he wanted to keep his boss away from it, too.
Governor, he tried to lie to you. You will not be able to successfully govern if your subordinates believe deception is OK.
The IG report is available at at: http://watchdog.ohio.gov/investigations/2008299.pdf
2 comments:
Apparently, the words "abuse of official position and power" don't ring very loudly in the ears of the Governor.
I consider myself a reasonable person...not highly partisan. And in general use, I believe people deserve a second chance. But I would have no tolerance for those who so clearly approached such a situation with an agenda, executed it and covered it up.
It's hard to believe that Governor Strickland doesn't want to get as far away from the actors behind this as possible. One almost has to wonder if someone doesn't leverage on the Gov that prohibits him from simply dismissing those involved.
Character: the ability to say that you've done all you can to stay clean and have demanded the same of others...takes someone a long way, in my book. I find this to be a serious black mark against the Strickland administration. This will not soon be forgotten. If he leaves things as they are, I think he'll end up regretting it in time.
Abuse of official position and power -- those words also do not ring very loudly in your ears Mr. Yost. The very nature of your office when your implications of "war" as opposed to "truth" are a fine example of that. This blog is another.
One wonders if you would consider this abuse with a Republican governor.
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