COLUMBUS — Seventeen employees of former Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell must return $80,534 as the result of bonuses or severance payments that Blackwell illegally made to them during 2006, Auditor Mary Taylor said in an audit released Tuesday, March 25.

Taylor made the same finding against fellow Republican Blackwell, his former Chief Financial Officer Dilip Mehta and their bonding company, Travelers/St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company, but said Blackwell and Mehta would be liable only to the extent that the 17 employees don't pay the money back.

The dollar amounts that must be paid back ranged from $9,704 to $949.68.

A key to the finding appeared to be an opinion that Attorney General Marc Dann, a Democrat, issued last May 23 in which he said that Blackwell was without legal authority to award the additional payments.

Current Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, requested the audit after she took office in January 2007 and discovered the payments.

Blackwell awarded the payments during his last year in office as he was running for governor. He lost to Democrat Ted Strickland.

In a prepared statement, Blackwell defended the payments and said that they were similar to previous secretary of state programs. He said that they actually saved money for taxpayers because some employees agreed to forego unemployment compensation based on the bonus amount they selected. He said applying Dann's attorney general opinion retroactively to a constitutional officeholder set a "dangerous precedent."

Blackwell said that if Taylor and Dann believe this was a "prudent course of action," they should pursue "even and comprehensive enforcement." He cited the $250,000 bonus the Ohio State University board of trustees gave outgoing President Karen Holbrook and bonuses handed out by former state Treasurer Mary Ellen Withrow and the Ohio House of Representatives.

In her own prepared statement, Brunner applauded the finding.

"These bonuses were illegal and the misappropriated dollars should be returned to their rightful owner: the taxpayers of the state of Ohio," Brunner said.

The audit also cited Blackwell for not providing Brunner with a letter listing the inventory in the secretary of state's office.

Contact this reporter at (614) 224-1608 or whershey@DaytonDailyNews.com.