COLUMBUS — Helen Jones-Kelley had an odd goal when she took over as director of Ohio's sprawling Department of Job and Family Services back in early 2007.

"How do I work my way out of a job?" Jones-Kelley, 57, of Clayton said in an interview back then with the Dayton Daily News. "That's the goal."

Jones-Kelley moved dangerously close to that goal last week but certainly not down the path she set out to travel.

Her plan was to find solutions to the problems facing the thousands of needy Ohioans her department serves — unborn babies whose mothers require health care, the growing number of unemployed Ohioans desperately in search of jobs and seniors battling disease and hunger and struggling to maintain dignity.

Instead, Gov. Ted Strickland suspended her for a month without pay on Thursday, Nov. 20, from her $141,980 job in the wake of the first real political scandal to rock his administration. A month's pay would be $11,831.

Strickland acted after Ohio Inspector General Tom Charles' report found Jones-Kelley improperly authorized searches of state databases in the heat of the presidential campaign and also improperly used her state e-mail account to raise money for Democrat Barack Obama.

The databases had information on Samuel Joseph "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher, who became a key figure in Ohio's presidential campaign after questioning Obama's tax policies.

Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering, who praised Democrat Strickland's choice of Jones-Kelley for the job last year, was among top Republicans calling for her dismissal.

Still, Husted, who worked with Jones-Kelley in Montgomery County government, wasn't thrilled with what he said Strickland needed to do.

"I've known Helen for a long time and I've always found her to be an able public servant," said Husted, who got to know Jones-Kelley when he worked for County Commissioner Don Lucas.

Before taking her state job, Jones-Kelley was director of the Montgomery County Department of Job and Family Services and before that executive director of Montgomery County Children Services.

She was passionate about those jobs, but not heavily involved in politics, said some of her admirers in Dayton. That's what has them wondering about what happened.

"I have a terrific respect for her. She did a great job with Children Services. I didn't think she was that political," said Democrat Paul Leonard, now teaching political science at Wright State University. Leonard knows Columbus where he served in the legislature and as lieutenant governor. He also was Dayton mayor.

The heat of the presidential campaign could have affected her, Leonard said.

"I think a lot of people got caught up in this campaign season more than in any recent campaign. That's primarily because of Barack Obama's magnetism," he said. Jones-Kelley contributed $2,500 to Obama's campaign.

Ann Stevens worked with Jones-Kelley in Dayton and for Leonard in Columbus when he was lieutenant governor. Stevens said that Jones-Kelley was "politically savvy" but that Columbus is a different place to operate in than Dayton.

"You have to be more diligent, I think, in looking at everything you do when you're in that kind of political environment ... Everything you do is closely scrutinized by people in the entire state as opposed to just a county," said Stevens, now public information coordinator for the Montgomery County Job and Family Services department.

Jones-Kelley has been unavailable for interviews but she issued a prepared statement after the report spoke.

"For nearly 30 years I have worked as hard as possible on behalf of children and families in Ohio and across the country," she said. "This has been and will always be my priority and motivation."

However, Dayton native Mary Anne Sharkey, a former top aide to Gov. Bob Taft, said it's "rather unprecedented" for a state department head to return to work after being the subject of a report as critical as Charles' was.

The question is whether Jones-Kelley can be effective in what Sharkey called "probably the toughest agency in state government to run."

"I don't know," said Sharkey. "That's hard to say."

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whershey@DaytonDailyNews.com.