DaytonDailyNews.com

Gov. Ted Strickland really still is a minister at heart.

How else to explain his decision to suspend Dayton's Helen Jones-Kelley for a month without pay in response to a report that she had no business searching confidential databases, checking out Joe the Plumber?

The governor essentially told Ms. Jones-Kelley, who leads the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, that he forgives her and to go and sin no more. That's light punishment, indeed, considering her rank, the nature of her mistake and the blowback it will create for her and the governor's administration.

She should resign, and only her political naivete is stopping that.

After Sen. John McCain made Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher famous by referring to him more than 20 times in a debate with Sen. Barack Obama, the Columbus Dispatch reported that Ms. Jones-Kelley had authorized searching confidential databases to check out Mr. Wurzelbacher's history with state agencies.

Specifically, she allowed searches relating to child support, unemployment benefits and welfare payments. No information was ever publicly released.

Ms. Jones-Kelley's admission ignited a firestorm, with Ohio Republicans legitimately complaining that Mr. Wurzelbacher's privacy had been invaded for what looked like political motives. (Ms. Jones-Kelley was an active and financial supporter of Sen. Obama.) The Ohio inspector general was asked to investigate.

This week the inspector general released a report saying Ms. Jones-Kelley was out of line.

Among his remarks:

• "Unfortunately, our attempts to determine whether there were legitimate reasons for the searches were met with inconsistent and ambiguous recollections and inadequate documentation."

• "Jones-Kelley's justifications were not reasonable under the required standards. Also, based on numerous discrepancies and contradictions, we find that her information lacked credibility."

As disturbing as these judgments are, Inspector General Thomas P. Charles went on to effectively accuse a subordinate of Ms. Jones-Kelley of a cover-up. Deputy Director of Child Support Doug Thompson, Mr. Charles said, ordered an employee to send an e-mail to the agency's chief privacy officer saying that one of the checks on Mr. Wurzelbacher was related to the agency's child-support work.

"We believe that the e-mail orchestrated by Thompson was an attempt to deceive, as there was no agency function or purpose for accessing Wurzelbacher's records," the report said.

These criticisms seriously damage Ms. Jones-Kelley's credibility with her staff, the legislature and the public.

Republicans are promising not to let the issue go away.

State Rep. Shannon Jones, a Republican from Springboro, plans to introduce legislation laying out stiffer penalties for tapping people's confidential information.

In some form, the bill will pass. People are entitled to know that government workers can't be unjustifiably foraging for information about them.

How will it look that Ohio has a new law because the head of one of its largest and most important state departments did something wrong?

Moreover, the Ohio Senate may have hearings on Ms. Jones-Kelley's conduct.

That inquiry would further damage her and the department.

As important, clearly the inspector general believes that Mr. Thompson was intimidating a lower-ranking employee to make a false report. That's totally unacceptable, and on Friday, Nov. 21, Mr. Thompson also was given a four-week suspension. All in all, four top deputies have been suspended or reprimanded.

Ms. Jones-Kelley, who formerly ran the Montgomery County Department of Job and Family Services, is widely respected locally and nationally, especially among organizations that advocate for neglected and abused children. A pained Gov. Strickland has defended her, noting that Ms. Jones-Kelley deserves to be defined by more than this mistake.

Nevertheless, someone has to be accountable for a serious breach that people in Ms. Jones-Kelley's field — not just partisans or appalled voters — have publicly said never should have happened.