For more information see the Ohio Ethics Commission website at www.ethics.ohio.gov
COLUMBUS — Public officials may not continue to use a relative on a case-by-case basis for contract work even if that relative was doing the work prior to the public official taking office, according to David Freel, executive director of the Ohio Ethics Commission.
“They are not going to be able to continue doing the work as long as the public employee is involved,” said Freel, who spoke on Tuesday, May 25, after the commission approved a comprehensive opinion on the hiring of relatives by public employees, including elected officials.
Freel would not comment directly on the status of the commission’s review of Montgomery County Sheriff Phil Plummer’s use of his sister, Kimberly Solomon, as a sheriff’s sale appraiser for 17 months after he took office in July 2008.
Plummer asked the commission for an opinion and fired his sister in January after the Dayton Daily News raised questions about his use of her as an appraiser who was paid $273,183 in 2008 and 2009 under the no-bid arrangement originally put in place by Plummer’s predecessor, Dave Vore, in 2005. Solomon was not an employee and did not have a written contract for the work.
Plummer could not be reached for comment.
Freel said Ohio’s ethics law against public employee nepotism applies to written contracts or purchase orders as well as oral agreements. A relative covered by the law can continue to be used by an elected official if that relative is finishing out the term of a written contract covering a certain period of time, Freel said.
Commission investigations are confidential and can result in a reprimand or a referral to the county prosecutor for criminal prosecution, said Ben Rose, commission chairman. He said the commission will only issue an opinion before an official acts to hire a relative.
After that, any consideration of the question would be in the form of an investigation, Rose said. Plummer did not ask for an opinion in advance of using his sister for the appraisal work.
Plummer said in earlier interviews that he did not influence Vore in selecting his sister. Plummer also said he did not play a role in the hiring of his brother or his sister’s daughter and son, all of whom remain working at the sheriff’s office.
On Sunday, the Dayton Daily News reported that nearly 42 percent of all 31 elected Montgomery County officials have relatives working for the county.
The state’s ethics law applies to all public employees, elected and nonelected, including those who are not in management. It prohibits them from directly or indirectly hiring relatives or influencing the hiring of them by any public agency.
When relatives have been legally hired at a public agency, care must be taken so that the public employee does not promote them, evaluate them, or give them any special pay or benefits beyond what is provided to other employees, according to the ethics commission.
Relatives are defined in the law as a parents, step-parents, grandparents, spouses, children and stepchildren, grandchildren, siblings and any other relative by blood or marriage who resides with the public official.
The Ethics Commission chose to compile its opinions on the subject of nepotism into one comprehensive policy on Tuesday because the issue keeps coming up, said Jennifer Hardin, chief advisory attorney for the commission. The new opinion will be posted on the commission’s website within a week.
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