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Candidate extolling transparency runs a county plagued with transparency problems

Yet another issue where Ed Fitzgerald is revealed to be a hypocrite.

Nina-eyes-Eds-spotJust three days ago he held a snoozer of a press conference (dubbed as a major announcement) in which he laid out changes he would make to JobsOhio to make it more transparent if he is elected governor.

Turns out, he needs to work on transparency and following public records laws in the job he is currently supposed to be doing as Cuyahoga County Cheif Executive. From the Plain Dealer:

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cuyahoga County fell short in following its own public records policies during County Executive Ed FitzGerald’s first year in office, according to a review from the Ohio Auditor’s Office.

Ohio Auditor Dave Yost, a Republican, released the results Thursday of a review of how Cuyahoga County and 19 other cities and counties’ complied with their respective public records policies. Of the 20, Cuyahoga County drew the lengthiest and most detailed criticism.

In an interview, Yost told the Northeast Ohio Media Group that Cuyahoga County fared worse than all but one other jurisdiction.

“Cuyahoga County, because of its unfortunate recent history, has the greatest moral need for transparency. And of our sample, they did not rise to the occasion,” Yost said.

  • The sheriff’s department in some instances did not keep track of when public records requests were fulfilled, meaning auditors couldn’t tell if they responded quickly or not.
  • The county’s public works and sheriff’s departments did not keep copies of responses to public records requests.
  • The county’s public works department did not keep hard copies of internal emails after sending them to auditors.
  • Some county employees could not document they had attended mandatory public records training.
  • Auditors found a lack of consistency in forwarding logs of public records requests to the county’s deputy records manager

All of the issues auditors identified occurred in offices under the purview of the county executive.

If Fitzy is going to run around the state complaining about transparency issues, it might help if he had some sort of credibility on the matter. But as a typical Cuyahoga County politician, he has none.

Update: Thanks to Ohio Capital Blog, we have added video of Yost discussing how Cuyahoga County, with all of its recent problems, should have been a shining model after reorganizing their entire structure. That’s what Ed Fitzgerald promised. That’s not what he delivered. He’s been too busy playing on Facebook and running for governor.


Video courtesy of Ohio Capital Blog




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