Congrats libs, you got exactly what you wanted. In the process, you cost the state money and still have egg on your face.
Some background follows if you haven’t been following the story.
Governor Kasich appointed Mark Kvamme (Kwah-mee) to be his Director of the Department of Development. Kvamme has been successful at attracting companies to California and agreed to do the same for Ohio for a annual salary of $1. Kvamme brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in business development to the state.
Liberals and Democrats, pouring over every opportunity to launch a political attack against the governor, immediately found something. There is a portion of the constitution that says any appointment to the governor’s cabinet must be a resident of the state.
Kvamme commutes between Ohio and California, so they argued that Kvamme was not a valid appointment since he wasn’t a resident. Oh, they had him now! They started petitions and called for Kvamme to be sent back to California.
Of course, once again, it was all about politics. They were more interested in embarrassing the governor than that we had obtained a major talent in developing business to the state. They basically found a technicality and exploited it to get the maximum amount of attack on Kasich that they could.
So, today, Governor Kasich announced that Kvamme was no longer the Director of the DOD. Liberals win, Kasich loses, right?
Today Governor John R. Kasich announced that he has appointed Mark Kvamme to serve as Director of Job Creation in the Office of the Governor. Kvamme will help oversee job creation policy statewide, work with regional economic development partners to enhance job creation strategies and help state agencies maximize the economic benefit of their operations. Kvamme previously served as director of the Department of Development.
Also, Kasich announced that James Leftwich will serve as director of the Department of Development. For the past six years Leftwich has worked at the Dayton Development Coalition, and has served three years as President and CEO.
So… you may be wondering, if Kvamme can’t be the Director of DOD, how can he be “Director of Job Development”? Because the residency requirement only applies to appointments to the governor cabinet. Director of DOD is a cabinet position, but Director of Job Creation isn’t.
So what really happened here? Kasich turned their technicality against them!
I was frustrated when some tried to raise roadblocks to his eligibility to serve based on his residency, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by anything in politics. I’m confident we could overcome those objections, but job creation is too important for distractions and this change allows us to move forward and stay focused on Job One—creating jobs.
Kvamme is still part of the governor’s office, and no doubt will be executing the same plans for bringing jobs to Ohio that he had all along.
The only downside? They cost the state money, because no one else, including Leftwich, was going to agree to take the Director of DOD position without a real salary.
You didn’t get rid of Kvamme, libs, and you cost the state money in pursuit of your political attacks. So your grand plan to embarrass the governor turned into one, giant FAIL.
I told you before. This governor has a plan to fix Ohio, and has the actual leadership to execute his plan. I think you just got run over by that bus.
