Marc Kovac, Vindicator: Another Strickland appointee caught doing something "dumb"

Marc Kovac writes in the Youngstown Vindicator:

The head of the state’s main law enforcement agency lied to investigators under oath recently, according to a report released last week by the Ohio Inspector General.

...

[I]t’s the latest individual [Strickland] appointed to a high-ranking state post to get caught doing something dumb. Republicans are going to have a heyday reminding voters in coming weeks and months about the people the governor chooses to place in positions of leadership.

Already on the list are a head of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services who searched confidential computer systems for information on a guy named Joe the Plumber, an interim Department of Development head with tax issues and a Department of Public Safety head with alleged issues involving illegal immigrants and automobile registrations.

...

The facts of the case are disturbing enough. Prisoners with unfettered access to knives and chain saws and a lucrative tobacco and who-knows-what-else running a smuggling operation from the governor’s house because of lax security.

But the more disturbing part, from reading the Inspector General’s report, is the subsequent coverup and less than truthful — and downright illogical at times — answers given by Collins-Taylor and Mannion during the investigation.

According to the Inspector General, “During sworn interviews with our office, Collins-Taylor did not tell the truth about her decision to shut down the operation, nor was she truthful about the timing of her decision. Mannion also was untruthful under oath....”

Public officials telling lies is unacceptable. Public officials in charge of law enforcement duties telling lies is inexcusable.

That should have prompted the governor to take some kind of action, or at least make a strongly worded reprimand against the individuals caught lying.

(Marc Kovac, Youngstown Vindicator, 5/1/10)