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Thursday, June 17, 2010
Boehner both an investor in, and critic of, BP
From today’s paper:
House Minority Leader John Boehner bought as much as $50,000 of BP stock last December before the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico caused the oil giant’s stock to plummet by as much as 50 percent.
In financial disclosure statements filed Wednesday, June 16, Boehner, R-West Chester Twp., bought tens of thousands of dollars in stock last December in a number of energy companies, including BP, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, and Exxon-Mobil.
The wife of Centerville Republican Rep. MikeTurner owns a small amount of stock in Transocean, the company that owned the oil rig that exploded, the reports show.
Under congressional rules, Boehner was required to report only that he bought between $15,000 and $50,000 in stock. The reports, filed annually, provide only a broad outline of a lawmaker’s personal wealth. Boehner remains one of the area’s wealthiest members of Congress.
BP’s stock peaked at $62.38 a share in January before one of its deep-water rigs ruptured in April, sending as much as 60,000 barrels of oil a day into the Gulf of Mexico. The stock was selling for $31.85 a share when the markets closed.
BP Chairman Carl-Henric Syanberg also announced the company would not pay dividends for the rest of the year.
On a related note, here is a release from Boehner’s office before President Barack Obama’s Oval Office address on the oil spill this week:
Congressman John Boehner (R-West Chester) issued the following statement in advance of tonight’s Oval Office address on the Gulf oil spill:
“While President Obama is speaking tonight, oil will continue to leak from the well and extend its stranglehold on the lives and livelihoods of the people in the affected areas. Even now, nearly two months after disaster first struck, the federal response remains inadequate and disorganized. Americans are rightly angry about this failure of government, and they want to know that their president is focused squarely on stopping this leak, cleaning up this mess, and finding out what went wrong.
“President Obama should not exploit this crisis to impose a job-killing national energy tax on struggling families and small businesses. Both parties should be working together to craft responsible solutions in response to this disaster. There’s nothing responsible or reasonable about a job-killing national energy tax that will raise energy costs and destroy more American jobs.
“President Obama will also reportedly address some of the financial issues surrounding the crisis, including the establishment of an escrow fund. These resources should be used to help the victims of this disaster, and not as a slush fund for trial lawyers or Administration officials seeking to paper over their own misguided decisions. BP should be held accountable for the full cost of this disaster - the taxpayers shouldn’t pay one dime - but that money must be directed to where it can be most effective in stopping this leak and aiding the recovery effort.
“I sincerely hope that the Obama Administration will not try to use a crisis made worse by its own failings to score political points on the backs of American living and working on the Gulf Coast. This is a moment that demands a call to action based on our shared interest in stopping this leak,cleaning up this mess, and finding out what went wrong.”
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Commissioners cut $3.5 million
The sheriff’s office, courts and commissioners will face the biggest cuts as Butler County commissioners work to patch a $4 million budget deficit for the remainder of 2010.
Commissioners agreed today, June 17, on cutting $3.5 million from the county’s budget and dipping into reserves for $500,000.
This includes nearly $1.8 million cut from the sheriff’s office, $315,174 from commissioners, $303,522 from the prosecutors office and $296,600 from county courts.
What specifically will be cut is still uncertain. Commissioners held off on original plans to pull the money out of personnel accounts countywide — Office of Budget and Management Director Pete Landrum estimates personnel accounts for more than 93 percent of the county’s discretionary spending — until they meet with each office.
This followed complaints from Domestic Relations Judge Sharon Kennedy that she can’t legally move money around in her budget to adjust to the cut, as commissioners suggested.
“I can’t get there without closing the court,” Kennedy said of the $110,000 cut facing her office.
Butler County Sheriff Richard K. Jones hasn’t said what he would cut. But Sgt. Jeff Gebhart, president of the union representing deputies, worried about additional cuts to road patrols.
In addition to eight road deputies laid off this year, Gebhart said the sheriff’s office has cut more than half a dozen more deputies through attrition.
“It’s going to be detrimental to the safety of the citizens, and the deputy sheriffs in Butler County.” Gebhart said. “It’s getting dangerous, especially at a time when…violent crime is rising literally by the week in Butler County.”
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Commissioners to address budget deficit today
Butler County commissioners are in session, preparing to discuss how they’ll deal with a projected $4 million deficit in this year’s budget. A public hearing is schedule for 9:50 a.m.
- Read the latest story on this, and the costs of delaying a decision, here.
- See the latest budget info here.
- Here is the story about the budget cut options county finance officials put before commissioners a few weeks ago.
What do you think they should do?
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Ethics inquiries delayed by state budget cuts
For more than two years, the cloud of an Ohio Ethics Commission investigation has hung over Butler County Commissioner Charles Furmon.
And the ethics commission appears content to let it hang there indefinitely, Furmon worries, saying he hasn’t yet been called to testify before the body.
“I feel they should either clear my name or give me my day in court,” Furmon said.
Commission President Gregory Jolivette fell under ethics officials’ microscope in July 2009. He then lost re-election in the Republican Party primary this year, due in part to allegations that have yet to cement into charges.
Paul Nick, chief investigative attorney for the ethics commission, said delays have been unfortunate, but logistical. State budget cuts left the agency with only five investigators, and they average 150 investigations a year.
“The budget cut is really what’s been taking so long,” Nick said. “We simply don’t have the resources we had five, six years ago, so we’re simply doing the best with what we have.”
Much of the agency’s resources this year, he said, have been focused on investigating former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann and officials in Youngstown.
Furmon’s investigation began in April 2008, when the Butler County Democratic Party requested — and was granted — an ethics inquiry into pay raises Furmon voted on when his former son-in-law was a county employee.
“I did not assist in or affect his promotion or moves at all,” Furmon said.
Though he doesn’t believe he had to, Furmon said he would’ve abstained on the raises if he knew they were on the agenda. At the time, he said, commission agendas included few names or details. That has since been changed “so there’s no way we would make that mistake the way it is now,” he said.
Jolivette said the same about voting on hiring his son in 2005 as a county employee.
“The vote was one of 55 resolutions, and it was just done by title,” said Jolivette. “I did not knowingly vote for it.”
Neither Furmon nor Jolivette have been called to testify before the ethics commission. Furmon said an investigator came to his house and told him they weren’t too concerned with his issue since his son-in-law didn’t live with him at the time.
While this is a factor in cases like this, Nick said he also looks into whether the official has any other financial relationship with the in-law.
He said it’s unclear how long it will be before the state makes a ruling in either case.
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