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Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2010 > June > 17 > Entry
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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