Steaming Joe & Fleecing Taxpayers? While Eyeballing Cincinnati's Spending, State Auditor David Yost Inks Deal for $7 Cups of Coffee

State Money Buys $7 A Person Coffee Breaks

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The Ohio official who bills himself as the watchdog to "skinny down" spending now wants taxpayers to pay for $7 a person coffee breaks.  State Auditor David Yost's office is also buying $17.50 continental breakfasts and $20 lunches on the public's tab. Yost's guests: Investigators who are supposed to search for wasteful spending.   What's interesting, perhaps, is that the school breakfast program for poor kids gets about $1.51 per child for free morning eats compliments of Uncle Sam.  So Yost -- a conservative Republican who says he is frugal -- is paying more than four times as much for his fraud investigators to take a coffee break.

Denise Driehaus Told Cincy Right-to-Life She Backed Overturning Roe v. Wade: Democrat Said Ban Abortion From 'Conception To Birth'

Denise Driehaus Wants To Rollback Abortion Rights

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- When she ran for her current two-year Ohio House term in 2010, Democrat Denise Driehaus told Cincinnati Right-to-Life she was an ally in their fight to overturn Roe v. Wade.  She also checked "Yes" to a survey questionnaire that asked:  "Will you support state legislation to ban abortion-on-demand from fertilization to birth."  Driehaus -- who was a West Sider at the time -- is now running for reelection in Ohio House District 31, which has been moved to Cincinnati's East Side and includes several close in suburbs.  The new district has far more Democratic voters, and her position against abortion rights is completely outside the mainstream of her party.  If she changes or tailors her views to fit the new district, she looks like Mitt Romney, a politician without core values who will shift, dodge, juke, flip-flop and say anything for a vote.

Cincinnati Looks To Put Super PR Honcho On Dohoney's Staff At City Hall: Top Pay for Flacking, Speechwriting Set At 115K Yearly

Cincinnati Looking For City Hall Flack

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The new position is called "Executive Public Information Officer" and the annual paycheck won't be lower than $85,000.  It could go as high as $115,000.  Whoever gets the post is supposed to "play a pivotal role in the coordination of communications with the general public, City Council and the news media."  On top of that, the super flack also will be an executive level aide to City Manager Milton Dohoney Jr.  He apparently wants someone with six years of prior government or business service to serve as what's being called a sidekick and strategic counsel. A journalism of public relations background doesn't seem to count, although the duties include acting as the city's official moutpiece.  Interestingly, some of the job responsibilities include serving as a buffer between the city administration and the council -- sort of a new layer of bureaucracy.

City's Super Flack Annoucement

Paperwork submitted to the city's civil service commission says the required education and experience shall include:  "Each applicant must have six years of responsible experience in public administration management, business administration, or a closely related filed, and a Bachelor's Degree from an accredited institution with major course work in public administration, management or a closely related field.  A Master's Degree is preferred." 

Here's a list of the duties:

Right-to-Work Petitioners Say University of Cincinnati Stifles Anti-Union Effort: Seek U.S. Injunction Opening Campus For Signature Drive

Free Speech Fight Over Right-to-Work

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The lawsuit seeks a Temporary Restraining Order that would lift restrictions on a campus chapter of the Young Americans for Liberty.  The state school is accused of suppressing efforts to gather signatures for a right-to-work ballot amendment.  YAL is on the opposite end of the political spectrum from the Occupy Wall Street movement, yet both groups have had to fight in the courts for access to public spaces. U.S. District Judge Timothy Black in Cincinnati has yet to set a hearing on the case, which likely will be fast-tracked through the federal courthouse.  The student group contends it cannot freely circulate petitions for a workplace freedom amendment on the 41,000-student campus and was explicitly told in writing members cannot "walk around campus" to gather names.  The Cincinnati Enquirer reported on the dispute two days ago, but the story did not mention the phrase "right-to-work" and some readers may have missed the significance.  In effect, the AFL-CIO says the goal of the right-to-work movement is to outlaw union shops in Ohio.

Ghiz's Elect Leslie 'Ghiz For Judge' Website Distributing False Info: LeslieGhiz.com Says She Still Serves On Cincinnati City Council

Ghiz Should Rewrite Her Campaign Bio

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Republican Leslie Ghiz was voted off the Cincinnati City Council last November.  But her campaign website for a seat on the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas says she is "currently serving her third term" and doesn't mention she lost the election.  Ghiz will be on the countywide ballot in the March 6 primary.  One cannot say her judicial campaign website is not up to date, because it includes a disclaimer:

"Paid for by Ghiz for Judge, 30 Garfield Pl, Suite 600, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202, Dan Vogelpohl, Treasurer  

© 2012 LeslieGhiz.com. All rights reserved"

Anyone can access former Councilmember Ghiz's website by clicking here.  Presumably she will update the the out-of-date bio  by the time Election Day arrives.  Indeed, it looks like a left over from the council race she lost.  However, early voting for the 2012 primary is already under way and the misinformation could be influencing some voters.

Fed Audit Discovers Ohio Republican Party Filed Inaccurate Financial Records: State GOP Hid $1.2 Million In Debts From Public

Ohio GOP Caught Fudging Finance Reports

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- A Federal Election Commission audit issued late last year -- and unnoticed by almost everyone -- discloses the Ohio Republican Party operated on a tide of red ink.  The state GOP did not publicly disclose it owed $1,195,892 to various vendors who "consistently invoiced ORP for the balances due."  Stiffing businesses who want their money is a sharp business practice that hardly gibes with the Republican philosophy of supporting Main Street.  In other words, the party that claims fealty to fiscal responsibility got caught being unable to control its own spending.  And it got caught publishing false reports about its finances.  The Daily Bellwether has the entire sequence of the Ohio GOP's audit record available here.  An FEC staff report issued seven months ago got the heat turned up by urging action:  "The Audit staff recommends that the Commission find that the Ohio Republican Party State Central & Executive Committee failed to disclose debts and obligations for calendar years 2007 and 2008."

Page From Audit 

The FEC staff said the Ohio Republican Party was legally required to file reports showing a true picture of its finances -- including bills that weren't being paid.  It also was supposed to explain the reason for the debt, or how it was incurred.  The audit covers the years 2007 and 2008, the last presidential election cycle.  Excerpted below is a portion of the audit finding:

Facts and Analysis

A. Facts
Disclosure reports filed by ORP during the audit period did not disclose any debts owed.
Although ORP paid the majority of invoices timely, it carried outstanding balances with
five vendors that were not disclosed as debts. During audit fieldwork, a review of vendor
invoices and computer files identified debts totaline $1,195,892 that should have been
disclosed on Schedules D (Debts and Obligations). The vendors consistently invoiced
ORP for the balances due. Some of the undisclosed debts were outstanding prior to the
beginning of the audit period.
B. Interim Audit Report & Audit Division Recommendation
The Audit staff mformed ORP representatives of this matter at the exit conference and
provided schedules detailing the undisclosed debts for each reporting period for the
audited cycle. ORP representatives indicated that amended reports would be filed.

Conservative writers, such as Jason Hart at Big Government, already have doubts about the Ohio Republican Party under Chairman Kevin DeWine.  They are supporting Gov. John Kasich's efforts to push DeWine out of the party's top job.  Hart and the others don't know about the state GOP's inaccurate financial filings.  They are, however, concerned about 2010 spending reports showing the ORP plowed more money into contests for attorner general and secretary of state than it did on the governor's contest.  These are the numbers Hart has cited:

• $753,680 spent in the incredibly close Kasich-Strickland race
• $1.3 million spent in the secretary of state race, for DeWine ally Jon Husted – including $375,245 in the GOP primary
• $1.5 million spent in the attorney general race, for Kevin DeWine’s cousin Mike DeWine

Hart says the Ohio Republican Party was scandal-plagued in 2006 (remember Coingate at the end of the Bob Taft era).  Hart thinks President Obama and Sen. Sherrod Brown benefit if there are similar mistakes involving funds and fundraising.  Today's revelation of the FEC's audits showing that may open that door.

Rock Band 'Foreigner' Wants Clark Montessori Choir to Back-Up Cincinnati Concert: Kids Get Called to Perform On Group's Biggest Hit

F Stands or Foreigner, Not Flunking 

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The show is Saturday night at the Taft downtown.  British-American Foreigner has sold about 70 million albums since it started making music in 1976.  And the band's hits are legion -- Juke Box Hero, Head Games, Dirty White Boy and Feels Like the First Time are among
a handful of its tunes that have become classic rock standards.  The biggest hit of all -- and the only Foreigner single to reach No. 1 -- is I Want to Know What Love Is, a gospel flavored anthem that's been covered by everyone from Wynona Judd to Mariah Carey and even The Chipmunks.  Now Clark Montessori's 18-member high school choir gets to sing along with the band that made it.  Definitely another high note for the East Side campus.

Caitie Linger, a music teacher at the Cincinnati public school, said representatives of the rock band called quite out of the blue recently to inquire if the choir would perform backup onstage at the Feb. 25 show in Cincinnati.  Recalls  Linger, who directs the choir:  "This was completely unexpected.  We have no connections with them.  They said they learned about us from the Internet.  They Googled us."  Clark is located in the Hyde Park neighborhood and has about 650 students in grades 7-12.  It is also the nation's first public Montessori High School.  Two years ago, President Obama selected the school as a finalist in his race to the top and sent Education Secretary Arne Duncan to speak at the 2010 graduation ceremonies.  There are big footprints on Google.

Sheet Music for Big Hit

While Foreigner has faded a bit over the years -- the shows no longer fill mega-arenas and many original members are on the sidelines -- the kids are still pumped.  And they've been learning about music from the classic rock era.  The choir members are going to sell Foreigner CD's inside the Taft before they take the stage -- the band said all money raised by the CD sales will go to charity.  That kind of public service ties in with Montessori schooling.  And the choir won't come dressed in a glam rock look, it will be in t-shirts and black pants.  Foreigner said there could not be any "grunge" onstage.  Clark backs up the big finale, and yes, the kids have become fans.

Originally in the 1980s, I Want to Know What Love Is was backed up by the New Jersey Mass Choir.  So Clark is filling some pretty big robes on the Saturday night gig.  If you want to learn about Foreigner, you can read about the band's history by clicking here on Wikipedia.  Foreigner's official website is here.  And if you can't quite remember the tune and words to I Want to Know What Love Is, then watch the two-minute youTube clip below from the BBC's Last Choir Standing (it's not Foreigner but a British gospel choir called Revelation):