Two Ohio University Board of Trustees members made donations to the governors who appointed them during their tenure, a practice that would be outlawed if a 2006 bill passed the General Assembly.
Trustee Larry Schey, chairman of the board's Resources Committee, gave $2,500 in 1998 and $1,000 in 1999 to former Gov. Bob Taft before he was appointed in 2001, as well as another $100 during his first year on the board in 2002.
Trustee Sandra Anderson, who was appointed by Gov. Ted Strickland in 2007, donated $1,000 to Strickland's gubernatorial campaign in 2005 and an additional $300 in 2008.
An Associated Press analysis found that 31 of 90 trustees Strickland has appointed to public school boards since taking office in 2007 made donations one year before being appointed to the boards, which would have made them ineligible for appointment under a 2006 bill.
The bill focused on banning university trustee donations to governors a year before and a year after appointment, said Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern, who sponsored the bill when he was an Ohio House representative for District 80. The bill would have also banned donations during a trustee's tenure.
It was meant to accomplish transparency, Redfern said. At the time
then-Gov. Bob Taft was soliciting donations from trustees and would-be trustees for financial contributions to him Redfern said.
(The legislation) was meant to build confidence in our boards of trustees, and that they were appointed based on their abilities, not based on their financial donations.
University trustees are selected by the governor to fill the positions for nine years. Four years after the end of their tenure they are allowed to re-apply for the position. Anderson says that her resumé
and not her donations
is what landed her the job.
What I'm donating, frankly, is enormous amounts of my time and my talents for no charge to Ohio University, Anderson said. (Strickland) probably has no earthly idea whether I've given him a dime, Anderson said. She added that her donations to OU far exceed any donations she has made to a political candidate.
Schey did not return phone calls for comment.
,",1,News,Luke Wright,",",",",",","
28363,2009-05-13 02:42:00,Local group uses collaboration to support do-it-yourself music scene,For decades
music has thrived in dive bars
on mix tapes and through word of mouth
and The Action Committee
based in Athens
is just one more example of how underground music is kept alive in Southeast Ohio.,For decades
music has thrived in dive bars
