As some of you may know, Athens County Sheriff Pat Kelly and Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn are trying to move six-digit funds out of the sunshine of the public’s eyes and set up a private bank account for these funds.
The reasoning behind this, as Blackburn and Kelly have said, is because this money is not tax money, but money seized through criminal cases and also is used in investigative matters such as drug buys in drug investigations. This is flat-out erroneous.
This money, no matter what it is used for, is public money and should not be out of the eyes of the county auditor and the citizens of this county. If the sheriff and the prosecutor are allowed to do this, then we have to just trust that this money is being used for drug buys and other honest uses for the sheriff’s department. I wish we all lived in a perfect society, but that’s not the case.
There is corruption in all forms of government, and to let the sheriff have a secret bank account free of public oversight is ripe for corruption, whether it’s Sheriff Kelly or another sheriff.
The sheriff could, if this happens, easily take seized assets and put them in his back pocket without anyone knowing. I’m not saying this is what Sheriff Kelly will do, but he can, and without public oversight of this money we would never know.
We can’t elect politicians and just trust them to make the right decisions on our behalf; we must hold them accountable after we elect them. Also, I must give credit when credit is due to our county auditor, Jill Thompson, for not just letting Sheriff Kelly and Prosecutor Blackburn take this money and do with it as they wish. Thank you, Mrs. Thompson.
I think the citizens of our county should be outraged by this and demand an abrupt halt to such a thing. Call Sheriff Kelly at (740) 593-6633 and the Athens County Commissioners at (740) 592-3219 and tell them you are firmly opposed to the sheriff using county money out of public oversight.
If we as Athenians, Ohioans and Americans are apathetic to government, we will become servants to it, rather than the other way around.
Power comes from the bottom up, not top down. Roman Satirist Juvenal, who quoted the Roman republic in its decline, said, “The people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions, and all else, now concerns itself no more, and longs eagerly for just two things — bread and circuses!”
Sound familiar?
Abe Alassaf is a senior studying history and a candidate for Athens County Treasurer.
