Report Blasts "Joe The Plumber" Probe
An agency director improperly used state computers to find personal information on a McCain supporter who became known as "Joe the Plumber" during the presidential campaign, Ohio's government watchdog said in a report released Thursday.
There was no legitimate business purpose for the head of Ohio's Department of Job and Family Services, Helen Jones-Kelley, to order staff to look up the records, Inspector General Tom Charles said.
"All these searches were done in the midst of a national political campaign," the report said. "But we did not find any evidence that shows the data was accessed or information released in response to media requests in an effort to support any political activity or agenda."
Gov. Ted Strickland announced Thursday he was immediately placing Jones-Kelley on a one-month unpaid suspension after reviewing the findings.
Jones-Kelley said she accepts Charles' findings and should not have allowed the database searches.
"While there is a disagreement as to whether those searches were done for legitimate business purposes, my only intent was to fulfill my agency's fiduciary responsibilities to Ohio's families," she told the Dayton Daily News in a statement. "I am committed to implementing agency procedures which better protect confidential, personal information."
Strickland rejected a request from Senate President Bill Harris, a Republican, to fire Jones-Kelly for abusing her power.
Auditor Mary Taylor, the lone Republican holding a statewide office, also asked Strickland to fire Jones-Kelley or to ask for her resignation.
"We need to restore accountability and transparency in government and send a message to Ohioans that the misuse and abuse of personal information will not be tolerated," she said.
Strickland, a Democrat, earlier this month had placed Jones-Kelley on paid leave over separate allegations that a state computer or state e-mail account was used to assist in political fundraising.
The inspector general's report concluded that she used state e-mail to provide a list of names of potential contributors to Democrat Barack Obama's campaign.
The report also looked into 18 background checks into Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, the Toledo-area man known as Joe the Plumber who became a household name in the final weeks of the presidential campaign after he asked Obama about his tax plan at a campaign stop near Toledo.
Eight of those checks were done without any legitimate business purpose, the report said. Charles recommended tighter policies on access to confidential information in state computer databases.
"The withering media attention that Wurzelbacher received does not provide justification for state officials and employees to have conducted the wide range of searches that were done on a private citizen," the report said.
The findings have been forwarded to the Franklin County prosecutor's office in Columbus.
Jones-Kelley has said the searches of Wurzelbacher's records were part of routine checks her agency conducts when someone suddenly emerges in the limelight.
She also said records were checked because Wurzelbacher had indicated he might buy a business and it was determined that he owed back taxes. She also said the department wanted to make sure appropriate actions were taken if he owed child support, received public assistance or owed unemployment compensation taxes.
Jones-Kelley's reasoning was at times contradictory, inconsistent and ambiguous, the inspector general's report said.
It also found no policies or procedures to support her claim that it was the agency's practice to look into someone thrust in the spotlight.
As Wurzelbacher's profile was elevated in Republican John McCain's campaign, criticism over the Ohio search rose to a fever pitch.
Republicans were furious that Wurzelbacher was targeted, saying that he was simply a private citizen who stood up and questioned the Democratic presidential candidate.
Wurzelbacher did not answer his phone Thursday, and his voicemail box was full.