Now that Bob Taft has pleaded no-contest to the four counts
of ethic violations, will he resign from office? Following the own standards
that the Governor has enforced in Ohio, he should.
In August of 2002, the executive director of the Ohio
Turnpike Commission resigned hours after Governor Taft urged him to resign or be
fired. What was the crime? Accepting gifts from businesses, the exact same crime
Governor Taft was found guilty of today.
In the memo calling for Zomaprelli to resign, Taft said:
“Public employees should follow both the letter and the
spirit of the ethics laws. That is the standard I expect for all state
employees. After review of the inspector general’s report, it is clear that
the executive director and the OTC staff have not met this standardâ€ÂÂ
Today, Taft did admit to his failing to meet his own
standards but did not mention if he would resign or not. The following is a
statement
from Governor Taft:
“I am here today to publicly apologize to the people of
the State of Ohio for my failure to provide complete financial disclosure
statements to the Ohio Ethics Commission as mandated by law. I accept total
responsibility for my mistake, and I’m sorry.
“As a public official, I am required to submit financial
disclosure statements on a yearly basis listing the sources of gifts in excess
of $75.00. My office had a system in place to ascertain the value of tangible
gifts in order to report them as required. Regrettably, I did not establish an
adequate system to monitor the value of golf outings and other social events.
“As recreation, I have played many rounds of golf with
friends and acquaintances. I paid for some of these outings, while others I
did not. I have now confirmed that forty-five golf outings over a period of
seven years exceeded $75.00 in value and therefore should have been reported
on my financial disclosure statements. In addition, over the same period of
time, six other social events and one gift were not disclosed.
“Upon becoming aware of my failure to disclose these
activities, I promptly notified the Ohio Ethics Commission. I promised my full
cooperation and diligently provided all information to assist the Commission
in bringing its investigation to a conclusion. While I can assure the public
that my self-reported mistakes did not constitute a purposeful violation of
law, I nevertheless failed to adhere to the disclosure requirements of Ohio’s
ethics laws.
“In addition to specifying the undisclosed activities, I
have fully reimbursed the appropriate individuals.
“As Governor, I have made it clear that I expect all
public employees to follow both the letter and the spirit of the ethics laws,
and have demanded no less of myself.I have personally failed to live up to
those expectations, as well as the expectations of the public, and I am
disappointed in myself. I have a renewed commitment to correct the problems
that contributed to this situation and have already taken steps to do so.
“Words are not adequate to express the remorse that I
feel personally for the embarrassment that I have caused to my administration
and to this great state. I want to offer my sincere and heartfelt apology to
my family, friends, staff members, and all those who have supported me. Most
importantly, I want to apologize to the citizens of Ohio. I hope you will
understand that my mistake, though serious, was not a purposeful one and hope
and pray that you will accept my heartfelt apology and allow me the
opportunity to restore your trust.â€ÂÂ
Mr. Taft, apology is not accepted. You have been drowning
in scandal, and it is time for you to step down. The coingate investigation is
ongoing and you are being investigated in it. This clearly is clouding your
judgment and our state of Ohio is in a world of hurt right now.
I urge all citizens of Ohio to go to this
form on the Governor’s page and demand his resignation from office. We need
to turn Ohio around.
CNN
has more coverage of today’s sentencing.