Looking at campaign financial reports as submitted by various of our elected officials, I was able to retrieve a few, and so I poured over them to see and consider the patterns they contained. By the time I went to dinner, I was exhausted, frustrated and dis-spirited about serving in Whitehall’s City Hall. Not about serving the citizens mind you but serving within a group of people who don’t understand elementary ethics, conflicts of interest and how much they matter.

After examination and comparisons and writing so much down, I decided to set it down for you for your own consideration. It’s not pretty.

MY EFFORTS TO RIGHT WRONGS

For the past several years I’ve been trying to get Council and both the Wolfe and Maggard administrations to do something about bad policy, corruption and blind, unethical leadership within Whitehall City Hall. The list of said offenses is too numerous for this post, that which I’ve detailed in Council chambers, in Letters to the Editor (both Dispatch and Whitehall News) spoken to reporters, written letters, distributed fliers and protested on street corners in blazing heat, all of which has been to no avail. It is one thing if the mayoral administrations arrogantly ignore my charges, it is quite another for my representative voices in government, the Council, to do so as well. (Which is what makes this all so wrong.) Outrageously, I am met with mostly stony silence, mockery, minimization, marginalizing and an unwillingness to address my concerns, despite (really, due to) the merit of the charges I leveled at them. Those they don’t want exposed and/or were outraged I’d publicly brought forward and which regard, not the citizen’s Mayor or Council but rather, their ‘friends’ and close associates. This is why, for some time now, I’ve spoken out on what I felt was a group of people, political insiders, some of whom weren’t necessarily or always looking out for citizens but rather their own selfish agendas, some of which even hurt the citizens. All done so by watching each others backs and helping each other get or stay elected. This is why I have sardonically labeled them ‘The Family’.

‘THE FAMILY’

It has been my observation that if you are not a member of this clique, this status quo here in Whitehall, in particular those who are vocally opposed to them, then you are ignored, minimized and marginalized, despite any right or good your truth brings. The rule seems to be, if you aren’t one of them then all you have to do to be one is agree with them and never call them out on anything they do wrong or are responsible for, and in particular, never publicly. Cheer-leading them and each other is a vital component of membership. (If the ones in charge keep gushing that everyone and everything is swell then it must be true!) If you are or do become a member and want to stay one, then keep your trap shut about fellow ‘members’, saying little to nothing of significance or “controversy” (i.e.- things that shed a negative light on them). This will keep everyone on the same page, continue to get like-minded members appointed, elected and re-elected with as little fuss as possible, keeping our government all for themselves, no ‘intruders’ allowed. This is all done for what I can only figure (not being a member myself) as keeping an iron grip on power to fulfill their personal agendas with their needs, wants and visions over those of the actual citizens’ (regardless of whether it breaks or skirts the law, respects citizens or their rights or the democratic process itself). They have gotten a stranglehold on our representative government as well as its offices. They give to each other, have well-paying jobs within the government (for the most part) and use their money to perpetuate their self-serving places in power. Here are just a few examples;

• Despite term limits being put into place in our City Charter, that which the citizens have unanimously affirmed, reaffirmed and reaffirmed again (that which both City Attorney Mike Shannon and Mayor Kim Maggard angled to end in 2014, each spending $300 on a campaign to defeat term limits.) Councilman Chris Rodriguez has been on Council so long I’ve lost count of the exact amount of years. Through appointments, elections to Ward One then at-Large it has been many more than the two terms (eight years) suggested by the Charter. They get around this with running for different types of council seats. Since council seats are staggered, ‘Wards’ one year then ‘at-Larges’ two years later, if they allow their seat to expire they have to wait another two years before they can run again and they’re afraid to let loose of their power and maybe not get back in in two years. This is why they run for a different council seat halfway through the one they’re elected to. Councilman Bob Bailey was appointed and then used the power he was simply given to run as an incumbent for Ward One (which gave him the advantage). Then, two years in, he ran for at-Large where he won and now he’s running again for at-Large. The point is, they keep playing musical chairs with their positions so they can skirt the spirit of our City Charter and keep their hands on the power.

• During John Wolfe’s 2007 mayoral run, (according to his finance reports) then Councilperson Zach Woodruff donated a total of $1600 to his campaign. While still on council, councilperson Woodruff was offered a position within the city as Community Affairs Coordinator by none other than the newly elected mayor John Wolfe himself. Councilman Woodruff then resigned his position on council and took the job within City Hall where he has since been appointed to better and greater positions; Development Director, Public Safety Director. (Filling out an application for the position of Community Affairs Coordinator, Mr. Woodruff listed his references as; John Wolfe, Kim Maggard and then President of Council Brent Howard. In that list of references he characterized his relationships with them as “Friend”.)In Ohio ethics law it forbids public officials from seeking employment or benefiting from an agency while on its board. They also cannot profit from a contract that was authorized by a governing body while they were a member for a year after leaving office. Mr. Woodruff was on the council when it created and set the salary for the community affairs position, that position he was offered by John Wolfe and which he took less than a year after leaving office*. Councilperson Cindy Stewart took a job as executive secretary in Kim Maggard’s Auditor’s office just two days after leaving council and was later made executive secretary for the mayor by Kim Maggard. This taking of jobs so quickly after being on Council was sufficiently alarming to Councilperson Jacquelyn Thompson to file complaints against them with the Ohio Ethics Commission. In a Dispatch article from the time, Councilperson Thompson said, “It just outraged me. I’d never seen City Council members just jump right into jobs with the city.”

  The Ohio Ethics Commission does not reveal the results of the investigation’s findings but that doesn’t prevent citizens from inquiring what the results were. When Mr. Woodruff and Ms. Stewart were given even better positions within the city by the newly elected Mayor Maggard, having never heard of the Ethics Commission’s findings regarding the complaints, I only felt it fair that if these two former councilpersons continued to be promoted and rise in position within City Hall, the citizens should have access and understanding about the truth regarding this matter, specifically before we proceed nonstop with the promotions. So then, I pressed them to reveal to the public the findings of the Commission. Neither did. City Attorney Mike Shannon chimed in during this council meeting and said that Woodruff and Stewart are private individuals and deserve their right to privacy and used chilling words as a threat in response to my inquiry. I quote Mr. Shannon, “I would be reticent to talk anymore further about this publicly because there is the possibility of litigation and its been the policy of this council when talking about personnel matters to do so in executive session.” While the complaints and the Commissions findings are not criminal in nature and the Ethics Commission have their reasons for not revealing the findings, there is nothing wrong in citizens asking what they were. (Honestly, you’d think if indeed they were exonerated of ethics law violations, they’d be shouting it from the rooftops as solid proof of the wrong of the ‘evil’ Jackie Thompson’s charges.) These were two public figures doing things in a fashion that was questionable as elected officials, per Ohio ethics law, and when this private citizen, who has every right to make inquiries regarding these matters, did so regarding the outcome of the investigation (which they don’t have to answer) Whitehall’s City Attorney erroneously suggested these public figures had a right to privacy from public inquiries being made in regard to possible misconduct carried out by them in a public capacity. His threatening tone then intimidated and quashed a citizen’s rightful inquiry into possible wrongdoing.

  Ultimately Ohio Ethics law was skirted because their bosses, Mayor John Wolfe and then-Auditor Kim Maggard insisted it was themselves who enticed them into taking the jobs, not Woodruff and Stewart ingratiating themselves. The commission itself advised officials that they could avoid these sort of problems if they simply withdrew themselves from discussions about the positions or were approached with offers they didn’t solicit. But, they didn’t. The spirit of the ethics law was conveniently turned a blind eye to by all parties who stood to gain by doing so, instead of heeding conflict of interest and personal, ethical principals for the people of Whitehall and doing the right thing in the first place. That which all of them had the opportunity to exercise but which none of them chose to support and demand of themselves. That was wrong.

• During the 2011 Mayoral race, there came a ‘Candidates Forum’, officially an arena for the candidates to be asked questions and for the public to see and hear them before making decisions. Underneath, it was a massive conflict of interest driven by the presence and participation of several colleagues, family and associates within their circles. It was sponsored by The Whitehall Democratic Club and the Whitehall Area Chamber of Commerce. Kim Maggard, the mayoral candidate, had served as the Vice-President on the Chamber of Commerce and her husband was the then-President of the Democratic Club. Candidate Karen Conison was or had been their Secretary, Councilman Jim Graham, who was a part of the WDC, ran the light/time cues that night along with several other WDC denizens who helped run the the event. Kim Maggard herself was or had been their Treasurer! So, the obvious conflicts which had the power to wield favorably for Kim Maggard and Karen Conison (as well present their opponents in an unfavorable light) were all there, despite any and all protestations regarding their innocence over possible bias. The conflict of interest for Kim Maggard and Karen Conison was as apparent as Mount Everest and yet, two intelligent people like them couldn’t see it? Baloney. As a matter of fact, the WDC then later ran a photo of candidate Maggard and the empty seat of her opponent Chris Parkevich on their Facebook page propagandizing for the campaign of Kim Maggard, showing Chris Parkevich in a bad light. (For the record, Chris Parkevich did not show because of the utter conflict of interest in the mounting of this ‘candidates forum’. Leslie LaCorte came but sat in the audience) Regardless, despite my very verbal and public protestations about the inherent and painfully obvious conflicts of interest for the event, neither Kim Maggard nor Karen Conison heeded them for the sake of the public trust which is vitally important for the solidity and integrity of our government. Instead, they selfishly chose what benefited themselves over what was right for the citizens, ironically then, undermining the very trust they were asking for of the citizens in this forum.

• When code officers were photographed on private property without a warrant or permission, I confronted Council with this evidence, including the Supreme Court’s decision regarding code officers, ‘Camara v Municipal Court’, and while it was Leslie LaCorte who actually took the time to address my charges and question the Mayor and then Service Director Ray Ogden, it was Councilpersons Bailey and Kantor, President of Council Jim Graham and the Mayor herself who obfuscated and minimized the issue and unabashedly gushed over Ray Ogden and Code Officers Walt Sural and Ray Hamby. They ganged up on Councilperson LaCorte to the point that she eventually gave in to their overwhelming push-back.

THE TALE OF THE TAPE

Here then is the round-robin donation carousel that helps keep some of them in power with little hope for anyone other to scale the high castle walls they’ve built who are not part of this circle. Their tale is truly in the ‘who’ and in the ‘how much’. This matters. Here are the names then, these are some but not all the players.

John Wolfe, former Mayor

Kim Maggard, former Auditor, current Mayor

Mike Shannon, City Attorney

Bob Bailey, Council

Wes Kantor, Council

Chris Rodriguez, Council

Karen Conison, Council

Van Gregg, Council

Jim Graham, President of Council

Brent and/or Rhonda Howard, City Treasurer and former School Board member

Zach Woodruff, Former Councilman & current Director of Development and partial Public Service Director

Chuck Underwood, Safety Director

Larry Morrison, Council

Cheryl Jo Thompson, Leader of Issue 32, the Jackie Thompson Recall Effort

Dan Miller, Auditor

Sean Maxfield, Whitehall Mayor’s Court Magistrate

Ray Ogden, Former City Public Service Director

Steve Quincel, Candidate for City Treasurer

Katie Quincel, Parks & Recreation Commission Member, appointed by Mayor Maggard

Here are the people, who gave to them and how much:

Donated to Councilman Bob Bailey:

Wes Kantor $400.01

Jim Graham $100

Van Gregg $60

Cheryl Jo Thompson $50

Ray Ogden $50

John Wolfe $500!

Brent & Rhonda Howard $250

When I brought in the four-page flier detailing John Wolfe’s corruption, Councilman Bailey was completely silent on the matter. Where were his feelings for the victims of John Wolfe’s corruption, the citizens? Do you think his monetary ties to John Wolfe had anything to do with his telling silence?

Donated to Former Mayor John Wolfe:

Zach Woodruff $1600

(note: John Wolfe spent $9204.05 to get elected. Nearly a fifth of the entire amount came from Councilperson Woodruff alone. Later, when I made inquiries about the tax dollar-funded city guide promoting a website in it which degraded the character of Councilperson Thompson, the guides author and focus of an ethics complaint filed by Jacquelyn Thompson; Mr. Woodruff, told me the Mayor asked him to refer my concerns/questions to him, which I did. Mayor Wolfe never returned my calls or answered my rightful inquiries.

Donated to Auditor Dan Miller:

Kim Maggard $350

Karen Conison $20

Jim Graham $20

Van Gregg $75,

Katie Quincel $50

(note: Dan Miller shows a total of $8146.55 in expenditures on his campaign finance reports for City Auditor.)

Donated to Councilperson Chris Rodriguez:

Wes Kantor $100,

Bob Bailey $100

Jim Graham $25

Brent and/or Rhonda Howard $202

Donated to President of Council Jim Graham:

Bob Bailey $100

Candidate for Auditor Michael Bivens:

Didn’t take one dime from any ‘Family ‘members. Although has now endorsed the endlessly corrupt and awful Mayor Maggard as well as Councilpersons Bailey, Conison and Kantor. If this trend continues I’m afraid his reputation will become soiled by his allegiance to party and associations over truth and conflicts of interest, and with them, the public’s trust of him, and rightfully so.

Donated to Councilman Van Gregg:

Kim Maggard $100

Cheryl Jo Thompson $100

John Wolfe $250

Brent and/or Rhonda Howard $100

Bob Bailey $60

Wes Kantor $35

Donated to City Attorney Mike Shannon:

Ray Ogden $35

Wes Kantor $75

Jim Graham $35

Van Gregg $50

Brent and/or Rhonda Howard $200

Chuck Underwood $150

Bob Bailey $60

Chris Rodriguez $25

( note: In Mike Shannon’s financial statements it shows he spent a whopping $11,804.03 to get elected City Attorney of Whitehall Ohio. Whew!)

Donated to Mayor/Auditor Kim Maggard: (totals before 2015)

Mike Shannon $200

Wes Kantor $128

Brent and/or Rhonda Howard $228

Chuck Underwood $306

Dan Miller $250

Karen Conison $153

Jim Graham $175

Van Gregg $150

Cheryl Jo Thompson $200

Bob Bailey $130

Steve Quincel $200

Katie Quincel $350

Sean Maxfield $600

Ray Ogden $150

John Wolfe $50

(note: Aside from these, Mayor Maggard also donated $250 to State Representative Heather Bishoff. She also spent a total of $5474.47 to get elected. Her opponent, Chris Parkevich, spent $879.)

Donated to Councilperson Karen Conison:

Kim Maggard $400

(note: When running, if a candidate doesn’t spend more than $2000, they don’t have to file a campaign finance report. This is probably why I couldn’t find financial reports on Councilperson Conison or LaCorte. In the Mayor’s reports though I was able to find this amount to Karen.)

Donated to ‘Issue 32’, the Effort to Recall Councilperson Thompson led by Cheryl Jo Thompson:

John Wolfe $500

Kim Maggard $100

Brent and/or Rhonda Howard $100

Mike Shannon $150

Jim Graham $50

Cheryl Jo Thompson $135

Anonymous donation $120

(note: 79% of the overall donations to this cause are, or could be viewed as, political. Notice that all three people who Councilperson Zach Woodruff listed as ‘friend’ on his application for Community Affairs Coordinator; Wolfe, Maggard and Howard, donated money to recall Councilperson Thompson, the one who’d filed ethics complaints against their ‘friend’. This was a retaliatory political maneuver, not, by any stretch of the imagination, a citizens revolt and that is what made it so loathsome.)

Under ordinary circumstances, who donated to whom is not necessarily a measure of some sort of corruption. However, when it is back and forth donations like these among public officials, some of whom won’t listen to sense and reason, heed conflicts of interest which bolster the public’s trust of them, allow code enforcement to be wielded as an authoritarian, controlling political tool and won’t respond to citizens requests and needs that speak out against their worrisome behavior who aren’t a part of this donation pattern, that is absolutely, without question, wrong. It is unfair, unethical and works against the processes of our representative government, those processes which were set in place for the people not themselves. That is why this round-robin donation carousel is a problem for Whitehall’s governance. When some do as they please and are never held accountable, through public demand and their own complicit silence, it is a betrayal to our system of government and the United States of America.

Frank L. Stanton said, “The closed door and the sealed lips are prerequisites to tyranny.” When Councilman Bailey submits legislation regarding portable basketball hoops over the weekend, which they then pass on Tuesday with little or no opportunity for response from the citizens, that is not acting on behalf of or for the citizens themselves. In that I have to agree with Mr. Stanton.

Ultimately, the truth of some of them is this; while scruples and ethics are all fine and good, if they get in the way of their interests (which sometimes hurts the city and citizens themselves) they then must be ignored and cast aside. They take actions which are untrustworthy then, unashamedly, ask the citizens to trust them in the area of the Public Trust. Then, when troublesome, unlawful or unethical behavior is exposed, and those responsible should be rightly held accountable, they are not. They remain silent in the face of charges, refusing to answer to them, believing that if you never admit to the wrong then you will never be found guilty of it. (and certainly without some organized public accountability, they never are.) They wait for the day this exposure disappears and voters forget all about it. Their viewpoint seems to be, as I’ve heard in a fashion twice from Mayor Maggard is; ‘We’re not going to listen to you unless you take us to court’. Doing the right thing in the first place doesn’t steer them, expensive litigation, which the majority of Whitehall residents can’t afford, does. It is an all-out assault against the citizens and their rights. I’m sick and tired of government officials in Whitehall breaking or skirting the law and then requiring the citizens to jump through difficult and expensive legal hoops to set it right when if they’d actually used sense, reason and respect for the citizens and law, it never would’ve been wronged in the first place. Some of those in office try to get away with as much as possible without going to jail (while others silently look away) but they’re messing with the law and incrementally taking away citizens rights and making their lives more difficult and lesser in the process. Its appalling and utterly unacceptable.

Sadly as well, you would think with all these varied individuals and personalities among them that not all of their ethics could be so corrupted or that they would all turn such a blind eye to wrong being perpetrated. That, merely out of duty to right and Whitehall itself, they’d actually speak up, but tellingly, I have heard none of them do so. Perhaps they fear being recalled by themselves or becoming persona non grata. Regardless of why, the fact that they never speak out against wrong makes them, and everyone else that doesn’t, complicit in every single rotten thing that’s done to the citizens or in their name and which taints every cent of their money, that which keeps fueling and propping up this inbred corrupt system. They push their friends agendas, repel any comers who would upset their apple cart and just keep donating and scratching each others backs to the true detriment of Whitehall and its citizens. Praying, hoping and betting that you’ll never wake up and certainly never pay attention to the likes of an awful dog like me or actually read what I write. They are afraid you’ll read a piece of truth and then two people will know, then three and so on. Then, maybe then, you’ll actually stand up and demand the right thing is done in your name. Then perhaps this ugly degradation of our representative government and the democracy itself will stop. Until then, this is the awful state of affairs that we have posing as our government in Whitehall Ohio. They duped you into believing it was Jacquelyn Thompson who was the real and only and largest problem in Whitehall, and while her bedside manner was prickly and difficult, the problem that she represented was in actuality tiny when set next to the real problem and actions that are being enacted and forced on you by your government down at City Hall. It is a controlling, authoritarian hijacking of your affairs, allowed by you mind you, and it is outrageous and intolerable.

In a Dispatch article dated Oct. 5, 2008 titled, ‘2 ex-council members hit with ethics complaint‘, it states; ‘Woodruff was on the council when it created and set the salary for the Community Affairs Coordinator post he now holds**. The mayor appointed him to the job and he resigned from the council. Woodruff’s job is to write grants, perform community outreach and act as a community liason with the public and media. “He’s doing fantastic,” Mayor John Wolfe said. ‘Woodruff was the first person to hold the position after a similar job***, occupied by Linda Luft Jones, was cut in spring 2007****. Woodruff had pushed to cut the position, after a recommendation by an independent company that reviewed the city’s staffing in 2006. The council created a new position, but Jones did not meet the degree requirements and her salary would have been cut.’ “I find it peculiar that the same member of Whitehall Council who played a leading role in eliminating that position (was) hired for the newly created position that included markedly similar duties,” said Jones’ attorney, Gregory Finnerty. Woodruff recommended keeping the position vacant for six months to save money. Nothing was heard of the job again until Woodruff announced in December that the newly elected mayor Wolfe had made him a proposition. “I was approached,” Woodruff said. “I didn’t solicit the position.”

**(Ordinance # 21-07 amended March 6, 2007)

***(131.04 Resource Coordinator)

****(passed Jan.2007, 115.06 abolished effective May 1, 2007)

Sources: Whitehall City Council Office