MAHONING COUNTY Club questions expenses of Sherlock campaign

A spokeswoman for the Ohio secretary of state says the signatures are legal.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A local political club has raised questions about the campaign expenses of Mahoning County Commissioner Vicki Allen Sherlock.
But a state official says the allegations of wrongdoing are unfounded.
The Democrats of the 17th District said Tuesday it appears that some signatures on checks written from Sherlock's campaign fund may have been forged.
Club president Mark Belinky said he planned to hand over photocopies of checks with questionable signatures to Prosecutor Paul Gains today. They are also being sent to the Ohio Ethics Commission and secretary of state's office.
"We thought there were enough red flags that it should be investigated further," Belinky said.
Ohio law says forgery is when a person signs someone else's name with intent to defraud and without that person's knowledge.
Sherlock said checks were sometimes signed by someone other than her designated campaign treasurer, but only in limited instances and only with the treasurer's permission.
Since there was no intent to deceive or defraud anyone, it's not a forgery, she said.
"This is not like a situation where it's public money that I'm using to get something that doesn't belong to me," Sherlock said. "It's money out of my own campaign expense account."
Response
Sherlock said all of her expenses and payments are legitimate.
Diane Firlik of the secretary of state's office said today that Sherlock's explanation is correct. She said there are no statutory regulations placed on campaign expense accounts.
"It's kind of like a personal checking account," Firlik said. "If the committee wants to allow other people besides the treasurer to sign the checks, that's perfectly allowable."
Sherlock, who is not up for re-election, said her expense reports have been on file with the elections board for months. She said the group is questioning them now only to turn voters away from renewing a 0.5 percent county sales tax on the ballot in November.
Belinky said that's not true and that his group has taken no position on the sales tax.
He said the elections board dropped the ball by not inspecting Sherlock's campaign expense reports closely enough and catching the signatures itself.
But deputy director Thomas McCabe said it's not the board's job to examine every signature on every check that passes through the office.
"We're not handwriting experts, and I'm not sure when Mark Belinky became one," McCabe said.
He said the board's staff is more concerned with ensuring that all the figures add up and that all expenses are documented. Anything else falls outside elections law.
Belinky also alleged that Sherlock used her privately raised campaign funds to help pay for her home computer, which he said is illegal.
But McCabe said such an expense is common and allowable, as long as the computer was used to help with the campaign. Sherlock said that was the case.
bjackson@vindy.com