Let state answer questions on Angelo's campaign fund

Trumbull County Commissioner Joseph Angelo's name surfaced over the weekend in all-too familiar territory: the raised-eyebrow department.
Specifically, news that Angelo paid his wife $10,000 from his campaign war chest to manage his failed bid for re-election warrants an independent review by the Ohio secretary of state's office to ensure the funds were properly spent on valid campaign expenses.
As Craig Bonar, a Republican member of the Trumbull County Board of Elections noted, it is unusual for a candidate to hire a wife to manage his campaign. "I would think the wife would be a volunteer worker," Bonar said.
But as he also added, there is nothing inherently illegal or unethical about the practice. He characterized it as a gray area.
It therefore should be up to a representative of the state's top election watchdog agency to intervene quickly to clarify the quandary.
Campaign donors ought to be assured that their contributions were spent wisely and efficiently. The public ought to be assured that the three-term county commissioner followed the spirit and letter of Ohio's sometimes murky campaign finance laws.
In fairness to Angelo, employment of his wife may be well within the law and his campaign team may have run a very tight ship.
In fairness to a hefty segment of the public -- including the majority of the electorate that said "no way" to his quest for a fourth term as a chief couny policymaker -- Angelo's track record does not inspire unbridled confidence when it comes to managing finances or following the letter of the law.
Consider:
UAs a chief steward over the operations of county government, Angelo claimed ignorance over revelations uncovered by The Vindicator that hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars were wasted on purchases that were either not needed, not delivered or not priced at fair-market levels. The ongoing investigation already has netted several indictments.
UAngelo last year claimed that he had $4,000 in campaign money stolen from a pocket of his pants hanging in his bedroom closet. Although he repaid those funds, the episode has raised legitimate questions about Angelo's personal financial management skills, let alone his competence in public financial management.
UThe Ohio Ethics Commission fined Angelo -- and fellow county commissioner James Tsagaris -- late last year for violating state election law over incomplete campaign donation recordkeeping.
UAngelo and Tsagaris ran slipshod over public-meetings law by failing to hold an open public meeting when hiring Anthony Carson as county administrator last year.
We would like no more than to see Angelo ride quietly into the public-service sunset with no additional baggage weighing down him and his record. But as long as eyebrows are raised and doubts remain, it behooves Trumbull officials to act quickly, call in the secretary of state and close this latest chapter in the saga of Joseph Angelo.