Columbiana Co.'s health boss must be target of state audit

State Auditor Betty Montgomery has decided not to conduct a special audit of the spending practices of Columbiana County's health commissioner, Robert Morehead, but her spokesman insists that every avenue will be explored to get all the facts. We will be watching. Closely.
Joe Case, director of public affairs in the state auditor's office, also says that no conclusions have been reached as to Morehead's use of public funds, but a recent comment from him based on a preliminary investigation does trouble us.
"We haven't seen anything criminal yet, but we won't have any definitive answers until we do a full audit," Case said last month.
However, based on the findings of a three-month probe by Vindicator reporter Norman Leigh of spending by Columbiana County government employees, we have a very different view of things.
Indeed, given Morehead's use of a county credit card to make purchases for himself at a golf club in Nashport, Ohio, a department store in Pittsburgh, a souvenir shop in Daytona Beach while he was on vacation, and from a mail-order company that advertises itself as offering "Tools for Serious Readers," we believe a presumption of criminal behavior is justified.
Why? Because the use of a government credit card for unofficial business is a crime. State law says so.
Convenience?
In interviews with Leigh, Morehead did not deny using the county credit card for nonofficial business. The health commissioner made no attempt to come up with a reason for this obvious misuse of government property. "I don't like carrying around a lot of credit cards," he said.
There is precedent in this region for treating as criminals government officials who misuse their government cards. As we noted in an editorial in May, several years ago then Youngstown City Councilman Herman Hill was convicted of theft-in-office, a felony, for using his city-issued card to buy a computer for his personal use. Hill spent 10 days in a halfway house and was put on probation.
Thus, when Case says that the preliminary probe of Morehead's spending by state auditors did not reveal anything criminal, our cynicism is piqued. The onus is on Montgomery, a Republican who will be running for governor in 2006, and her staff to demonstrate to the residents of Columbiana County that no pressure is being brought to bear on the auditor's office from any special interest to downplay what has taken place in the health district.
Is it proper for Morehead to charge county government nearly $800 for about 40 meals he ate in 2003 at Pondi's, a Lisbon bar and restaurant owned by Matt Borza, a member of the board of health?
Hungry minds want to know.
That the health commissioner has some powerful allies in and out of county government has been aptly demonstrated by the absence of outrage over the findings of The Vindicator's investigative reports.
Montgomery risks being compared negatively with her predecessor, Jim Petro, also a Republican running for governor, in the way she handles this case. Petro, who is now attorney general, did not hesitate to conduct special audits of the spending practices of public officials if there was even a hint of wrongdoing.
Expensive
Case contends that special audits are expensive and would be a drain on Columbiana County's budget. He notes that while Montgomery has ordered a regular audit of the health district -- it would normally have been conducted next year -- it will involve more than a review of the books by the audit staff. Members of the fraud and investigative audit group and staffers of the white-collar crime unit will also be involved. For example, a forensic auditor will follow leads to determine if there was criminal behavior on the part of any health district official.
"The public should not think we're taking this less seriously" because a special audit is not being conducted, Case says.
We will be watching. Closely.