Thursday, June 14, 2007
COLUMBUS — The Ohio House signed off on legislation Thursday aimed at penalizing corrupt officeholders for wrongdoing during the course of their official duties. Substitute House Bill 8, sponsored by Rep. Bob Hagan of Youngstown, D-60th, would require public employees convicted of certain felonies to forfeit disability benefits or pensions offered through public retirement systems.
“It’s a great bill to ensure that people are going to think real hard about doing the wrong thing,” said Rep. Dan Stewart, a Democrat from the Columbus area. Hagan offered the legislation to counter wrongdoing among officeholders in his district.
During committee testimony, he released a list of 16 former public officials from Mahoning County who have been prosecuted for taking bribes, fixing cases and other wrongdoing while in office. It included former Prosecutor James A. Philomena, Sheriff Philip Chance, Youngstown Municipal Judges Patrick Kerrigan and Andrew Polovischak, county court Judges Martin Emrich and Fred Bailey and county Engineer Bill Fergus. “They had taken the public trust as public servants and sold that trust in a multitude of ways,” he said. “ €¦ They were selling the justice system in Mahoning County and Youngstown.”
For complete story, see Friday’s Vindicator or www.vindy.com.