Sting of scandal boosts Strickland’s tighter ethics rules

More than 11,000 financial disclosure forms were filed last year, one official said.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Gov. Ted Strickland returned gifts of poinsettias at Christmas.

In the year since Strickland tightened ethics rules, more than 1,200 state government employees, or about 98 percent of those required, also have completed ethics training, according to records compiled by the administration for The Associated Press.

And the number of state officials disclosing their finances to the Ohio Ethics Commission has hit an all-time high.

The first act of the Democratic governor, who took over a scandal-scarred state last January, was to sign an order to crack down on government gift-giving and spread the word about Ohio ethics laws. Similar orders were given by the governors of Florida and New York.

Ohio required agency ethics officers and members of every state board or commission to take between two and four hours of training on Ohio ethics laws, including the provision that requires them to file financial disclosure forms with the commission.

Former Gov. Bob Taft’s failure to report golf outings and other gifts on such forms led to his no contest plea and subsequent conviction on ethics violations in 2005.

The 11,140 financial disclosure forms filed last year was the largest number in the 33-year history of the Ethics Commission, said David Freel, executive director.

Though ethics orders are a mainstay public relations move for new governors — Taft himself issued one — the particular intensity of Ohio’s “Coingate” scandal has given unusual weight to Strickland’s. Over two years, 20 people, mostly inside government, have been convicted as the building blocks of political influence inside the state’s mammoth Bureau of Workers’ Compensation came unglued.

The investigation is not yet closed.

In Florida, no record has been kept of how many government employees have attended ethics sessions since Republican Gov. Charlie Crist issued a similar order, according to his spokesman.

Participation in an online open government training course skyrocketed, however, from 61 participants in 2006 to 906 in 2007, according to figures provided to the AP.

In New York, the administration of Gov. Eliot Spitzer has become embroiled in ethics questions despite his order laying out tougher ethics standards.

Tanisha Harris, an employee in the New York Ethics Commission’s training office, said all employees covered by the order have complied with it, taking a 90- to 120-minute course outlining state ethics laws. State employees were already required to take a similar course.

Strickland’s edict limited lunches and other gifts to members of the administration to no more than $20 per giver over the life of the administration. Previously, only certain groups were prohibited from giving gifts to government officials — state contractors, for example — and no dollar limit was imposed on the others. Both parties, however, were still required to report all gifts worth more than $75.

“When the governor’s invited to give a presentation or a speech somewhere, it’s now commonplace for one of the initial questions that people ask us to be, ‘Whom should we bill [his] lunch to?’” Strickland spokesman Keith Dailey said. “It actually didn’t take that much time early on to get a shift in everyone’s perspective and expectation.”

In addition to the poinsettias, Strickland’s office has returned a silver plate with a sunset on it and a pair of tickets to Cleveland’s Near West Theater production of “Beauty and the Beast.”

The things he’s kept have been mostly smaller mementos, including coffee mugs and T-shirts.

The governor kept an $18 T-shirt bearing the “We Are All Witnesses” logo of LeBron James. The Cleveland Cavaliers basketball star sent the shirt to Strickland after the governor defended a 10-story banner of James that was causing a ruckus in Cleveland.

In Ohio, new hires must attend the required hours of training within nine months. Dailey said the few employees who have not completed the required training were mostly hired late in the year and have not gotten around to taking the training.

Pat Gleason, special counsel on open government in Florida, said Crist’s message of openness has produced a side benefit in morale.

“A lot of people seem genuinely surprised that they’re finding their work more worthwhile,” she said. “People who are excited about their work want to share what they’re doing. It takes a lot of work to try to have a culture of secrecy.”