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Inventory shows gifts Strickland kept, gave back
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By MARK ROLLENHAGEN
The governor is pretty strict when it comes to his own ethics rules.
COLUMBUS — Gov. Ted Strickland received an honorary degree from Capital University Law School. But he can’t prove it. He gave it back.
The framed doctor of laws degree and the academic hood he wore during the school’s commencement ceremony were returned because their values — about $125 and $150 — exceeded ethics thresholds.
“The university understood why,” said Strickland spokesman Keith Dailey.
The degree was among more than 300 gifts Strickland has received since taking office in January 2007, according to an informal inventory released by the governor’s office last week.
Most of the gifts are promotional items, T-shirts, hats, key chains and other trinkets of minimal value.
They range from pads of sticky notes to a glass statue that he returned to AFSCME Ohio Council 8. A few decorative objects were given to the Governor’s Residence Foundation and a few things with potential historical value were given to the Ohio Historical Society. Several books were passed on as resources for state policymakers.
The inventory suggests a man with a sweet tooth who is a stickler for his own ethics rules, which prohibit state workers from accepting gifts worth more than $20.
The three boxes of Girl Scout cookies from a troop in Zanesville were definite keepers.
So was the case of Ohio wine from Democrats in Ashtabula County, although the governor wrote a personal check for $60 before uncorking that gift.
But aides returned two model Jeep cars given to him by Chrysler Corp. during a visit to Detroit after they figured they were worth $20. He kept a $15 neck tie offered by another company at the Detroit Auto Show.
Strickland also kept an $18 “Witness” T-shirt from LeBron James.
“You don’t turn down a gift from LeBron,” Dailey quipped.
The shirt wasn’t signed, but it did come with a personal note thanking the governor for his support after he got state transportation officials to back off complaints about a 120-foot-high LeBron banner that hung from an office building in downtown Cleveland.
Among other gifts the governor returned:
UA key to the city of Steubenville worth about $25.
UTwo inscribed wristwatches with an estimated value of $50 each, from a laborers union district council.
UA $40 luggage bag from the Buck-eye State Sheriffs’ Association.
UA $24.95 attach case/organizer from Payless Shoes.
U“The Ohio Almanac: An Encyclopedia of Indispensable Information About the Buckeye State,” worth $39.95, from State Sen. Teresa Fedor, a Toledo Democrat.
Some of the interesting things he kept:
UKenyan war clubs given by the Ohio National Guard and valued at $3.
UA demo singing CD and volunteerism coloring book, listed as having nominal value, from Melanie Murphy of Brook Park, who was Miss Ohio 2006.
UA soup can piggy bank from the Campbell Soup plant in Napoleon, worth $12.
UThree deliveries of doughnuts, each worth less than $10, from State Sen. Tim Grendell, the Chester Township Republican who owns a bakery.
UAn Easter lily of nominal value from Cleveland City Councilman Joe Santiago that was kept at the governor’s residence.
UA cornhole game from State Rep. Armond Budish of Beachwood. The governor kept it but paid Budish $49.99.