Ohio Senate votes against embattled safety chief

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

The state Senate voted Tuesday against confirming a high-level official whose role in a canceled sting at the governor’s residence has been called into question.

The 18-15 vote against embattled Public Safety Director Cathy Collins-Taylor was a blow for Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat in a heated re-election campaign, and was a rarity in recent state history.

The state’s inspector general concluded that a sting of inmate workers at the governor’s residence was scrapped to save Strickland from embarrassment, and the watchdog accused Collins-Taylor of lying about the operation. Collins-Taylor has insisted she gave truthful statements to investigators.

There was tense debate for hours Tuesday on Collins-Taylor’s fate. Last week, the Republican- controlled Senate Criminal Justice Committee voted 5-4 to recommend against confirmation.

Strickland appointed Collins-Taylor to run the Department of Public Safety last year. Governors’ appointees begin the jobs immediately, and confirmation generally is noncontroversial and comes within months.

The governor said he was disappointed in the vote and blamed partisan politics on the decision to oust Collins-Taylor.

“Cathy is a good and decent and honest person,” Strickland said in a statement Tuesday.

In her own statement issued Tuesday, Collins-Taylor thanked the employees of the public safety department and said she would miss her job.

“I am saddened that I will not continue to work with this agency and continue the path I started. But most of all, I am saddened that recent events have overshadowed the work being done at the Department each and every day,” Collins-Taylor said.

Collins-Taylor’s detractors characterized her as telling lies to protect herself and the governor and punishing highway patrol officers who didn’t support her positions.

Her supporters defended her long record of service and her 26-year tenure on the Columbus police force, which included taking polygraphs.

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