Thorn in Gov. Kasich’s side

COLUMBUS

Gov. John Kasich must be getting sick of ProgressOhio, capital city-based liberal policy group that keeps filing lawsuits questioning the constitutionality of his policy moves.

And if you’re keeping score, it’s Kasich zero, ProgressOhio 2.

The first victory came earlier this year, after Kasich named longtime friend and Silicon Venture capitalist Mark Kvamme as head of the Ohio Department of Development.

ProgressOhio filed suit, alleging that Kvamme was ineligible to serve because he wasn’t an Ohio resident — he was working in Ohio during the week, then returning to his home in California on the weekends.

That’s a no-no, ProgressOhio said, citing provisions in the state constitution and revised code requiring state officials to be Ohio residents for 30 days prior to their appointments.

“The governor has a clear legal duty to appoint eligible individuals to Cabinet positions and to remove anyone who is ineligible,” according to the lawsuit. “He has a clear legal duty to remove Kvamme from this position pursuant to Ohio law, as the Ohio Constitution forbids anyone who is not a resident or elector from holding a position of trust for the state. His appointment is a nullity.”

Legal review

Kasich and Republican state Sen. Keith Faber, an attorney who headed a legal review of the issue, downplayed Progress- Ohio’s concern.

“I believe if there’s a challenge that the challenge will be unsuccessful,” Faber told reporters at the time. “... This is politics. Somebody’s trying to make a political swipe at the governor and doing that against Mr. Kvamme. Can you really believe that a guy who is that successful, literally gave up millions of dollars to come here and help Ohio grow and do our No. 1 priority for jobs, is in the middle of a political ... dustup about whether or not he can have a title?”

But in the end, the Kasich administration opted for another director of the Department of Development, while Kvamme was named the governor’s top jobs adviser.

And Kvamme is still doing the same kinds of things he was as development director, reviewing how to transition the state’s economic incentive programs into the new JobsOhio nonprofit.

The latter was the subject of another ProgressOhio’s lawsuit, this time challenging whether Republican lawmakers and Kasich overstepped their authority in setting the governor as head of JobsOhio.

The lawsuit outlined seven constitutional issues with JobsOhio, including issues related to the governor’s powers on the new board and the state spending and borrowing involved.

Again, the administration defended the new nonprofit, saying it will enable the state to react more quickly to businesses thinking about expanding.

But last week, Republican senators, at the administration’s request, added language in the $55.7 billion biennial budget changing some of the provisions of JobsOhio, removing Kasich from the nonprofit’s board, among other issues.

Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said in a released statement concerning the amendments: “We’re committed to Jobs- Ohio’s independence, transparency and accountability and by working with the General Assembly we’ve been able to craft revisions that improve it on all of those fronts.”

Reserving judgment

While reserving judgment, Progress- Ohio said the move validated its constitutional concerns.

“While the governor’s office and the General Assembly have not addressed all of the constitutional issues we argue in our case, the actions they have taken prove that we were correct in our original findings,” Executive Director Brian Rothenberg said in a released statement. “JobsOhio was a hastily written bill that did not take into consideration the Ohio Constitution. The process behind Jobs- Ohio has not been moving at the speed of business but the speed of error.”

Again, Kasich still likely will accomplish his ultimate goal, establishing a private nonprofit that can operate outside of the state’s public meetings and records laws while working to convince businesses to stay and/or expand in the Ohio.

But ProgressOhio seemingly has forced the administration to pay closer attention to the state constitution in the process.

Marc Kovac is The Vindicator’s Statehouse correspondent. Email him at mkovac@dixcom.com or on Twitter at OhioCapitalBlog.