Kasich signs quicker lead-water alerts; won't endorse Trump

By DAVID SKOLNICK

skolnick@vindy.com

COLUMBIANA

Gov. John Kasich isn’t ready to endorse Donald Trump for president, and indicated that’s not going to change unless the presumptive Republican nominee makes significant adjustments in his campaign style.

“I have to see a big change in him,” Kasich said Thursday in Columbiana in response to a question about Trump from The Vindicator. “He has to have a whole different message about unity and uplifting people, and we’ll see what happens here. But it certainly is not trending the right way.”

Kasich, a failed Republican presidential candidate, told Fox News earlier Thursday that he spoke to Trump about two weeks ago. Kasich said the two have different visions, value systems and objectives.

Kasich was at South Side Middle School in Columbiana to sign a bill into law requiring quicker public notice of lead contamination in drinking water.

The law increases requirements for testing for and notification of lead in water from public works. Residents and other water users would have to be informed within two days if lead and/or copper levels exceed allowed thresholds. A larger, more in-depth public education program also would be launched within 30 days.

Federal law requires notice be made within 30 days and the public education campaign within 60 days.

“This is not really a hit on the federal government – nobody wants to cast blame – but it kind of amazes me to find out we have a problem” and “we have 30 days and 60 days to let people know,” Kasich said. “That’s not appropriate.”

The state law also lowers the definition of “lead free” for how much can be in plumbing from 8 percent to 0.25 percent, which conforms with federal law.

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Tim Ginter of Salem, R-5th, was approved after high lead levels were found in water in Sebring, shortly after even higher lead levels were revealed in Flint, Mich., generating national interest in the problem.

The signing event happened in Columbiana, about 20 miles from Sebring, because Ginter, the bill’s sponsor, represents Columbiana County. Sebring is in Mahoning County.

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency fired two employees and demoted a third after it was learned that senior OEPA management informed Sebring officials about the high lead levels Dec. 3, 2015, and didn’t inform Craig W. Butler, the agency’s director, until Jan. 21.

The House and Senate unanimously approved the bills last month.

“There’s so many issues that are just not Democratic or Republican,” and this is one of them, Kasich said.

Senate Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni of Boardman, D-33rd, said at the event that while he was pleased the bill was signed into law, “we still need to make more investments into” water infrastructure. “At the end of the day, we need to replace this aged infrastructure because if we don’t have lead pipes, we won’t have lead exposure.”

After the signing, Schiavoni told The Vindicator that he talked to Kasich about a bill he’s sponsoring to have the state borrow $100 million annually for 10 years to improve water infrastructure, and the governor said, “He’s not interested in putting our state into further debt than we are right now.”

Schiavoni pointed out that similar bonds were issued for roads and bridges and for advanced technology.

Though Kasich spoke of the new lead notifications, he spent a lot of his time at the school urging educators to talk to students about the dangers of drugs.

“I don’t understand why we don’t do it,” he said.

Kasich said when he and wife are at restaurants, he approaches children to “say, ‘Hey, kids. Let me tell you something. You stay away from the drugs.’ I don’t know who these kids are.”

During questioning by the media about the Republican National Convention in Cleveland next month, Kasich said: “I don’t know what I’ll be doing at the convention to begin with.”

He also plans to campaign for Republican candidates leading to the November general election.