Ohio Auditor’s office files complaint against Mecca Township fiscal officer regarding income tax payments

Staff report

CORTLAND

The Ohio Auditor’s Office has filed a complaint with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office alleging that Mecca Township Fiscal Officer Deborah Drawl has failed to timely remit state income tax payments twice this year.

Affidivits indicated that Drawl failed to remit state income tax withholdings for the first quarter of 2016 until about seven weeks after the May 2 deadline, according to a Sept. 9 letter from the auditor’s office.

In the second quarter of 2016, Drawl was required to submit state income tax withholdings by Aug. 1, but they had not been submitted as of Sept. 9, the auditor’s office said.

A call to a residence associated with Drawl on Phillips Rice Road was not returned Thursday.

The auditor’s office received a Fiscal Intergrity Act complaint on the matter Aug. 22, and the complaint was found to be in substantial compliance with the requirements of the law, the auditor’s office said.

“Based on the above findings, the Auditor of State finds that there is clear and convincing evidence that Ms. Drawl has purposely, knowingly, or recklessly failed to perform her duty as a township fiscal officer,” the auditor’s office said in a letter to the attorney general’s office.

Such action, if found to have occurred, would constitute a low-level felony violation of Ohio law, the letter says. Specifically, it would low-level felony offense, the letter says.

The procedure outlined in Ohio law for submitting such allegations to the attorney general’s office are for four residents of the township to submit sworn affidavits, together with evidence supporting the allegations, to the state auditor’s office.

If the attorney general’s office finds by clear and convincing evidence that an allegation is supported by the evidence, the attorney general shall notify the auditor of state, the fiscal officer and people who initiated the affidavits and shall commence an action for the removal of the township fiscal officer from public office, according to the statute. The action is filed in the common pleas court, the law says.