Thursday, April 30, 2020

Ohio DNR takes corrective steps after former director's Fish Ohio Day ethics blunder

Associated with a state watchdog investigation of a former Ohio Department of Natural Resources Director and staff for their accepting free fishing charters in July, 2018, new ethics training for agency personnel has been adopted.

James Zehringer – who served as the Natural Resources Director under then Ohio Governor John Kasich – was found to have participated in what was – and still is – loosely called “Fish Ohio Day/Ashtabula” while angling aboard a licensed charter boat.

Others accompanying Zehringer in the 2018 event were - at the time: ODNR Assistant Director Gary Obermiller, Wildlife Officer Supervisor Scott Angelo, ODNR Deputy Director Bethany McCorkle, ODNR Coastal Management Deborah Beck, Wildlife Assistant Chief Peter Novotny, ODNR Biologist Travis Hartman, (now Wildlife Division chief) Kendra Wecker, and Wildlife Chief Mike Miller.

Also attending were Ohio State Senator Joe Uecker and then State Representative Sarah LaTourette, State Senator Sean J. O’Brien, State Representative Marlene Anielski, and Ashtabula County Commissioner Casey Kozolowski.

Fish Ohio Day/Ashtabula is an adjunct to the approximately 40-year-old Fish Ohio Day held annually at Port Clinton, and started by the-then Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes.

Rhodes used the Fish Ohio Day events to highlight the walleye fisheries in Lake Erie’s Western Basin by inviting members of the media, political and civic leaders to a day of angling. It was Rhodes to coined the phrase “Walleye Capital of the World,” utilizing the Fish Ohio venue to promote the lake’s rising walleye angling star.

Cognizant that Ohio’s share of Lake Erie does not begin and end in the Western Basin, Kasich, Zehringer and Northeast Ohio local officials and elected leaders devised the Fish Ohio Day/Ashtabula sibling, and used nine volunteer local licensed charter boats.

The idea of multiple Fish Ohio Days to promote fishing throughout the state has even been expanded upon by current Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Natural Resources Director Mary Mertz.

However, says the Ohio Inspector General’s office in a 17-page report, “On February 15, 2019, the Office of the Ohio Inspector General received a confidential complaint” that something may have been amiss with the 2018 Fish Ohio/Ashtabula affair. This complaint jump-started an investigation by the Ohio Inspector General’s office.

On its web site the Office of Ohio Inspector General says “complaints received by the office are reviewed and evaluated to determine whether there is reasonable cause to believe the underlying allegations, if true, would constitute a wrongful act or omission on the part of a state officer, agency, or employee.”

At the conclusion of an investigation a report of investigation is completed and provided to the Governor and the agency subject to investigation.”

The exhaustive report goes on to detail interviews with several of the 2018 event’s participants; the parties explaining the genesis of the project, including that some state officials stayed at the Lodge at Geneva-on-the-Lake/State Park, charging the state for their rooms.

The report likewise states that “On June 10, 2019, the Office of the Ohio Inspector General consulted with the Ohio Ethics Commission (OEC) to determine if they had issued an opinion or some special exception allowing ODNR employees to accept a free fishing charter from a regulated entity, and the OEC responded that they had not.”

This subsequent chain of events had relevance since another such outing was planned for September, 2019.

On August 2, 2019, the Office of the Ohio Inspector General contacted Damien Sikora, current ODNR chief legal counsel, regarding the (then) upcoming 2019 Ashtabula Fish Ohio Event that was planned for September 27-28, 2019.” the report states.

Sikora stated that ODNR was aware of the problem with ODNR employees accepting free fishing charter trips from a prohibited source, and he noted that for similar future events, ODNR would pay the fishing charters.”

To that end the current Natural Resources Department leadership says appropriate corrective actions were all ready underway.

Fish Ohio Day promotes Ohio’s world class fishing and the charter boat industry for news media writers and legislative decision makers to benefit Lake Erie’s economy.” said Sarah Wickham, the Natural Resources Department’s chief of communications in a statement.

Under the current administration, Wickman says also in her statement about the 2019 Ashtabula outing, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources “limited the number of state employees participating to only include staff to educate legislators and the media about ODNR conservation practices, the importance of protecting our waterways, and the economic benefits of angling in Ohio.”

(The) ODNR paid for the cost of the charter trips for employees that participated. Furthermore, an aggressive campaign of ethics training was provided across the agency beginning in early 2019, with both in-person and online trainings,” Wickham said.

And on January 30th the Ohio Inspector General noting as well that it “received documentation from ODNR that the fishing boat captains who participated in the Ashtabula Fish Ohio event held on September 27-28, 2019, received payments for their services.”

As for those past and current Natural Resources officials who participated in the 2018 outing, the report says “on February 4th, 2020, investigators received documentation from the Ohio Ethics Commission (OEC) that the OEC had sent letters to all who attended the 2018 Ashtabula Fish Ohio event and who were required to file Financial Disclosure Statements (FDS), stating a possible need for those individuals to amend their FDS for the value of the charter boat.”

However, no criminal referrals were warranted, the report concludes.

- Jeffrey L. Frischkorn
JFrischk@Ameritech.net
JFrischk4@gmail.com 

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