State integrity in the news for Ohio, from the Springfield News-Sun: 

A majority of Ohio cities promptly responded to a public records request from the state auditor’s office, but more than 40 percent did not fulfill the request in the “reasonable amount of time” given.The Auditor of State’s office requested payroll records for 247 cities in Ohio in October. Cities were asked to provide the information electronically or in paper format within 10 days, which Auditor Dave Yost considered a more than reasonable amount of time.

Yost released the results Monday to celebrate Sunshine Week, a national effort advocating open government and freedom of information. The auditor’s office is not seeking any legal action against any of the cities, rather the exercise was intended to evaluate the process at the city level.

“These are the public’s documents,” Yost said. “The government belongs to the people. The documents belong to the people.”

Read the rest of the story at the Springfield News-Sun.

Corruption news for Ohio, from the Columbus Dispatch:

The chairman of the Portage County Republican Party says that allies of Gov. John Kasich offered him special influence over gubernatorial appointments if he agreed not to run for the state GOP central committee, which Kasich (pictured, right) has been trying to take over. Andrew Manning sent a notarized affidavit to state and federal law-enforcement officers yesterday, asking them to investigate whether laws were broken in the alleged effort to get him to drop out of the committee race.

Manning provided a copy of the sworn statement to The Dispatch and said in an interview that he felt uncomfortable with what he perceived as the offer of a quid pro quo and “relentless” pressure from friends of Kasich.

Read the rest of the story at the Columbus Dispatch.

Corruption news for Ohio, from the Columbus Dispatch:

Ohio’s state-government watchdog gave a speech last week at a Republican fundraising dinner, sparking questions about the appropriateness of a nonpartisan investigator attending such an event.

Inspector General Randy Meyer’s address at the Clinton County Century Club Dinner last Monday — part of which was about integrity in government — drew criticism from Democrats.

In his speech, Meyer, who lives in Clinton County, acknowledged that when he was asked to speak at the dinner, he hesitated.

Read the rest of the story at the Columbus Dispatch.

Corruption news for Ohio, from the Columbus Dispatch:

A lawyer for ESPN accuses Ohio State University of attempting an end-run around the truth. David Greiner, a Cincinnati lawyer representing the sports broadcasting giant in a public-rights fight with Ohio State before the Ohio Supreme Court, recently spanked the public university in a reply brief to Ohio State's legal justification for withholding records pertaining to the Buckeyes football scandal.

Ohio State contends it did not violate the Ohio Public Records Act by withholding records it contends are shielded by the Family Educational and Privacy Rights Act that prohibits the release of student "educational records."

Read the rest of the story at the Columbus Dispatch.

Corruption news for Ohio, from the Columbus Dispatch:

In an exclusive interview, Ohio Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine revealed that members of Gov. John Kasich’s staff were used in an ongoing effort to oust DeWine as head of the party.

Official documents show Kasich's regional liaisons Nicole Kostura, Nick Gatz and Sherri Carbo each turned in petitions for candidates to run for the GOP state central committee against candidates who support DeWine. The petitions were delivered by the Kasich staffers during weekday work hours.

State law prohibits government employees from doing political activities during their work day.

Read the rest of the story at the Columbus Dispatch.

Corruption news for Ohio, from the Marion Star:

Public documents released Monday by Ohio voter advocates show a key representative of U.S. House Speaker John Boehner (pictured, right) and operatives at the National Republican Congressional Committee were central in drawing the state’s disputed congressional map.

Documents obtained through a public records request by the Ohio Campaign for Accountable Redistricting show Tom Whatman, executive director of a congressional campaign effort called Team Boehner, legislative leaders, mapmaking consultants and the National Republican Congressional Committee participating in the process. The correspondence includes a pledge by GOP Senate President Tom Niehaus to deliver “a map that Speaker Boehner fully supports.”

Read the rest of the story at the Marion Star.