“Joe the Plumber”: Helen Jones-Kelley Gets One Month Suspension
Per the rotundacollection.com, Ohio Department of Job and Family Services Director Helen Jones-Kelley is getting a one month suspension of duties with no pay for what Ohio’s Inspector General found in their investigation…
Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) Director Helen Jones-Kelley was found to have acted improperly both in her authorization to use ODJFS confidential databases to search for information on “Joe the Plumber†and in her use of state resources to engage in political activity in a report issued Thursday by the state’s Inspector General (IG) Thomas Charles.
In response, Gov. Ted Strickland late on Thursday announced that he was suspending Jones-Kelley for one month without pay, saying that he values “her contributions to the state and her local community†but that he accepts the IG’s judgment “that there was not an adequate business purpose for the searches in question. I also accept his determination that her personal BlackBerry was inappropriately synchronized, resulting in emails she perceived to be personal being transmitted through governmental email resources.â€
Per hotair.com:
The IG had a further comment about Jones-Kelley’s activities. Her defenders, Strickland among them, have tried to excuse her violations by noting that the information she retrieved didn’t get released to the press. No one can actually be certain of that, but even taken as a given, the IG says Jones-Kelley’s other political activities on the job call her motives into serious question.
Nor did the IG buy her excuses on those other points. Jones-Kelley tried telling the IG that any activities conducted on her Blackberry were private, but the IG noted that Jones-Kelley uses the Blackberry for work. She had it synchronized with the state’s e-mail system for that purpose. Her rationales for conducting the probes came from “blogs and hearsay†and no legitimate sources of inquiry. Overall, the conclusion can easily be reached that Jones-Kelley abused her power for partisan electoral purposes.
Oh let them keep their jobs–if it were me I would bring a class action law suit against the entire state and walk with the money—then none of them would have jobs because it would have been given to Joe the plumber–what better way to make them pay for what they did.
Talk about invasion of privacy just for asking a simple question. I am sure there must be some good attorneys in Ohio willing to take this one on. How criminal.
Agree with Landstander. Jones-Kelly should be fired. This just shows the bias of Ohio state government (all Dems in Columbus, except Repub Sen Voinovich, who was not up for re-election in 2006). Look at what happened, or didn't happen with SoS Oh J. Brunner. She blocked every avenue in OH to ensure a voter-fraud free election, and looks like she is in bed with ACORN. I am disgusted that SCOTUS agreed with her.
…and should be fired.
But is not guilty by virtue of the argument of ‘but they’re republicans’.