Bryan Williams resigns!

Lobbyist Bryan Williams has resigned under fire for ethical questions from the State Board of Education.

His action was reported at mid-afternoon by Gongwer News Service in Columbus. It followed media and on-online reports in Grumpy Abe and Plunderbund that he was aggressively trying to influence educational policies favorable to his client, the non-union Associated Builders and Contractors for Ohio, which operates a charter school.

Gongwer reported this statement from Williams:

"Adherence to Ohio ethics laws and advisory opinions of the commission charged with interpreting state ethics laws is of utmost importance to me.  Therefore,  I conclude it my duty  to resign from the State of Ohio Board of Education,  district 5, effective immediatley so that a new board member may be appointed and serve unencumbered  by other simultaneous vocations ."

Unencumbered?  I should say so.  His decision followed word from the Ohio Ethics Commission alleging that he violated the law by wearing conflicting  hats and if  convicted could spend six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

A week ago,  in Grumpy Abe and Plunderbund we called for his resignation, the first to do so.

They're playing Monopoly around UA stadium

"THE BOARD IS FRUSTRATED. There's real concern over this.  But the only person who can take him out is the governor."

And so it is with the University of Akron Trustees who are now uncomfortably stranded on an academic island with board member Atty. Jack Morrison.  "It's a real conundrum," a trustee told me, sort of apologetically, "not only for the board but for the University's reputation as well."

Well, at this point my advice to the trustees is, Get used to it.  Jack Morrison isn't listening to appeals that  he step down  from the board.   However, he did give up his chairmanship of the finance, fiscal policy and investment committee.   

Should you need a little more information on this fellow, whose case  has been rehashed in the media more than once, he is under indictment for seven misdemeanors on ethics charges  involving his alleged interest in his son's purchase of property on land the University had intended to buy around a new football stadium.  Let's get more specific:

According to a response to Morrison's lawyer for continuances on pretrial and trial dates, the bipartisan Ohio Ethics  Commission investigation  has advised the court of the paper trail turned up by its lawyers that revealed much more than Morrison has been willing to admit. 

"Since 2005," the Commission lawyers wrote, "defendant has provided his son and/or Braymor Development (his son's development company) with a total investment of at least $156,400 to support his son's real estate ventures   in the University area..."

There's more in the same document:

• The son, Jack, Jr. "began buying property in the University of Akron area on Dec. 29, 2005."
• By June 2007, he owned 19 properties in the University area. By February 2008, he owned "24 worth nearly $1 million."
•  Finally, Dad never revealed that he had "an overall and continuing series of investments in his son's property acquisition and rehabilitation business over more than two years."
• Had enough?   And so there is an old  house still standing near the new stadium that UA had offered to buy for $75,000 but is frozen in place as the five- month-old case drags on. The least that Morrison could do is to respect the sensitivities of the University and his fellow-trustees and find some investments elsewhere  to keep  him busy in the meantime. 

And while we're on the subject of the Board of Trustees, I do find it curious that the board's work is managed by two vice presidents, one reporting to the other.   I refer to Ted Mallo, vice president and general counsel  and board secretary....and Russell D. Sibert, another vice president,  of board operations,  and assistant secretary to Mallo.  Sibert clocks in at $150,748, Mallo at $194, 123.   In these lean economic times, particularly for higher education,  I'm sure there's someone who can justify having two vice presidents elbow to elbow for nearly $345,000.  But until somebody tells me, I won't know, will I?  

   

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