Although Republicans dominated the UA board, as well as those of all other state universities during the 16 years when a Republican governor (Voinovich, Taft) controlled the appointments, the current occupant, of course, is Democrat Ted Strickland. He has appointed three Democrats to the nine-member UA board and would name another one next year. A vacancy now, and you do the math. Right: 5-4 Democratic control. It could be the leverage to influence Morrison's decision to stay put. An active (and influential) Republican at the county and state levels, he arrived on the board in 2005, which means he could hang around until his nine-year term expires in 2014 - or in the event that Strickland loses to a Republican next year. Even for politics, that's a long time.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Morrison could fill his foxhole for years
THERE'S A strictly political scenario being played out in Atty. Jack Morrison's rejection of demands that he resign from the University of Akron Board of Trustees in the wake of his two convictions on ethics charges. Although I suggested in an earlier piece that he would likely remain on the board during a drawn-out appeal to reverse the outcome of his bench trial, that is only part of the unfolding saga involving a Republican member of the board. Another reason is that his resignation would give Democrats a windfall opportunity to name one more Democrat to fill the vacancy.
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4 comments:
The easy solution for Morrison was to play by the rules: 1. File his paperwork accordingly 2. Don't falsify documents to the Ethics Commission. Easy as that. He is not entitled to his position simply because he is a Republican and Strickland is a Democrat. He made an oath and had responsibilities and he failed at keeping both.
Abe you are guessing it right on; however what you are forgetting is that there is a creature that is lurking behind the scenes that is nothing more than a money hungry grub as far as I am concerned. Are you thinking Alex Arshinkoff? Bingo. He has caused the politization and polarization of this area of Ohio so over whelming and embarrassingly with a little bit of being pathetic as well.
What Alex is bankrolling on (With what’s left of our Parties money) is that he thinks that Husted and Kasich will both win or at least one of them and he will be back in business again. Wrong! Why? From what I can tell from my perspective is people in my party are tired of what is going on. Some believe we are just walking in circles, others just see us taking a step backwards but one thing is for sure nothing is getting done.
So with that hopefully there are some people really interested in real change, but if he is not out by next year it is not happening soon. Cya Abe.
The political insider baseball is interesting, Abe, but it still boils down to the fact that Morrison was CONVICTED. He can either resign now or be removed later. It's only been with the advent of Arshinkoff that the local U of A trustees have become such a politically sensitive position. Usually at most state universities they arent manipulated as potential cash cows for local political parties. Indeed, I know for a fact that at OU and OSU, governors of either parties have appointed members of both parties to the respective boards with little or no consideration as to party. As usual, Summit County is not the norm. TIME TO GO, Jack!
Jack can dig in his heals if he likes. But here's the reality:
Strickland is going to remove him. The Ohio Senate is required to give advise and consent in order for the removal to be validated. They will. Both Kevin Coughlin and Tom Sawyer are supporting removal.
Here's the question for the university: Do you really want the Ohio Senate conducting hearings and voting on the removal of trustee while you're supposed to be celebrating the opening of a new stadium? Do you really want the headlines across the country to detail how the Ohio Senate is voting to remove your convicted trustee?
Looks like the university leadership needs to tell Morrison to get lost before he does more harm to the institution.
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