Editor Caught Up In Inquiry Into Ohio Commissioner Salaries

By: Mark Fitzgerald David C. Miller, editor of The Sentinel-Tribune in Bowling Green, Ohio, is one of several Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission members who received substantial salaries for their work at the state agency while holding down full-time jobs elsewhere, according to a report by the state inspector general.

The report centered on allegedly improper changes to agency rules on commissioner compensation that boosted compensation by 33%, Inspector General Thomas P. Charles wrote in the report released last Friday. Details of the report were first published in a Columbus Dispatch article by Jon Craig.

Miller was cited as one of several commissioners who billed the equivalent of nearly 40 hours per week while working another full-time job. The report said while earning $69,992 as editor, Miller received commission compensation of $46,676 in 2003 and $48,797 in 2002. His travel costs over the two years totaled more than $9,000, the Dispatch reported.

Commissioners of the Rehabilitation Services Commission set policy for an agency that employs about 1,400 people who attempt to find jobs for disabled Ohioans. Miller has been on the board for 13 years. Four of those years he served as chairman. He is in the final year of his second seven-year term.

In a brief telephone interview Monday, Miller said: "I've been told by the Inspector General's Office that I was the only one of seven commissioners who billed fewer hours after the rules were changed." He declined to make any further comment on the report.

The seven commissioners, who are appointed by the governor, meet two days a month. They had been paid for each meeting they attended but in 2002 changed the compensation rules. Compensation paid the commissioners increased by 33% as a result of the changes, the inspector general found.

Referring to the commissioners in general, the report stated: "We were unable to substantiate the actual number of hours they worked, or prove they committed fraud." The Dispatch reported that Charles had "referred his findings to Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien for possible criminal charges."

The commission's chairman, disabled Marine Corps veteran Douglas C. Huntt, resigned his post as the report was being released, the Dispatch said.