Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

One of the issues that has been a problem here in Pickerington over the years has been the influence being used by outside forces and interests to our elected councilmen.

I thought it would be important to post the total donations and just how much came from outside interests.

1. Jeff Fix

Received $3,530 only $200 came from Pickerington City residents.

2. Tory Kramer

Received $1,420/$950 came from Pickerington City Residents

3. Mitch O'Brien

Received $1830/ $1,565 came Pickerington City residents

4. Bill Wright

Received $150/ Only $25 came from Pickerington City residents. Mostly he now self financed.

5. Mike Sabatino

Received $60 only $25 came from Pickerington City residents. He is supported by Coffeeman

6. Crisie Hammond

Received $330 all from Pickerington City residents .

the real story after

Remeber the Ohio law that allows disclosure of donations after Sept 15 to be released after the election. In the past from my observations, most candidates...(some who may have something to hide)....in particular...show the money trail after the election unfortunately. Election reform in Ohio to stop this would be welcome.

from the ORC

(A) Except as otherwise provided in this division, every campaign committee, political action committee, legislative campaign fund, political party, and political contributing entity that made or received a contribution or made an expenditure in connection with the nomination or election of any candidate or in connection with any ballot issue or question at any election held or to be held in this state shall file, on a form prescribed under this section or by electronic means of transmission as provided in this section and section 3517.106 [3517.10.6] of the Revised Code, a full, true, and itemized statement, made under penalty of election falsification, setting forth in detail the contributions and expenditures, not later than four p.m. of the following dates:



(1) The twelfth day before the election to reflect contributions received and expenditures made from the close of business on the last day reflected in the last previously filed statement, if any, to the close of business on the twentieth day before the election;




(2) The thirty-eighth day after the election to reflect the contributions received and expenditures made from the close of business on the last day reflected in the last previously filed statement, if any, to the close of business on the seventh day before the filing of the statement

The loop holes

There are few points we must keep in mind here.

Expenditures are not counted if the check is not cashed until after the reporting date in October. So if you hand a check to pay for say signs or advertising and the vendor doesn't cash the check and the campaign treasurer doesn't get the canceled check until say October 29 then he can put that expenditure on the December report which is after the election.

The same can hold true for campaign contributions. If the candidate ask for checks dated after the pre-general reporting period then the campaign treasurer doesn't have to report contributions until December after the election. That was done here in Pickerington a couple of years ago.

Another method the school levy committee used a couple of years ago was to have all of the campaign contributions made as ''IN-KIND'' and thus the actual receipts are not produce and the campaign contributions are laundered in one lump sum. Following this method a builder could say contribute to a PTA and the PTA buys the signs and they make an in-kind donation to the levy committee. Same would hold true for mailers and other campaign materials.

The above methods are all legal and they have all been tried here in Pickerington politics.

Then there is the influence peddling and Mr. Fix had a huge percentage of his fund raising coming from outside the city. This similar to Randy Hughes who raised over $8,000 in his campaign with no challengers and then financed his partners in crime Postage and Washington. All of Randy's money came from the builders and since he ran unopposed who could stopped anything that he did.

The question which should be on all of our minds is who are these people giving Jeff Fix this money for his campaign and what do they want in return for their contribution? Many that support Mr. Fix live in the township and are part of the Republican Party of Fairfield County. Then there are the Lancaster Republicans.

A good example that everyone should be concerned is that Terry Dunlap now seems to feel at home with being close to Bill Wright. Terry Dunlap also donated to Jeff Fix's campaign. What do these folks want?

Will the city continue to suffer from executive session where legal strategies are discussed only to have the opposition know about the content of the talks before the rest of the council gets home. Clearly these talks have been leaked outside on a regular basis.