Summit County Council.jpg

Summit County Council a The Ohio Building in downtown Akron.

(John Harper/Northeast Ohio Media Group)

AKRON, Ohio -- A Summit County councilwoman and Democratic state representative candidate says she doesn't know why she left two sources of income off of state financial disclosure statements, but insists it was a mistake.

The Ohio House Republican Organizational Committee has asked the Ohio Joint Legislative Ethics Committee and the Ohio Ethics Commission to investigate discrepancies on Paula Prentice's 2009-14 financial disclosure statements.

In a letter to the agencies that monitor campaign ethics, the Republican committee points to Coventry City Schools retirement income as well as Prentice's salary as a Summit council member, both missing from the section where candidates list sources of income. (See letter in document viewer below.)

From 2004-09 Prentice listed Summit County Council and Coventry City Schools as sources of income, but from 2010 through this year the councilwoman did not list any sources of income.

The retired Coventry teacher said that she had been collecting retirement from the state, but was not told to list that on her filings form.

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"If I made an error in the past, they have sent me a letter," Prentice said. "I mean I don't have any answer for that, they don't ask for any amount or anything. I'm not trying to hide some source of income. I honestly don't have an answer other than obviously I didn't do it, and they didn't catch it."

According to Summit County law, Prentice makes up to $23,920 a year from Summit County Council. She is not required to list the amount she earns on state ethics statements unless that company does business with the city or state, but she is required to list all sources of income.

With respect to the salary she receives from council, Prentice said she thought the front page of the form, which asks for her position in elected office, was sufficient.

Ohio Ethics Commission Executive Director Paul Nick declined to speak specifically about Prentice's situation, but said that state retirement pensions qualify as taxable income under state ethics law and that all sources of income must be listed in the section of the statement that says "sources of income."

Prentice said the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee, which received Prentice's financial disclosures for the first time this year as a statehouse candidate, wrote to tell her that she had omitted some income from her disclosure form. That was the first time in the last four years she said she had been told of any mistakes on the forms.

"Since I retired what I do is I take last year's statement and pretty much follow along the same things since I haven't had any increase in income," Prentice said. "I cannot tell you why I omitted it. I didn't omit it on purpose and it was never caught, so I was not aware of that."

If either state agency finds inaccuracies in Prentice's financial statements, they can take one of three measures, Nick said.

If there is evidence that Prentice knowingly falsified the information, she may be charged with a misdemeanor for falling a false financial disclosure. Either agency can ask for more information from filers. If Prentice accidentally omitted a source of income, she can file to modify past financial disclosure forms.

Prentice said she has already filed to add her Summit County Council income to her 2014 legislative ethics committee filing.

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