IG Ignored Tip That State Education Leaders Had Political ‘Hit List;’ Interview of Tipster Missing from IG Files COLUMBUS – Ohio’s Inspector General ignored information about a political hit list at the state education department, said ProgressOhio Executive Director Brain Rothenberg. The interview of a tipster who saw the hit list is now missing from the IG’s investigatory files. “Is the cover-up worse than the crime?’’ Rothenberg asked. “The Inspector General needs to answer that question by solving the mystery of the disappearing records.’’ News of a political hit list at the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) follows release of records showing that Gov. John Kasich’s top appointees helped draft a plan to promote drilling on state lands, complete with a Nixon-style ‘hit list’ of groups and legislators viewed as hostile to drilling. Environmental groups were forced to sue the state to obtain the drilling records. Only after release of the records did the Kasich administration announce it no longer has plans to drill in state parks or forests. Days after the drilling controversy became public, Rothenberg said he received anonymous tips about hit lists in other state agencies, including ODE. He asked Sandy Theis, former Statehouse Bureau Chief for The Plain Dealer, to try and determine if additional hit lists existed. In a memo to Rothenberg, Theis said she spoke with several former education department employees who said they either knew that a hit list existed or had heard rumors of its existence. “Two of the interviewees said Kim Vogel was on the list and told co-workers that she informed the IG of its existence” during his conflict-of-interest investigation into Stanley Heffner, who at the time served as state Superintendent of Public Instruction. “Her interview is now missing from the IG’s files,” Theis said in the memo. Gov. Kasich appointed Randall Meyer to the Inspector General post. His term expires when Kasich’s term ends. Ms. Vogel clearly was interviewed during the IG’s Heffner investigation because she is quoted in his official report on the case. She no longer works for the state, but she declined to comment on her past interview or discuss the hit list. Theis said she interviewed Heffner and he confirmed that the Kasich administration suggested which workers at the education department should lose their jobs. But Heffner said he did not view those names as a “hit list.” “When the new administration came in, it was them calling and asking if so and so was a good performer,’’ Heffner said. “We had a reduction in force that was needed to occur. We had some names that were suggested to us by the administration.” Those suggestions included both political appointees, who can be fired for any reason, and civil servants who cannot legally be fired for political reasons, Heffner said. Rothenberg said the IG’s inaction is part of a troubling pattern. “The Toledo Blade filed a suit to force the Inspector General to release his report on the “Coingate” scandal,” Rothenberg said. “This administration does not value checks and balances. It has closed public records, limited the reach of the state auditor and appointed an Inspector General who appears to be more lap dog than watchdog.” –30–