Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel says he's a major proponent of government transparency, pointing often to the online Ohio Checkbook he created. But he's also claiming there was no written communication among him and his senior staff about the cost of and payments for a $2 million series of television ads that ran last year at taxpayer expense.

That's the opposite of transparency, several observers said Monday.

"It's entirely not plausible that a state agency would find a way to spend $2 million on advertising without internal discussion about it or written communication about it," said David R. Marburger, a Cleveland attorney who has written a book about Ohio's open-records law. "It's even more implausible that this would be designed to be in increments small enough to avoid the Board of Control with no written communication."

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Mandel announced in June of 2016 that his office would spend less than $800,000 on television advertising for the STABLE program, which allows families to set up tax-free accounts for disabled children.

The treasurer's office ended up running about $2 million worth of commercials, which featured Mandel and Ohio State Football Coach Urban Meyer. And it broke up the buys into chunks of less than $50,000 apiece, thereby avoiding a requirement to get approval from the Controlling Board. In response, Mandel's fellow Republicans in the legislature passed a law as part of the budget this year to put a stop to the practice.

The ads aired just before Mandel announced that he would again run for U.S. Senate against Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown, prompting a watchdog group to question whether the ads were intended to promote the STABLE program or Mandel's political career. Those questions grew louder this summer when Cleveland.com reported that Mandel's own marketing plan said big-budget TV commercials were not the best way to promote the savings program.

To get an idea of what Mandel and his top aides were thinking when they decided to buy so much airtime and pay for it in scores of separate chunks, The Dispatch in August requested all written communications between Mandel and five of his top staffers concerning the cost of and the payments made for the ads.

Mandel's office responded last week with thousands of pages of invoices from TV stations and orders from the treasurer for ads, but nary a single email or a text among Mandel and his top employees discussing why they undertook the campaign in the way that they did.

Asked if the treasurer's office was claiming there were no written communications among the treasurer and senior staff about the cost of and payments made for a $2 million, taxpayer-funded ad buy, Mandel aide Chris Berry responded, "Correct."

That's fishy even if it is accurate, said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio, a group that advocates government transparency.

"My educated guess is they, in fact, deliberately avoided putting anything in writing," she said.

Turcer praised Mandel for the Ohio Checkbook, but she said, "When you have a commitment to transparency, you have to do it even when it's uncomfortable."

The Ohio Democratic Party submitted a similar records request this year and was dissatisfied with the response.

"Mandel expects us to believe there's not a single email from him or his senior staff about these shady decisions?" party spokesman Jake Strassberger said in an email. "It doesn't add up, and there's clearly more to this story that Mandel is trying to hide."

Dispatch Reporter Megan Henry contributed to this story.

mschladen@dispatch

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