Are Bill Todd and the ORP sexist or just a bunch of dicks?
Submitted by 2010 Buckeye on Mon, 06/04/2007 - 11:20am.
City Politics
Promoted from the forums. Looks like 2010's got a bit of spunk to him today. In the future I suspect you'll see a lot more of stuff like this on the frontpage. If Todd wants to inherit the "blackwell" crown, we'll sure as hell treat him like Blackwell. - Jerid
Let’s say you’re the Department of Development and you’re looking for a workforce development specialist. The best person for the job has 20+ years of directly-relevant experience. So you hire that person, right?
Seems pretty simple.
But, Bill Todd, the Republican candidate for Mayor of Columbus, disagrees. Todd thinks the wife of a political figure couldn’t possibly get a job on her own. In fact, he said Frankie Coleman had no business being hired by the Ohio Department of Development because she was not "eligible, competent or qualified."
What’s worse, the heir-apparent of the Ohio Republican Party, State Rep. Kevin Dewine, repeats this baseless – and seemingly sexist – attack in the Plain Dealer yesterday.
Let’s look at the facts about Mrs. Coleman's qualifications.
From 1983-88, Frankie Coleman directed job training at the precursor to ODJFS. She moved on to Executive Director of the Private Industry Council, Inc. from 1988 to 2000. Then she worked as Director of Community Relations for The Ohio State University and Director of Diversity, Inclusion and Work Life Planning at OhioHealth.
In January 2000, just prior her husband's first term as mayor, this is what the Small Business News had to say about Frankie Coleman:
Her husband, Mike, may be mayor-elect, but she's got the upper hand in the business community right now. Her role in linking available workers and labor-starved employers will continue to make her one of the more powerful forces in dealing with the local job glut.
Not qualified? Really? She has been working in workforce development for nearly 25 years. Yet corrupt Republicans, like Bill Todd, have pushed the tired "she's not qualified"refrain into their echo chamber because she is the wife of a politically important Democrat.
The level of desperation here is shocking. We always knew Bill Todd would be a dirty candidate with his long history of nasty, mudslinging politics. But to attack the Mayor and his wife so early and so viciously--and with what can easily be construed as sexist overtones--reeks of a campaign reduced to grasping at straws.
I respectfully disagree...
Submitted by modernesquire on Mon, 06/04/2007 - 6:48pm.
I agree that the attack on Frankie Coleman's qualifications for the job is completely meritless.
However, I respectfully disagree with your flippant treatment about her garage pass records and timeclock. The most experienced, qualified employee is of no value if they aren't there. There are two issue at here. One is of patronage, which is hardly a scandal given her qualifications; the other is whether she has defrauded the State by being asked to paid for hours she never worked. That is a serious charge that has some merit.
Point well taken, Counselor...
Submitted by Blue Dog Rising on Mon, 06/04/2007 - 7:48pm.
IF she defrauded the state.... and IF she was a phantom employee. IF so, DOD Director Lee Fisher can and should recover the lost wages from Coleman before Auditor Mary Taylor issues a finding for recovery on the Department of Development. But non-classified department execs above a certain level aren't always in the office -- especially in the job-creating DOD. Parking garage meters and time clocks that she doesn't have to punch are not going to prove performance one way or the other.
If somebody's got the evidence, lay it out. Otherwise, the larger, non-legal point on the bigger picture remains that the GOP is desperate (especially during a mayoral election) to pull some Dem -- any Dem -- into the "culture of corruption" melieu of 2006.
PD and Dispatch should be held accountable, too
Submitted by Demgal on Mon, 06/04/2007 - 6:25pm.
For siding with the GOP in an attempt to create another phony scandal. How many years did they look the other way while Dems complained of massive corruption in the Voinovich and Taft administrations?
They have zero credibility.
Answer to headine: They are Both !!!
And you, 2010 Buck, have done the best job yet of putting the Frankie "scandal" in perspective. Forget about the damn parking garage time stamps. Is she qualified or not for the department. Her experience says YES.
I have not seen this Coleman bio stuff in the MSM altho I'll bet Fisher's PI people have been putting out these facts as best they can. If the PD or Dispatch would focus on the big picture Q of qualfications and resume issues .... instead of what some disgruntled Taft holdover on the way out the door said about Frankie not punching a time clock, it would expose the ORP and Todd for the sexist pricks they are.
Nice job 2010