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Ohio Department of Education “Hit List” Claim

A month ago, questions were raised about an alleged list of people at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources who were supposed to be treated as enemies. 

Now, some Democrats say a similar list existed at the Ohio Department of Education. Ohio Public Radio's Jo Ingles reports.

Democratic consultant Sandy Theis says says she knows there was a so called hit list of employees that were set to be eliminated from the Ohio Department of Education shortly after Governor Kasich took office.  Theis says the Inspector General looked into the complaint and did an interview with a woman who confirmed the existence of the list. But when Theis went to get a copy of that interview, it wasn’t in the public records file. 

Theis –Public records don’t grow feet and walk away.  The only thing missing from the file was the woman who supposedly told him about the hit list.

ProgressOhio’s Brian Rothenberg says the problem is that the report that was issued by the inspector general shows that person in question was interviewed.

Rothenberg - The report actually references an interview with somebody who had alleged a sort of hit list that was at the department of education.  But when our investigator went in to look for the actual interview documents, there’s no interview.

Deputy Inspector General Carl Enslen, in a written statement, says the accusation that the report was created but then destroyed is baseless.  He says investigators do not memorialize and keep a record of all of the questions and answers given in the course of an investigation but decide what should be kept.  Enslen says elected officials and appointed officers in many agencies have the discretion to decide who will work for them and adds any employee can be removed without cause. And he says that’s a matter that doesn’t warrant investigation.

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