| ► Toledo Blade – 08/24/01 – Ex-mayor punished in ethics case |
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Toledo Blade – Aug. 24, 2001 – Ex-mayor punished in ethics case Jim Drew
Blade Columbus Bureau Chief
COLUMBUS – Jim Seney, executive director of the Ohio Rail Development Commission, pleaded no contest yesterday to three misdemeanor counts that he filed incomplete financial disclosure statements with the Ohio Ethics Commission.
Under a plea agreement reached with the Columbus city prosecutor’s office, Mr. Seney, a former Sylvania mayor, paid a $140 fine.
Franklin County Municipal Court Judge Bruce Jenkins accepted Mr. Seney’s plea and imposed a $300 fine, plus court costs, but the judge suspended two of the three fines.
Mr. Seney’s plea stemmed from a complaint filed with the Ethics Commission by David Palmer, a judicial critic who accused Mr. Seney of failing to disclose rental income from Judge Stephen Yarbrough, who is a retired visiting judge from Lucas County.
At the request of the Ethics Commission, the Columbus city prosecutor’s office filed three counts of failing to file a complete financial disclosure statement.
In the late 1990s, Mr. Seney worked for the state Department of Development. A Sylvania resident, he rented an apartment in the German Village neighborhood of Columbus.
Ted Barrows, first assistant prosecutor for Columbus, said Mr. Seney did not list his leasehold interest in the apartment on his financial disclosure statement that he filed with the state Ethics Commission for three years. Mr. Seney also did not list rental income he received, Mr. Barrows said.
“A person who is a public official is supposed to list any and all leasehold interests on their annual filings,” Mr. Barrows said.
Mr. Barrows said Mr. Seney “fully cooperated” with the state ethics commission.
“This was not a situation in which he had some hidden source of income. Clearly, the relatively small amounts that others paid for him [Judge Stephen Yarbrough pad $60 a nite in the mid 1990s] was far less than he had to pay to lease the apartment [$600 per month lease]. It was not a profit-making operation,” he said. Mr. Seney faced a maximum $250 fine and up to 30 days in jail on each of the three misdemeanor counts.
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