The Associated Press has reported today that despite Governor Kasich's repeated insistence that the Mark Kvamme appointment was constitutional, he was removing and reappointing Ohio EPA Director Nally over the same residency issues.
The documents show Nally's appointment papers were originally submitted on February 15, 2011. However they were pulled and resubmitted on March 21, 2011 after Nally, who has lived in Indiana, had been a resident of Ohio for 30 days. These documents contradict the Ohio EPA's website which states Nally was "sworn into office by Governor John R. Kasich on January 10, 2011."
Brian Rothenberg, Executive Director of ProgressOhio.org, the organization that filed a lawsuit over the constitutionality of the Kvamme appointment, commented:
Similar to the school funding fiasco, John Kasich has shown that there are two different sets of information in the Governor's Office, the truth and what they tell the public. At the same time Governor Kasich was calling the Kvamme residency lawsuit frivolous, he was quietly shuffling around the director of the EPA in order to try and fix the exact same residency problems. We were confident that the Court would have ruled in our favor and by the Governor's actions, he obviously believed the same.
The Nally incident creates more questions. What happens with all the contracts and negotiations that occurred between Nally's appointment and re-appointment? Once again, the Governor's seeming indifference over Ohio's Constitution can lead to many difficult consequences for businesses, the public and the Ohio EPA.
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