New information shows that Ohio Senate hopeful Josh Mandel has skipped dozens of meetings
But it's not just meetings of the Board of Deposit that Mandel has skipped. The Ohio state treasurer serves on an additional seven boards or commissions, according to his office's annual report, for which Mandel's attendance record has not been scrutinized thus far. The eight boards have met a total of 48 times since Mandel took office, and he hadn't attended a single meeting of any of them until catching heat for skipping the Board of Deposit meetings, according to information obtained through open records requests by the liberal research group American Bridge and provided to Salon. Mandel still hasn't attended any of the other boards' meetings, and his seven appearances at the Board of Deposit -- all since the controversy began -- remain the only times he's attended any of the meetings. In his first 14 months in office, his attendance record was zero.
In addition to the State Board of Deposit, Mandel lists as his "additional duties" the Ohio Public Facilities Commission, the Sinking Fund Commission, the Agricultural Financing Commission, Financial Planning and Supervision Commission, Mine Subsidence Underwriting Board, Ohio Student Tuition Recovery Authority, and Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Release Compensation Board.
Since Mandel took office in January 2011, the Public Facilities Commission has held 11 meetings and Mandel has attended not one of them, sending his general counsel as a representative instead, according to minutes obtained through an open records request. The Mine Subsidence Underwriting Board has held four board meetings, and in each case Mandel sent a representative, according to minutes. The Ohio Student Tuition Recovery Authority has held three meetings since Mandel took office. Mandel's representative, his director of revenue management, missed the first meeting and attended the latter two, according to minutes. Of the nine meetings since January 2011 of the Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Release Compensation Board, a Mandel representative has attended five board meetings and been absent for four, according to the public meeting schedule.
