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Helen Jones-Kelley, the suspended director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, "had no legitimate agency function to purpose to support her decision" to check on the newly minted political figure, the report states.

From The Report:

1. Ohio Department of Job and Family Services

Jones-Kelley’s justifications were not reasonable under the required standards. Also, based on numerous discrepancies and contradictions, we find that her information lacked credibility.

Finally, the information upon which she based her authorization was not from valid sources and was ambiguous at best. Accordingly, we find that Jones-Kelley’s decision to authorize searches of the ODJFS databases was not appropriate.

Accordingly, we find there is reasonable cause to believe that a wrongful act or omission occurred in this instance.

2. Ohio Department of Public Safety

Contrary to popular belief, and according to law, Ohio driving records, or portions thereof, other than personal information, such as Social Security Numbers, Dates of Birth, et cetera; are considered public records pursuant to Revised Code section 149.43 and must be disclosed to the media. Upon request, only the non-personal information contained in the BMV records must, in fact, be disclosed according to the various guidelines set forth in the aforementioned federal and state law provisions.

There were several accesses to the records through this system and some are still being investigated.

3. Ohio Attorney General’s Office

A contractor’s use of the application was after his contract had terminated and thus was improper. This matter remains under investigation by the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Accordingly, we find a wrongful act occurred in this instance.

Additionally, the OAG should have had measures in place to terminate access for all users who separate from service with the OAG. Accordingly, we find reasonable cause to believe an act of omission occurred in this case.

4. Ohio Department of Taxation

We found that Taxation’s searches were not inappropriate based on criteria established by agency as well as the Internal Revenue Service governing access to such records by authorized employees.

Taxation checked its databases to verify whether Wurzelbacher’s tax lien was still valid. And, as stated above, we found no evidence that confidential information was shared with anyone outside the agency. Accordingly, in the case of the three searches we could identify, there is no reasonable cause to believe that a wrongful act or omission occurred in this instance.

Read The Full Report From The Inspector General

See Also: 

ACLU Calls on Governor to Take Lead on Creating Privacy Protections

Update:

Gov. Ted Strickland Thursday issued a one-month, unpaid suspension against Department of Job & Family Services Director Helen Jones-Kelley, whose actions were called into question in an inspector general's report released earlier this afternoon.

The governor said the director has dedicated her life to helping the less fortunate, and has been recognized as a national leader in her field.

"However, I accept the Inspector General's judgment that there was not an adequate business purpose for the searches in question," he said in a statement. "I also accept his determination that her personal Blackberry was inappropriately synchronized, resulting in emails she perceived to be personal being transmitted through governmental email resources."

The governor also issued a management directive for all state agencies, boards and commissions to help assure the database search issue doesn't repeat itself.