JobsOhio Yearly Report Does Nothing to Quell Transparency Concerns

From the beginning we’ve expressed concern over the lack of transparency and accountability by JobsOhio.   The yearly report (below) released today has done little to quell our concerns.

The report provides yearly totals for things like marketing and consulting, but we have no idea of who was hired.

They also failed to reveal which private donors gave to JobsOhio over the past year.

Even more concerning, a large number of the closed deals have been redacted by the Development Services Agency prior to releasing the document – meaning we don’t know who JobsOhio is funding.

All of the missing information is a major concern because it leaves us with no way of determining if something fishy is going on at JobsOhio.

For example, did one of the private donors like AEP (which gave $2 Million to JobsOhio) get a grant?  What about the former employers of JobsOhio’s managing directors?  Or one of Kasich’s big political donors?

Were some of the consulting contracts handed over to friends or family members of current or past JobsOhio executives?

With JobsOhio’s current reporting requirements, and the decision by Development Services to redact important information from the yearly report, there is no way to tell.

Here’s the report in full: