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A Conversation with Legislative Inspector General Tony Bledsoe


On February 15, 2008, Legislative Inspector General Tony Bledsoe held a workshop for lobbyists to help improve compliance with Ohio law. Catherine Turcer, director of the Money in Politics Project spoke with him about the workshop and ideas for future changes to the system of lobbyist disclosure.

Catherine Turcer (CT): Why did you hold a training session for lobbyists?

Inspector General Tony Bledsoe (TB): A year from now we will have an interactive database of lobbyists. We are going to implement voluntary electronic filing for lobbyists. Of course, this won’t work unless we have accurate good data coming in.

CT: What do you want the lobbyist database to do?

TB: I would like to be able to identify all that is reportable, make it immediately accessible. I want a database in which visitors can search by public official, client, or bill number. Right now if you want to figure out who is lobbying on a specific bill you have to go through thousands of reports.

CT: Why not require lobbyists to file electronically so that the database will come together more quickly?

TB: The law requires that we make forms available. It would require a legislative change to make electronic filing mandatory. However, no one can avoid being part of the database by filing on paper. The paper forms are going to be taken and entered into the database. We need to inspire people to file electronically.

CT: How are you going to encourage folks to file electronically?

TB: We are going to create user friendly features which make electronic filing not only easier than paper filing, but reduce the risk of an inadvertent omission. For example “drop down boxes” that include all bill numbers and the names of reportable officials, will allow filers to simply point and click. In the past we worked with interested parties, citizen groups, the media, and lobbyists to encourage better filing. I want to leave things here better than when we started.

CT: What steps do you take to figure out who is lobbying but isn’t registered?

TB: We contact public officials and go over their records, schedules, and emails. We look at political consultants’ own publications and their own statements about what they do on their websites. We want to work to get them into compliance. We send those we suspect may be lobbying a letter. If we don’t receive a response, we send a certified letter to put them on notice. If we still do not receive a response, the final step for our office is to submit a request for investigation to the Attorney General.

CT: Tell me a little bit about working with those who don’t file or those who fall into a gray area.

TB: Phil Burress (Citizens for Community Values) is a good example. He believed that his activities were grassroots lobbying, but we encouraged him to file as a lobbyist because his legislative activities were associated with compensation. He agreed and voluntarily registered as a lobbyist.

CT: Give me an example of someone you thought might be a lobbyist but isn’t.

TB: Being a lobbyist is tied to compensation. David Brennan from White Hat Management has a high level of activity but he is not directly compensated, and therefore not required to register. We encourage those who aren’t required to register to file voluntarily. Sometimes people only work on legislation before it is introduced and the rules define “pending legislation” as legislation that has been officially introduced. For example, just discussing a general concept that is not found in any current legislation is not legislative advocacy. Otherwise, simply expressing ideas could be considered lobbying. However, I encourage people to register during the development of legislation. It’s not required but it allows the public to have a fuller picture.

CT: What do you wish that people knew about lobbying that they don’t?

TB: People have stereotypes of lobbyists but they, in fact, represent a wide variety of interests: corporate, campaign finance reform, agriculture--which may or may not be corporate. Nearly every Ohioan is represented by lobbyists. Contrary to popular belief, ordinary people are lobbyists.

CT: What do you hope to accomplish with the changes that you are making?

TB: We’ve been doing a paper chase for years. The lobbyist filings would simply go into a drawer; we would have a data dump that’s not useful. Information isn’t tied to the bills that lobbyists are working on. The rules aren’t just about filling in the forms. We want to make sure that undue influence isn’t affecting policy-making and that contracts are awarded for the right reason.
In the News

Stivers rejects label of 'ex-lobbyist', " 'My title was never "lobbying," he said. 'My title was "government relations," ' " James Nash, Columbus Dispatch.

Husband of Democratic leader State Rep. Joyce Beatty lobbies for payday lender, "Otto Beatty declined to specify what kind of legal consulting work he does for CheckSmart and said he didn't recall how he came to be working for the company," Aaron Marshall, Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Ohio House Minority Leader Beatty's reluctance to reform payday-lending laws might be traced to her husband's client list, "Now that Columbus knows what Richmond knows, Mrs. Beatty emphasizes that she favors, as she claims she always has favored, payday-lending reform," Cleveland Plain Dealer.