Ohio Official Suspended for Joe the Plumber Searches

The director of an Ohio state agency has been suspended from her job for improperly authorizing background searches on Toledo plumber Joe Wurzelbacher’s (aka “Joe the Plumber) shortly after the Oct. 15 presidential debate that made Wurzelbacher famous.

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland (D) announced the punishment yesterday for Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services (ODJFS) Director Helen Jones-Kelly after an Ohio Inspector General (IG) report found that Jones-Kelly, a supporter of President-elect Barack Obama’s presidential bid, had improperly authorized searches on Wurzelbacher in three confidential government databases.

“Today I have issued a one-month unpaid suspension for Director Helen Jones-Kelley.Jones-Kelly improperly authorized the searches after her employees received requests from Local 50 of the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipefitting Industry and the Ohio Department of Commerce, Ohio IG Thomas Charles found.

“We found that Director Jones-Kelley had no legitimate agency function or purpose to support her decision for checking confidential ODJFS databases related to Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher. The justifications she offered in support of her decision were not credible, and they included 19 contradictions, ambiguity, and inconsistencies. The information she said she relied on emanated from unreliable sources, such as blogs and hearsay. Therefore, we find that she had no reasonable basis to authorize searches on Wurzelbacher,” Charles wrote in yesterday’s report.

Jones-Kelly authorized ODJFS employees to perform searches on Wurzelbacher in databases for child support enforcement, unemployment benefits, and the state’s Temporary Aid to Needy Families Program.

Jones-Kelly also sent e-mails on her state-provided Blackberry listing names of potential donors to Obama’s campaing, the IG report found. The report also found that Jones-Kelly had donated $2,500 to Obama’s campaign, though Federal Election Commission donor database searches conducted by The Hill returned no findings for Jones-Kelly’s name