Operating Budget Testimony, Joint Legislative Ethics Committee, Ohio House Development Committee, February 12, 2025

Summary

Operating budget testimony for FY 2026/2027 from Tony Bledsoe, Executive Director of the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee and the Office of the Legislative Inspector General, to the Ohio House of Representatives Development Committee, dated February 12, 2025. It describes the office’s advisory role on ethics questions, financial disclosure statements, and its regulation of lobbying activity by 1,400 lobbyists representing over 2,200 lobbying clients. It reports that in calendar year 2024 the office answered over 1,400 substantive ethics and lobbying questions and processed nearly 45,000 filings. The committee requests that its general revenue funding for Fiscal Years 26 and 27 remain at $713,000.00 annually, with spending authority of $150,000.00 from the JLEC lobbying fee account and $10,000.00 from the JLEC Investigative Financial Disclosure Fund.

Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used

Full text

     THE OHIO GENERAL ASSEMBLY
     JOINT LEGISLATIVE ETHICS COMMITTEE
     OFFICE OF THE LEGISLATIVE INSPECTOR GENERAL
     100 E. Broad Street, Suite 1910, Columbus, OH 43215 (614) 728-5100 www.jlec-olig.state.oh.us




Ohio House of Representatives – Development
               Committee
                          February 12, 2025




  Operating Budget Testimony FY 2026/2027


Joint Legislative Ethics Committee/Office of the
         Legislative Inspector General


                              Tony Bledsoe
   Executive Director/Legislative Inspector General
Chair Hoops, Ranking Member Abdullahi and members of

the Committee, my name is Tony Bledsoe.               I am the

Executive Director of the Joint Legislative Ethics

Committee and the Office of the Legislative Inspector

General. The Office of the Legislative Inspector General

("OLIG") is accountable to the Joint Legislative Ethics

Committee ("JLEC").       The OLIG is responsible for the

implementation of Ohio Revised Code Chapter 102—the

state's ethics laws as it pertains to state legislative officials

and employees, including: Members and employees of, and

candidates for, the Ohio General Assembly. Additionally,

the OLIG is responsible for the regulation of state-level

lobbying activity.




Public corruption at the local, state and national level

damages public confidence in our democracy. Historically,
                              2 of 7
my written budget testimony focuses on our advisory and

regulatory roles.   That remains true today. However, I

believe it is important for me to clearly and publicly begin

by stating that although JLEC is not a law enforcement

agency; we have worked closely and continually with the

Public Corruption Task Force since 2006. We are a partner

to the Task Force. This partnership is possible because the

JLEC members long ago gave the OLIG independence to

work directly and confidentially with law enforcement.




Turning to our advisory role, we continue to focus on the

prevention of ethics violations. Legislators and legislative

staff have come to rely upon prompt answers from the OLIG

as they consider various courses of action. This willingness

to seek guidance is a reflection of the proactive approach


                            3 of 7
most in the Ohio General Assembly take to ethics

compliance.




We not only provide legal advice on various ethics issues;

we also distribute and review financial disclosure

statements for the General Assembly.            All financial

disclosure statements are available for public viewing at our

website. We continue to provide personalized answers to

filers on their filing questions. By working with candidates

and legislators before they file, we increase the accuracy and

completeness of the information provided to the public.




As part of its ethics compliance program, the OLIG

conducts multiple training sessions.          All legislative

employees attend either bi-annual or annual ethics

                             4 of 7
trainings. Newly hired employees attend a training session

soon after their hire date. Caucus specific training is

conducted for all Members at the beginning of a General

Assembly.




The majority of OLIG resources are dedicated to regulating

the lobbying activity of 1,400 lobbyists representing over

2,200 lobbying clients at the state level.     The OLIG is

responsible for lobbying compliance relative to attempts to

influence legislation, executive agency decisions, and the

investment decisions of the five state retirement systems.

We are also responsible for maintaining a database of the

names of individuals banned from lobbying in Ohio.



To provide you with a statistical overview of our work, I can

report in calendar year 2024, we answered over 1,400
                            5 of 7
substantive ethics and lobbying questions. The OLIG

reviewed and processed nearly 45,000 filings including:

lobbying registrations, lobbying activity and expenditure

reports, post-employment disclosure statements as well as

financial disclosure statements. These filings along with

various search features are available at the JLEC website

ohiolobbying.com.




The OLIG strives to provide increased services without

seeking increased general revenue funds or staff. The JLEC

respectfully requests our general revenue funding for Fiscal

Years 26 and 27 remain at its current level of $713,000.00

annually. We also request our annual spending authority

from the JLEC lobbying fee account remain at $150,000.00

and at $10,000.00 from the JLEC Investigative Financial

                            6 of 7
Disclosure Fund. We will make every effort to utilize less

than the spending authority.



Thank you for the opportunity to testify and answer your

questions.




                           7 of 7


File and source

File

2025-02-12_development_testimony_testimony-258.pdf

Size

104,594 bytes

SHA-256

90aabc0de9d7d62848ff4c020d3c65a3d81c76737056ee1e3bbb7fd559642dd1

Our copy

2025-02-12_development_testimony_testimony-258.pdf

Original

No public link identified.