(The following story by Jon Craig appeared on the Cincinnati Enquirer website on July 4.)
COLUMBUS, Ohio — National train company CSX failed to report a three-night Florida fishing junket for state legislators – including Rep. Bill Seitz.
The Green Township Republican was one of 15 Ohio public officials invited on the March trip. He also was a featured speaker on proposed changes in the state’s tax law affecting businesses.
“As you know it’s not all fun and games,” Seitz said Friday. “Did I have a nice time down there? Yes.”
Seitz said he considered the speech, which he wasn’t paid for, something he did “out of a sense of duty. … In my legal business, I charge $300 an hour.”
Legislative Inspector General Tony W. Bledsoe – who registers Statehouse lobbyists and makes sure they follow ethics laws – said Friday that CSX Transportation of Jacksonville, Fla., has failed to report details about the annual bass fishing trips since 2000.
Bledsoe said Republican legislators who went on the trips did nothing illegal, as long as they repay CSX the cost of the lodging or report it as a gift on their next annual financial-disclosure statement.
Seitz said he plans to include the CSX payment on next April’s report, and had not planned to repay the company.
CSX filed an amended report late Thursday disclosing a $508 payment to Seitz for his speaking engagement, lodging and meals.
House Speaker Jon A. Husted of Kettering and Rep. Charles Blasdel of East Liverpool repaid the company for this spring’s outing after newspaper inquiries, according to CSX spokesman Gary Sease.
Former House speaker Larry Householder, now Perry County auditor, and former Rep. Lynn Olman of Maumee also went on the fishing trip. Olman picked Seitz up at the Orlando airport. Seitz said he paid his own airfare from and to Dayton.
Seitz also landed the best catch of the trip, an 83?4 -pound largemouth bass.
Bledsoe plans to file a complaint to Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro for possible prosecution. “It appears that they failed to report for a number of years,” he said. “I want to know how many years this has been going on and who should have been reporting.”
Told that CSX had failed to report prior fishing trips, or report Seitz’s trip by the May 31 filing deadline, Seitz said, “That’s news to me. That’s quite interesting.”
Lobbyists for non-profit groups such as Ohio Citizen Action say they can’t afford to buy that kind of personal access to lawmakers.
“When you are part of the system, you don’t realize how much access you are granting specific lobbyists,” said Citizen Action’s legislative director, Catherine Turcer.
To that, Seitz offered: “Then they can come visit me in my Cincinnati office or my Columbus office.”
Columbus has seen a growing list of scandals, all with one theme: influential, moneyed interests appearing to buy special access to state officials.
“This is the tip of the iceberg,” said Turcer. “Do we want to get to the point where it is like Louisiana and Ohio is a laughingstock? We don’t want to be the kind of state where our legislators are for sale.”