Members of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus met with Governor Kasich yesterday evening in an attempt to iron out some disagreements over issues involving minorities. Kasich has been harshly criticized for going three weeks into his without appointing a single minority to his cabinet. Kasich has, in recent days, appointed one minority member to head the Ohio Department of job and Family Services. African American Democratic State Representative Carlton Weddington says he thought yesterday's meeting with the Governor was a good starting point. "He mentioned that he's only been Governor for thirty days--or actually, it's more than thirty days, but when you make statements, I believe your actions speak louder than possibly what you may say."
The Democrats say Kasich didn't promise anything that would make them change their minds on important legislation like collective bargaining or the private Jobs board that's being created. Governor Kasich's spokesman, Rob Nichols, says Governor Kasich has agreed to continue meeting with black lawmakers in the coming months.
"This governor, more so than most, has a long track record of working across party lines. It's not lip service with him, it's something that he's done throughout his career--in fact, since he's been in office, he's probably had far more meetings with Democrats with african american legislators, either individually or collectively--he can work with anyone."
Nichols says that does not mean, however, that Kasich will compromise his principles in order to work across party lines.
Nichols also says, "Just suffice to say, it seems it was a very, very good meeting. How they described it and how I described it is nothing nothing but positive and we'll look forward to more meetings like this with them."
Democratic State Representative Alicia Reece says yesterday's meeting with the Governor was a good starting point but she said she made it clear that the Governor needs the input of the caucus as it moves forward on important legislation..like the private non profit jobs board now being created for example.
"Certainly we could have brought some additional thoughts to the table that could have made our proposal better. We also emphasized that when you talk about jobs in its--you know, just put the word jobs out there--what type of jobs? Do those jobs match the skill sets of the citizens of Ohio and do they match the skill sets of our constituents that are in our districts. And so, we don't want all these jobs created and then african americans don't even qualify for the jobs. And so that's why it's so important for the Governor to have a stance of that there are qualified african americans in Ohio because then, when you say create jobs, then the employers know that there are african americans that can fulfill these jobs."