It’s no secret Jim Slagle isn’t happy with the new redistricting maps or the process that was used to come up with them. After all, the Ohio Campaign for Accountable Redistricting put its own maps out there for consideration and those were shot down by Republican leaders who dominate all statewide elected offices, the Ohio Supreme court and the Ohio legislature. But Slagle says he’s uncovered big secrets about the redistricting process. For starters, he says much of the work was conducted in a hotel room near the Statehouse…a secret hotel room that was paid for with public funds.
Slagle - What is was a secret office. They moved the computers in there. They moved out the hotel furniture and it became a place where they could meet with people without being seen. There was space available in state facilities. In fact, it’s reference in the records as meetings in the bunker or meetings off site.
Slagle says there’s also something suspicious about the way the two people who were in charge of physically drawing the maps did their work and were compensated for it as they worked as private contractors.
Slagle - We were all led to believe they were state employees. In fact they were under contract not with apportionment board but the Republican task force so I think the amount is a problem as well. We shouldn’t be using redistricting to reward and obtain loyalty from staffers. Yes, the 105 thousand dollars each for 14 weeks off of the state payroll, yes, I think that’s excessive.
The one inch thick binder produced by Slagle contains emails, reports and other materials that he says proves who was in charge of the congressional maps.
Slagle – There’s no question that with the congressional maps, Speaker John Boehner’s political team was driving this process and we’ve documented that in emails that were exchanged.
Slagle says the report shows decisions were made on the basis of campaign donations, party support and more.
Slagle - I think there’s been a long time effort to keep this secret, do it in the backrooms. I think that’s been done by the Republicans and the Democrats. It’s been done by Democrats in other states where they are in charge of the process. So it’s a systemic problem which goes back to why we should reform the process.
But Mike Dittoe with the Ohio House legislative caucus says there’s nothing secretive about the process of drawing the maps.
Dittoe – There’s a lot of salacious material that they are alledging...secret meetings and secret bonuses. Obviously none of that is true or they wouldn’t be able to prepare a transparency report that deals with the records that were requested by the general assembly. Clearly nothing out here was secret. It was done very publicly and it was all done on the up and up.
Dittoe says a hotel room was necessary for a couple of reasons.
Dittoe - Number one, people driwing the maps…they are are not here 8 to 5 everyday. They are working 18, 20, 22 hour days. State office buildings do not provide a conducive time frame for them to work inside state office buildings during state working house. Addiitonally, the space requirements…there’s big machines, printers, that kind of thing. It’s nice to have extra space so nothing sinister about that.
And he says there’s a reason why redistricting employees were paid the way they were.
Dittoe – They cannot have concurrent employment with the state of Ohio just to assure that their duties are separate but their money is appropriated by the legislature task force on redistricting so it’s public money that’s being paid for by a private entity.
Dittoe says campaign contributions have nothing to do with the way lines on the map were drawn. And he says it’s ludicrous to believe Republicans or Speaker John Boehner dictated the maps.
Dittoe – We took input from anyone who wanted to offer it, including democrats in congress so it’s extremely misleading and salacious to say it was just Speaker Boehner.
The redistricting maps are in limbo right now. Democrats are gathering petition signatures to put the congressional map on the ballot. Meetings have been taking place behind closed doors to come to some bipartisan agreement to keep that from happening and to keep the maps from ending up in the hands of a court. But if it does go to court, Jim Slagle says he thinks the report he’s produced could be good evidence.