I Can't stand bad Lawyers

This Mark Baran who is slinging inaccurate information about his preferred candidate's opponent in this forum and other public venues is just way off base.

He continually throws out charges that Donna Finney has "Ethical Violations"  and he is wrong.  Let me address the first part:  The Ohio Ethics Commission is a separate entity than the Ohio Elections Commission.  The Ethics Commission is in place to bring transparency to the financial transactions of elected officials and write opinions on matters related to Ethics and an elected officials involvement with certain transactions or public votes.  And most importantly, all matters reviewed by or adjudicated by this commission are a matter of public record accessible to anyone requesting.

The Ethics Commission has jurisdiction to investigate Ethics violations and refer them to the venue of proper jurisdiction. Ethics Violations are cut and dry, Black and white.  You either properly report what is expected in the manner in which it is expected or otherwise face Ethics Violations a conviction, a plea and or fine.  THATS IT!

Now the Ohio Elections Commission, again, a separate entity apart from the Ohio Ethics Commission, has jurisdiction over campaign finance and fair campaign practices.  

Now pay attention here because when making allegations, language is important and as a lawyer you should know better.  In the case surrounding  Finney's ALLEGED "ethics violations" - She in fact was named in a complaint to Ohio Elections Commission brought by Former Mayor Costabile against the campaign of another candidate with whom she was associated.  The complaint alleged that the CAMPAIGN used an alias name as the source of information contained in the campaign materials to protect that source (much in the way that a journalist would protect a source).

In a Preliminary Review of the complaint, The Ohio Elections Commission, convened and ruled that there was probable cause for a hearing in front of the Ohio Elections Commission (not a court of law).  In preparation for hearing in front of the Ohio Elections Commission, the Campaign charged and the Candidate retained an attorney whose various specialties include campaign law.  He, as a good lawyer should, sought depositions from various relevant parties including the source of the complaint, Mayor Costabile.  Mr. Costabile, an attorney, decided to represent himself during the deposition.  The deposition consisted of roughly two or three hours of questioning surrounding the material contained in the election communication in question, the facts surrounding the home purchase made by the Mayor and subsequent transactions directly related to that property.  After calling for a lunch break, because there remained many questions left unanswered or questions dodged, Mr. Costobile dropped his complaint to the Ohio Elections Commission.  Dropping an Ohio Elections Complaint is in fact a commonplace occurrence, usually done after the election is over, unless, there is something deeply personal.  In this case, the election was long over but there was something about the line of questioning that compelled the Mayor to drop his complaint.  And he did.

Ok, have we followed here, Donna Finney was named in an Ohio Elections Complaint against another candidate and his campaign with whom she had an association and after long examination of the facts contained in the campaign communication, the case was dropped.  THAT MEANS THAT THIS COMPLAINT WAS NEVER ADJUDICATED! Thus the Ohio Elections Commission disposed of the case. That means that there was NOT a Commission Hearing, Administrative Court or Court of Law that found Donna Finney guilty of anything.  Heck, there were not even any fines levied against her or the campaign!

I would suggest that you retract your misstatements.  Especially since many of the inaccurate statements and accusations were made in very public forums.  If for anything, just to maintain your integrity as an attorney, who is an officer of the court.  In addition, it can't look good with potential clients.

I think that the City needs to move forward from our previous Mayor's breech of trust to the citizens, city employees and the business community and we must move forward with someone who has never served as a rubber stamp to the previous Mayor or his friend the current Mayor.  We need to make sure that we remove any prospect that the former Mayor's influence does not penetrate the walls of city hall.  The only candidate who is free from conflict from the previous administration or any other conflict for that matter is Donna Finney.