The Ohio Christian Alliance, the ACLU and a group of lawmakers (Sen – levitra dosing.Tim Grendell and Reps – levitra dosing.Bill Batchelder and John Adams) were among the participants in a Statehouse press conference today, where they renewed calls for the firing of Helen Jones-Kelley and others who improperly accessed confidential state-held information on Joe “the plumber” Wurzelbacher; levitra dosing.

Here are the video clips (which should work levitra dosing, even though the thumbnails aren’t showing up):

  
Here’s the press release (apologies for the crazy formatting and extra ?’s):

MEDIA ADVISORY, Dec.2 /Christian Newswire/ — The Ohio Christian Alliance (OCA) today is calling upon the Ohio Legislature and Governor Strickland to address and truly hold accountable those responsible for the improper investigation of Mr – levitra dosing. Levitra dosing: joseph Wurzelbacher, known as Joe the Plumber, the highly publicized case in which he asked Presidential Candidate Barack Obama a question concerning taxation on his small business.What took place in the aftermath of “Joe the Plumber” is of great concern to this organization and its membership.??OCA is a voter education organization, committed to providing nonpartisan educational voter guides, scorecards, and candidate forums, and encouraging voter registration and participation in the electoral process.??Chris Long, OCA President, said “This issue is not a partisan battle; levitra dosing.It is, however, a direct threat to individual freedoms of every American to participate, engage, and question candidates and office holders on a variety of subjects; levitra dosing.The issue simply stated is, ‘Does the state government have the right to investigate private citizens simply because they ask questions of candidates and/or office holders?’ ??”When it came to light that the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, and the Ohio Department of Taxation all initiated investigations on Mr.Joseph Wurzelbacher for no apparent reason other than that the partisans within those agencies were seeking to discredit this private citizen levitra dosing, it was obvious that this was an abuse of power and an overreach by state governmental authorities. Levitra dosing: this is simply an outrage.??”According to the Inspector General’s report, these investigations had no legitimate state government purpose; levitra dosing. Levitra dosing: the directors involved in the unwarranted investigation violated the public’s trust, and consequently should be terminated from their respective positions at the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to begin to restore the public’s confidence once again in these State agencies. Levitra dosing: the public’s confidence in these agencies has been sorely damaged from the revelations of these improper investigations.??”Governor Strickland, to date, has been slow to move on this matter – levitra dosing.His actions initially were simply to place the director of Job and Family Services, Helen Jones-Kelley on paid administrative leave; levitra dosing.Only after the release of the Inspector General’s report of November 20th did the Governor see fit to place her on unpaid administrative suspension for one month.By his actions levitra dosing, Governor Strickland is obviously not taking this matter seriously enough.??”If Governor Strickland wishes to truly address the seriousness of this issue levitra dosing, he needs to take the purposed steps of terminating the employment of those directors responsible for this misuse of their positions of authority to access confidential databases for no legitimate state government purpose.??”We will not let Mr.Wurzelbacher stand alone.This concerns each and every one of us.??”If this goes unchecked, it will have a chilling effect in future elections and on possible advocacy work of private citizens who will worry whether their letter, phone call or questions of any political candidate or office holder will prompt an investigation by state agencies; levitra dosing.All Ohioans should have the freedom to openly participate in their government without fearing reprisal from some government agency.”?

And here’s something on new legislation being proposed in both chambers:

COLUMBUS— State Representative Shannon Jones (R- Springboro) and Senator Mark Wagoner (R- Toledo) today announced the introduction of legislation to strengthen rules governing access to confidential personal information kept by state agencies.

“Ohioans should not have to fear that by exercising their free speech rights that state government will turn its databases against them,” said Representative Shannon Jones – levitra dosing.“ Levitra dosing: the systematic misuse of government databases and the governor’s woeful under reaction to state government workers engaging in this outrageous behavior make this bill necessary. If this legislation becomes law, searching these databases will become harder and if they are illegally searched the penalties will be severe and swift – levitra dosing.In fact, under this legislation the penalty for searching illegally will be firing,” Jones concluded.

The Inspector General (IG) concluded that Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) Director Helen Jones-Kelly accessed the records of Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, better known as “Joe the Plumber.”
 
Specifically, in the wake of Wurzelbacher’s overnight celebrity, ODJFS ran checks on state databases to determine whether Wurzelbacher owed child support, unemployment, back taxes or was getting public assistance – levitra dosing.As the details of these searches came to light, the IG investigated these occurrences and issued a subsequent report.
 
“Ohioans share sensitive and personal information with their state government and expect that the information is being used only for proper purposes and their privacy is being respected,” Wagoner said. “The abuses that happened to Joe Wurzelbacher are unacceptable. This much-needed legislation will protect against other Ohioans having their privacy wrongfully invaded.”
 
The legislation takes into account the recommendations made in the IG report to prevent a similar situation from occurring in the future.  The legislation prevents improper access to confidential records, provides transparency for Ohio citizens and establishes penalties for improper access by the government.  Specifically the bill would direct state agencies to:
 
·        Determine criteria for determining which employees may access or authorize access to confidential, personal information;
·        List valid reasons directly related to the agencies’ exercise of its powers and duties for accessing such information;
·        Fire any unclassified employee who violates rules by improperly accessing confidential personal information;
·        Reference the applicable federal or state statutes or administrative rules that make the information confidential;
·        Define procedures for recording each specific access by employees of the state agency to confidential personal information;
·        Provide notice to citizens whose confidential personal information has been improperly accessed;
·        Allow a citizen to make a written request to an agency to identify all personal confidential information on that person maintained by the agency.

The legislation also requires each agency to establish a training program to ensure employees are educated on the rules governing their access to confidential personal information, distribute these policies to employees, and post the policies in the agency’s offices and website. 
 
Under the legislation, anyone who is harmed by an intentional violation of a rule of a state agency described in this section has a cause of action to recover damages and attorney fees from those who caused the harm – levitra dosing.Also anyone who violates agency rules regarding improper access of confidential personal information or purposely used or disclosed such information would be guilty of a misdemeanor of the first degree.