Strickland makes agency leadership changes

Jan. 25, 2007 - OCSEA is closely watching one of Governor Strickland’s first orders of business: the selection of new cabinet-level and other appointees. His picks are a strong indication of the values and concerns his administration will follow over the next four years.

Not surprisingly, new leaders have been named in some key agencies (see the upcoming Public Employee Quarterly for additional details):

Taxation: Rich Levin is a familiar name to many OCSEA activists. Levin’s research firm, Levin and Driscoll, has offered expertise to OCSEA for budget training and in other areas of public policy. Levin and his firm emphasized the value of credible information and pragmatic problem-solving, approaches that will serve him well as the state’s new Tax Commissioner.

ODJFS: Helen Jones-Kelly, the former director of Montgomery County JFS, has been named to head up ODJFS. She is also a former magistrate and Assistant Legal Director for Montgomery County Juvenile Court.

ODMR/DD: John Martin will be a familiar face to OCSEA activists who lobbied the statehouse during the last biennium. Martin has been active in fighting the elimination of the ICF/MR program in Ohio and lobbying legislators in support of choice. For the last 20 years Martin has run Sunshine Inc., a provider of MR/DD services in the Toledo area. He recently told the Toledo Blade that Developmental Centers should remain a choice in the continuum of care. He assumed the ODMR/DD Director spot on Jan. 15.

Office of Medicaid: Cristal Thomas comes to Ohio all the way from the Illinois Medicaid state agency to assume the lead position for Ohio’s new Office of Medicaid. Thomas is a former policy analyst at the Office of Management and Budget in the Executive Office of the President of the United States. Thomas is an Ohio native, graduating from OSU with a B.A. in molecular biology.

ODNR: Sean Logan, from Columbiana County, served as a state representative from 1990-2000. For six of those years, Logan served on the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. OCSEA endorsed Logan in his bid for the state Legislature.

Other appointments include:

• Aging: Barbara Riley (formerly, ODJFS Dir.)
• Office of Budget and Management: Pari Sabety
• Development: Lee Fisher
• Insurance: Mary Jo Hudson
• Adjutant General: Major General L. Wayt
• Health: Dr. Alvin Jackson
• EPA: Christopher Korleski
• Public Safety: Henry Guzman
• Alcohol and Drugs: Angela Cornelius
• Agriculture: Robert Boggs
• Office of Collective Bargaining: Steve Loeffler (non-cabinet level position)
• Ohio Industrial Commission - Patrick Gannon (chairperson)
  
• Commerce - Ohio State Senator Kimberly Zurz
• Ohio Inspector General - Thomas Charles (reappointed as director)

Auditor: Separately, State Auditor Mary Taylor completed her regional liaison team, naming Philip Wenzel state liaison director.

If your agency is not listed, no new director has been appointed at the time of publishing.

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Gov. Ted Strickland's Website