Treasurer bond is likely, Sullivan says
Cheryl Brooks Sullivan believes that by Friday she will have the bond coverage necessary to take office as Franklin County treasurer, a post that voters chose her for.
“I can say that I am confident the process will be completed,” Treasurer-elect Sullivan, 60, said late Tuesday afternoon.
Sullivan won a primary and the general election last year, but under Ohio law, she is ineligible to take office unless she finds a company to provide a bond, which is insurance against officeholder and employee dishonesty.
That has been an issue because Sullivan’s past includes three bankruptcies — the most-recent one in 2011 — and a six-month prison term after a felony conviction in Florida about 20 years ago for buying cocaine. Franklin County’s treasurer oversees $2.2 billion in property-tax collections, plus an investment portfolio of $900 million to $1 billion.
Last week, the riskmanagement company that Franklin County uses to provide bonds for officeholders wouldn’t do so for Sullivan, saying unspecified issues in her credit history were too problematic.
That caused Sullivan, a real-estate agent, to look for a bond without Franklin County’s help. She presented an email Tuesday to county administrators that shows she has been offered a bond. Now, the bond has to go through an approval process.
“I am still cautious talking about it because administrative steps have to be taken before the deadline,” Sullivan said.
A bond written for Sullivan by any company licensed in Ohio will resolve the issue, Prosecutor Ron O’Brien said Tuesday. His office has to approve the bond’s legality, not its specifics.
“We would (approve it) as to form, as we do the form of all contracts,” O’Brien said, noting that the three county commissioners might have no say in its approval. “I don’t think the commissioners are entitled to look at the insurance company and say ‘That’s not good enough.’”
The deadline for approval of the bond is Friday, the last day of business before the Labor Day deadline that state law puts on a treasurer to take office. If the bond isn’t approved, she can’t take office.
“All of this has to happen in three days,” Sullivan said.
The offer to bond Sullivan came from Marsh and McLennan Cos., a 146-year-old international insurance brokerage and riskmanagement company with annual revenue of $13 billion.
The delay in getting a bond has drawn criticism from her supporters, who note that the Democrat beat incumbent Ed Leonard in the 2016 primary and then received 274,000 votes to win the November election.
Her supporters also say that preventing her from taking office after her election would negate the work that Sullivan has done to atone for her troubled past.
If the deadline isn’t met, Franklin County Commissioner John O’Grady said that a temporary replacement would be named, probably Treasurer Ron Hagan, who was appointed to finish Leonard’s term after the defeated incumbent resigned to become head of the Franklin County Board of Elections.
The Central Committee of the Franklin County Democratic Party then would name a treasurer to complete Sullivan’s four-year term.