Bond to cost $39,000 more than expected
Franklin County officials expect Cheryl Brooks Sullivan to have an insurance bond by the end of Thursday, ending a bitter week that will put her in office as county Treasurer.
But it will cost a lot more than expected.
The premium for the bond the county sought would have cost $7,000 total for her four-year term.
The premium bond Wilson expects commissioners to approve Thursday totals $46,000 — $39,000 more than planned.
“It’s fair to say that it’s expected to be approved” Thursday, County Administrator Kenneth Wilson said Wednesday.
“We have in hand a bond which the prosecutor’s office reviewed and made some immaterial changes to, but approved.”
The Dispatch told Sullivan in a Wednesday phone call that Wilson believed the bond would be final by the end of Thursday, but she remains cautious until the process is officially complete.
“I feel joyful, a little like I’m floating,” Sullivan said. “This is an opportunity to show that people can change.”
Sullivan, 60, wasn’t endorsed by the Franklin County Democratic Party in the 2016 spring primary but she beat the endorsed incumbent. She then won the general election, again without her party’s endorsement, by 31,000 votes.
Sullivan was elected despite her past, which includes three bankruptcies and a 1997 felony conviction for buying cocaine that resulted in her serving six months in prison.
The process of trying to get Sullivan bonded — a bond is an insurance policy that protects the public against an officeholder or employee’s dishonesty — has created hard feelings among her supporters, who don’t understand why she might not take office despite winning two elections.
They say that Sullivan has overcome her past and is trying to take advantage of a second chance. It’s worrisome to others, though, to have someone with three bankruptcies and a prison term in charge of the $3 billion the Treasurer’s office oversees annually.
Ohio law requires that all officeholders be bonded. Franklin County officials twice were rejected in their attempt to get her a bond.
Sullivan sought out a bond on her own, handing it over to county officials Wednesday afternoon.
Wilson expects the commissioners to vote Thursday to pay the $46,000 premium. After that, the county will wire the money to the bond company. Once it accepts the payment, the company sends the bond to the county, which files it.
The timing is important because if the official bond isn’t filed by the end of Friday, Ohio law would prevent Sullivan from taking office.
In Ohio, all 88 county treasurers are sworn in on the first Monday in September to coincide with tax collections. Sullivan expects to take the oath of office Monday, which is Labor Day, and report to the office Tuesday.
“Then the work begins,” Sullivan said.