OSU says it has no data on Meyer ads
A $2 million, taxpayerfunded ad campaign last year by Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel has already been criticized for a lack of transparency. Now Ohio State University says it, too, has no documents related to the commercials, costarring head football coach Urban Meyer and filmed in the Buckeyes’ practice facility.
Mandel, a Republican, already has said there was no written communication among him and his senior staff about the cost of and payments for the commercials, the methodology of which
earned a rebuke this year from the Republican-controlled legislature.
The commercials promoted the STABLE program, which allows families to set up taxfree accounts for disabled children.
They aired just before Mandel announced another run against Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown. That prompted watchdogs to say they appeared to be taxpayerfunded campaign commercials featuring Mandel alongside Meyer, the state’s highestpaid public employee and arguably the most popular individual in Ohio.
Mandel’s own marketing plans said big-budget TV commercials were not the most effective way to inform the public about the program, Cleveland.com reported. Instead, a grass-roots strategy was the best way to go, the plans said.
Ohio State, however, said Meyer — at least in his role as a football coach — did not agree to the commercials with politics in mind.
“Neither the university, nor coach Meyer in his role as Ohio State football coach, was endorsing Josh Mandel,” Jerry Emig, Ohio State’s associate director of athletics communications, said in an email.
Asked for all written communications regarding the STABLE commercials involving the Ohio State athletic department, its employees, legal counsel, administration or Mandel’s office, Ohio State said it didn’t have any.
“Coach Meyer was asked to participate in a public service announcement benefiting individuals with disabilities and he agreed to participate,” Emig said. “The initial request and the logistics of his participation were arranged verbally. Meyer has an ongoing commitment to public service and decided to participate as a private citizen.”
Emig didn’t answer questions asking whether Ohio State has policies requiring employees such as Meyer to clear such commercials on university property with the administration.
An open-government watchdog said the lack of documentation concerning the commercials is a strange way to do business.
“I guess you have to take them at their word,” said Dennis Hetzel, president of the Ohio News Media Association, which advocates government transparency. “But it seems like an odd way for two highprofile officials to go about government business and spending taxpayer dollars.”
In a follow-up, Emig was asked whether Meyer “as a private citizen” was endorsing Mandel. Emig said Meyer was not.
Mandel has been a controversial figure this year.
In July, he took to Twitter to “stand with” a man who has claimed that date rape doesn’t exist and that “diversity is a code for white genocide.” Mandel slammed the AntiDefamation League, a Jewish civil-rights group, in the same tweet.
Mandel generated further controversy with the STABLE commercials. He broke up payments for them into chunks of less than $50,000, avoiding a requirement to get approval from the state Controlling Board. When the legislature this year passed a budget, it included a prohibition against breaking up payments in that manner. This list is compiled from voluntary submissions by parents to hospitals.
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