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Lawmaker Wants to Penalize Elected Officials Who Don't Show up to Work

A photo of Rep. John Becker
OHIO LEGISLATURE
Rep. John Becker

A new bill in the Ohio House would crack down on elected officials at all levels who fail to show up to do those jobs.

The bill proposed by State Rep. John Becker (R-Union Township, Clermont County) would require elected officials to be present in their office at least five days out of 30 in a month or they could lose those positions.

“The elected officials that go to Florida and they are there all winter, they go to Mackinaw or someplace and they are there all summer, and they are simply gone for months at a time, that’s what it is going to prevent,” Becker said.

Becker said there would be exceptions for those who are absent due to legitimate illness. He said this bill could include elected officials at local and state levels. Becker said his bill could be passed as a stand-alone measure or could be included into the state budget bill.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.