COLUMBUS: Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel hasn’t attended a single monthly meeting of the powerful but mundane state board that decides which banks will hold billions in state deposits.
It’s common to send a designee to most meetings, but the total absence of Mandel, a first-term Republican, makes him unique among modern-era treasurers.
Meeting minutes, news clippings, and interviews by The Associated Press show every state treasurer since at least the early 1980s has some record of attending the Board of Deposit in person. The treasurer serves as chair.
Mandel spokesman Seth Unger said Mandel has a top-notch chief financial officer whom he sends to the meetings.
Unger points to the treasury’s strong financial performance and high credit ratings as evidence Mandel isn’t neglecting his duties.
