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Wheeler leaving panel almost two years early
Published on Sunday, Jun 22, 2008
COLUMBUS: Ted Strickland — the preacher who became governor, the compassionate bipartisan compromiser, the minority rights advocate, the voice for the poor and forgotten — has let the chair of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission sit empty for six months.
Six months, in Strickland gubernatorial years, is one-third of his time in office.
In December, Barbara Sykes resigned the position after Strickland sent a message to Republicans in the Ohio Senate that he no longer supported her appointment to the position.
Sykes had dared to defy the governor and pushed ahead for a policy that would have required small businesses to provide 90 days of unpaid leave for pregnant moms.
Strickland said he supported the policy, but wanted Sykes to slow the process down to give small businesses a chance to weigh in on the subject.
An obscure legislative panel effectively killed the policy by demanding that the commission study the costs that unpaid leave would impose upon small businesses.
To date, the analysis has not been completed.
Strickland has been silent on the subject, but his inaction on the issue and the empty chair have sent a message to minorities in the state: You're on the back burner.
Strickland not only needs to replace Sykes, but he will soon have to fill two additional vacancies on the five-member board.
On July 28, Rashmi Yajnik's term ends. He was appointed by former Gov. Bob Taft.
And another Taft appointee, Aaron Wheeler Jr., sent a letter recently to Strickland announcing he was retiring effective Oct. 31, almost two years early.
At the rate he is going it would seem Strickland will need until next spring to fill the vacancies, but over the summer he is going to have a fresh well of prospects from among term-limited lawmakers looking for a continuous paycheck and a plan to keep building their pensions.
For example, House Minority Leader Joyce Beatty, D-Columbus, has been a loyal Strickland supporter and is being considered to fill Sykes' shoes.
This appointment would create challenges for Beatty and Strickland, however, because the maternity leave problem is still sitting there like a pregnant donkey.
Beatty already has suffered a loss of stature among minorities in this state for inexplicably taking a sympathetic stand early on for payday lending companies. Her situation didn't improve when reports arose later that her husband was a paid lobbyist for the industry.
Strickland also must act at some point on the maternity leave policy he purportedly supports. If not, then the ouster of Sykes will continue to be seen as intolerance on his part against anyone who defies his authority and his caving in to small business lobbyists.
Wheeler has taken all this in and is leaving early because he is upset with the governor.
In a letter dated May 13, Wheeler wrote, ''you never had the opportunity to get to know me. I am probably the last of the civil rights advocates that marched with Dr. King while in high school and led marches in the deep South in the '60s.''
He tells the governor he fought the Ku Klux Klan in three states, and learned to fight for civil rights around the dinner table growing up in East Cleveland as a member of a proud family with eight boys.
''It is neither about the
politics nor the compensation. It is the heart to carry out good work to alleviate discrimination in this great state . . . I am a man of God first, not just a preacher, but one who will go to the streets of America to make a difference.''
Wheeler, pastor at the Mountaintop Missionary Baptist Church in Worthington near Columbus, is a Republican, but he supported the maternity leave policy that landed Sykes in hot water with Strickland.
He said he understood when Strickland replaced him as chair with Sykes, but was insulted by the method the governor used to convey the message.
''He, or at least someone in his administration, didn't call me in to talk about the change. Instead, they sent the commission's executive director to my church to tell me I was out. To my church. They treated me like I was nothing. They disrespected me,'' Wheeler said.
He immediately liked Sykes because ''she stood up for what she believes.''
The commission worked on the maternity policy for close to a year when Sykes came on board, but she took the brunt of Strickland's wrath because he wanted someone in the chair that would take orders.
Like many gubernatorial appointees, the commission members are supposed to be independent, which explains why after naming them the governor cannot fire them at will.
Fortunately for Strickland, Sykes had been on the job, but not confirmed by the Ohio Senate when the flare-up occurred.
Sykes is executive director of United Way of Ohio. Strickland appointed her to the commission last year to repay her for running unsuccessfully for auditor in 2006 against Mary Taylor.
But Sykes did more than just run statewide. She brought balance to the Democratic ticket that at one point was woefully underrepresented among minorities. Sykes also was an ambassador for Strickland in the African-American communities across Ohio.
After all, he ran against Republican J. Kenneth Blackwell, who is black. Strickland had to convince African-American voters that a white man was their better choice and Sykes was there to help.
''I didn't like the way they treated her,'' Wheeler said. ''We're an independent body. The governor's office wants to control civil rights. For all the criticism of Taft, he never stuck his nose in our business and we were very successful during his time in office.''
In the coming months, Strickland is going to travel the state once again, this time on behalf of Barack Obama, the country's first African-American nominee for president that the governor initially did not support.
He can only hope the touchy subject of civil rights doesn't come up too often.
Dennis J. Willard can be reached at 614-224-1613 or dwillard@thebeaconjournal.com.
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