City Council also-rans could be in ethics trouble

For all the talk about the record-breaking list of 31 City Council candidates on Tuesday's ballot, there are a few candidates who seem to have put forth minimal effort to campaign.

Some have failed to even file even the minimum paperwork required of a candidate. As of Nov. 3, independents William Barron, Antonio Hodge, Ishaq Nadir and Victor Phillips had not yet filed financial disclosure statements with the Ohio Ethics Commission. They are due 30 days before the election, and are intended to give the public information about potential conflicts of interest.

If you want to know whether the commission takes these reports seriously, ask Charterite Nick Spencer, who briefly had a warrant issued for his arrest last year for failing to file in 2003. Spencer came clean and the charges were eventually dropped.