Employers 'fined' for failing to register state lobbyists

At least six area employers have been fined for failing to register their Statehouse lobbyists, according to Legislative Inspector General Tony Bledsoe.

Bledsoe mailed certified letters today to about 40 employers statewide, notifying them of the violations. Employers were assessed $100 fees (the state doesn't call them fines) for each reporting period they failed to register last year.

The companies and their lobbyists have until June 12 to register, or face prosecution by the state Attorney General. Failure to file disclosure statements is a fourth-degree misdemeanor, punishable by fines of up to $5,000.

An Update from Bledsoe:
The fine for a fourth degree misdemeanor is $250 not $5,000. Also, the fees were accessed for failure to file the Updated Registration Statement, which is the technical name for the expenditure reports. Failure to register is a different issue.

"If the statements are filed and fee remitted no further enforcement action will be taken," Bledsoe said today. "Our goal is disclosure."

According to Bledsoe, these are the area employers that failed to register lobbyists:

-- Anderson Township Park District, $100

-- Mental Health Association of the Cincinnati Area, $400

-- Neighborhood Health Care Inc., $100

-- Richard Consulting Corp., $100. (Its president, Richard A. Weiland, is registered as a lobbyist.)

-- Working In Neighborhoods, $200. (Its executive director, Sister Barbara Busch, also was assessed a fee of $100.)

-- Monster Government Solutions of Virginia, which has offices in Cincinnati, has been referred to the Attorney General for criminal prosecution, Bledsoe said, because it failed to file any disclosure reports in 2006. It owes $300 in fees.