Saturday, May 30, 2009

IS BARB JOHNSON ROBBING THE TAX PAYERS?

Is Barb Johnson robbing the tax payers?

In this article we showed you how Barb Johnson has not done a damn thing while she has been in office for the past 20 years. That’s NOTHING, NADA, ZILCH! ! And to top it off, she herself could not even name 3 accomplishments that she has done in those 20 years in office!

Now if that’s not bad enough, take a look at how much money Erie County has paid Johnson over the past 20 years to do NOTHING! ! Her salary is $53,214 per year. Multiply that by 20 and you get a whopping $1,064,280 that Erie County has paid her over the past 20 years for doing……NOTHING! ! ! (SIDE NOTE: It's been 7 months since the election and she still has done.....NOTHING! ! END SIDE NOTE). Now add on these next 4 years and you would add on another $212,856 to that $1,064,280 price tag (or $1,277,136). Now grant it, this figure might be a bit high because I’m pretty sure she wasn’t paid $53,214 twenty years ago, but that figure is pretty darn close.

Here’s another idea; for fun let’s add in the $700,000 in uncollected court fines and fees (personally, I have good reason to believe that amount is closer to 1.5 – 2 million...or even higher than that, but I’ll investigate that sometime in the future) and she has cost Erie County tax payers a WHOPPING $1,764,280! ! ! That’s almost TWO MILLION DOLLARS thrown out the window. If you would include her salary at the end of this present 4 year term, that would end up at $1,977,136.

Now I know some people will say that during those 20 years, Johnson first took time away from work to take care of her ailing father, then after he passed away, her ailing husband until he passed away. Well, how many of us would have the luxury of not going to work for that long while taking care of sick relatives and still get paid? Why didn’t she just retire (or quit) so that she could take care of her sick relatives instead of collecting her weekly pay check while not doing any work for so long? After all, that’s what the rest of us would have had to do. But no, instead, we the citizens and tax payers of Erie County paid for her to take care of her sick relatives. That was awfully nice of us to do, don’t you think? DAMN, I wish I had a job like that! !

So back to my original question: Is Barb Johnson robbing the tax payers? My answer is an emphatic YES, YES, YES! ! ! And if you disagree with me, I’d love to hear from you as to why.

To you the voter I ask: Does this look like she is doing the job that she was elected by YOU THE VOTERS AND TAX PAYERS of Erie County to do?

I’m not sure what next weeks’ article will be (there is just soooo much to choose from), but I can guarantee that it will be worth the time to read.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

HOW DID JOHNSON WIN?

Here at Clerk of Court Watch we have analyzed how Barbara Johnson won a 6th term after having such a dismal 20 years in office. How could this happen? She had an opponent in Steven Schaeffer who had a very well thought out and planned course of action of what he would do to fix that office (to bring it into the 21st century) if he were elected. Unfortunately, his election to that office did not happen.

Why?

Well, there are several reasons and hopefully future opponents will heed this analysis to promote their campaigns.

Johnson is a very difficult person to beat because:

1) She’s an incumbent: This is nothing new, but incumbents are VERY difficult to unseat. This seems to be true the longer they are in office (Remember former Judge Anne Maschari?). So with Johnson’s 20 plus year reign, this was a very big hurtle for any opponent to jump over.

2) She’s a woman: People tend to be more sympathetic and forgiving towards a
woman and when you have a man running against her, this becomes a reality.

3) She’s black: blacks who were previously not registered voters turned
out in droves to register and vote in the 2008 election. Why? One name: Barack
Obama. As a result, these voters (who normally would not be out voting) also voted for Johnson.

4) Johnson is a democrat and Erie County is a highly democrat county. The truly sad part of that is the fact that Erie County is so democrat, that many of them vote strictly party line; going into the voting booth and just looking for the big “D” instead of voting for the person who is the best for the job. This kind of “blind voting” hurts the citizens and the government, because these voters do not vote for the best candidate. This “blind voting” is not what our founding fathers had in mind because they thought that we would vote with our brains, not our “party.”

5) Name Recognition: She does seem to have name recognition. This goes hand in hand with being an incumbent. However, before the 2008 election, if you ask the average Joe Schmoe on street to name the current Erie County COC, probably only about 1% of the population would be able to do so. If you ask anyone by the end of this year who the current COC is, even those 1% probably won’t be able to tell you. The same holds true for County Auditor, Treasurer, Recorder; they just are not high profile offices like Commissioners or the Prosecutor are. Anyone who runs against Barb will need to get their name out EARLY & OFTEN. This includes, but not limited to getting in as many parades and other public events as possible.

One more interesting thought that our friends at Firelands 411 touched on in their article on May 11, 2009 “Getting Ahead of the Campaign Curve.”

In the article, Firelands 411 makes the following excellent point, “An election turn off (for me anyway) in local elections is feeling like I don’t really know the candidates. This is ironic because you’d think that because it’s a local election we’d be more familiar because the candidate is from our area……locally if you don’t personally know the candidate, chances are you’re casting a vote because you were hooked by name recognition, campaign literature or one of their friend’s obligatory letter-to-the-editor. (Do I really care what his friend says? I don’t know him either.).”


6) Campaign stradegy: While other candidates that run against Mrs. Johnson put their campaign signs out 2 months before the election, it seems that Johnson need only put her signs out 2-3 weeks before (being the procrastinator that she is), and she still wins! To some extent, this has to do with name recognition that we mentioned above. I must say, that her procrastination did help her campaign in a HUGE way when she sent out a mailing (her campaign brochure) to every home in Erie County the Saturday before the election. This probably did a lot to keep her name fresh in the voters mind. For once, her procrastination paid off!


There are a few other points to consider as well:
1) Just because the Sandusky Register and the Morning Journal endorsed Schaeffer and wrote other articles in favor of him, this really didn’t mean anything to the voters. I don’t know if it’s because people reading these newspapers don’t value (or don’t care about) their endorsements, or that the people of Erie County don’t really read politics in the paper.

2) There was a lot of blogging going on in the comment section on the SR articles. I have a suspicion that many of those bloggers posted comments under different names numerous time making it look like it was many different individuals. However, in reality, I don’t think that many people read the comment blogs on the SR web site.

I have a few other points as well that I would be willing to share with any individual that would be running against Johnson in 2012. If interested, contact me at votejohnson.out12@yahoo.com . I don’t want to share too much information with Johnson as I am sure she or her campaigners read this blog to get as much information as possible.

This is not an insurmountable task. After all, Judge Tygh Tone defeated long term incumbent and woman, former Judge Anne Maschari. However, to do that, Tone implemented many of the tactics mentioned above and more.

Next weeks article: “Is Johnson Robbing the Tax Payers?”

WHERE HAVE THE JOHNSON SUPPORTERS GONE?

I would like the readers to know that it has been 1 week since I continued the debate with the Johnson supporter in this article where they challenged me.

To date, that person has yet to respond to what I wrote. I guess they just can’t come up with any evidence to back up what they say like I do. Actually, their silence alone speaks volumes! ! What else can I say? when I'm right, I'm right, and when the Johnson supporters are wrong, they just can’t come back with anything to the contrary.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

COMMENTS ON COMMENTS: 2

Here are a few more comments on good comments that were made while I was on vacation and didn’t have the opportunity to address them at that time.

Anonymous "ERIE COUNTY PROSECUTOR SUES THE SANDUSKY REGISTER":
”She really is a lazy person.”

I have thought this out over the past week, because in last week's post I stated the same; that she was lazy and not a good manager. Now, perhaps the anonymous poster above was stating that she is a lazy person because they knows Johnson personally. But the more I think about this “laziness” issue, I don’t think that she is at all lazy.

I think she is overwhelmed by that office. I don’t think she can handle it especially after she herself let it get so out of hand over the past 20 years. She is overwhelmed and doesn’t know where to start to clean up that office. I don’t think she is lazy, however, I still think that she is a horrendous manager and has ZERO leadership skills. Otherwise, she would know how to clean up her own mess. Her opponent in the November 2008 election, Steve Schaeffer, not only had management and leadership skills (his service in the U.S. Army and his working EVERYDAY in the court house), he had a plan to clean up Johnson’s mess. So this doesn’t have anything to do with laziness, but has everything to do with zero management and leadership skills.

Anonymous on "OPEN THREAD":
”I'm a Johnson supporter I think she is doing a great job as COC. She is definitely more qualified than that Schaeffer guy was! And she had alot more experience than he did too. The voters of Erie County knew what they were doin when they re-elected Barbara. She for sure is the right person for that job hands down! Mr. Editor, I'll debate that with you (as you say), "anytime, anywhere."

One more thing, this site is crap because of all the LIES you are putting up about Barbara. Somebody needs to get a life when they get back from the ‘Carabean.’”


To this anonymous poster I want to ask: May I have some of that stuff you’re smoking to be in your fantasyland? Johnson has no experience in that office. Oh yea, she has been clerk for 20 plus years, but what has she accomplished? Remember this article?

Also, for those 20 years, she was rarely in the office, so where does all this experience come into play that you are so eager to jump on?

More qualified than Schaeffer? I addressed this above.

The voters of Erie County had NO IDEA what they were doing when they re-elected her. I will have an article posted next week about how and why she got re-elected.

If you think that, “this site is crap because of all the lies,” then please tell us what I have posted that is a lie. I have a ton of information up here, so pick one and tell us why it’s a lie. Just be sure to have facts to back up what you say. Or, are you going to be like Barb was when she was asked to name 3 accomplishments in 20 years, and “dance” around the “lies?” Or, are you just going to ignore this all together because you have no facts to back up your accusations of lies? I have taken you up on your offer. The debate is on. If you truly want to debate me, then we’ll be waiting for your reply.


Anonymous "ERIE COUNTY PROSECUTOR SUES THE SANDUSKY REGISTER":

”I believe that she should be removed from office for dereliction of duty. She is just as corrupt and inept as Maschari is.”

I agree that she is just as inept as former Judge Anne Maschari was. However, I don’t think neither Maschari nor Johnson are corrupt. I know that neither has (or had in the case of Maschari) a clue as to how to run the office that they are (were) in. The voters finally wised up to Maschari. Now it’s time for the citizens of Erie County to wise up to Johnson.

To you the voter I ask: Does this look like she is doing the job that she was elected by YOU THE VOTERS AND TAX PAYERS of Erie County to do?

Next weeks article: “How Did Johnson Win?”

Saturday, May 9, 2009

COMMENTS ON COMMENTS: 1

An anonymous poster on “Next Weekend Articles” article said,

“…why ‘insiders’ are eager to basically ‘rat on Johnson’….”

I get VERY LITTLE information from “Insiders.” I get 99% of my information from just being in the office several times a week and carefully observing. And when I’m on vacation, I have others (NOT from "inside" the office) that can do the same while I’m gone. I don’t use “Inside” information because I don’t want to put anyone’s job in jeopardy.



In the article “Areas of Concern 1: Attendance” ANOTHER anonymous poster wrote:
“…but I'll bet she never did anything illegal or went along with conspiracies to do cover up anything illegal. She just doesn't seem the type.”

You are absolutely correct, I do not believe that she did anything willingly or knowingly illegal or went along with conspiracies to cover anything illegal. You’re right again, she isn’t the type. She is just lazy and a horrendous manager.

ANOTHER anonymous poster wrote in the same article:
“I think this blog is excellent but I would like to make a suggestion.

I think this should be done to ALL the elected public officials in Erie County. Is the Prosecutor doing HIS job? How about the Assistant Prosecutors? How about the Common Pleas Court Judges? How about the Probate Judge? Are they doing THEIR jobs? How many vacations do they get a year? Are they in the office everyday? Are they following the laws that they took an oath to uphold or are they using their power to their own dishonest advantage? How about the Sheriff, the Auditor, the County Engineer and the Recorder? Are they doing their jobs? Are they in the office everyday? Are permanent records disappearing from the Recorder's office like records disappear from the COC's?

I THINK IT'S TIME TO START MONITORING ALL OF THESE ELECTED PUBLIC OFFICIALS.”

Thanks for the compliment Julie R.

I couldn’t agree more! I too think that web sites should be done to ALL elected officials to hold them accountable. However, the Assistant Prosecutors position that you listed is hired by the prosecutor; it is not an elected position.

How many vacations do they get and/or take a year and are they in the office everyday? Well, according to the Ohio Revised Code, an elected official only needs to be in the office one day out of 90. Yep, 1 day every three months! ! ! Well, elected officials USUALLY do not take advantage of that law except for Johnson in her first 5 terms when she was RARELY in the office. Now as for other elected officials (at least in Erie County), I know that they do not take advantage of that law because they actually want to do a good job and show “achievements” while in office; something Johnson was never interested in doing.

Are they doing their jobs? I must say that they are doing a much better job than Johnson because there are so many complaints about how her office is run. I don’t hear those complaints about other elected officials except from Julie R.

Julie R also commented,
“In addition, we might want to start monitoring one or more of the employees in the COC office.......”

Well, first of all, they are doing the best job they can with ZERO leadership. I give those girls a ton of credit for doing their job as well as they do (being soldiers in the field with no General to lead them). Let’s face it, Johnson has never been a manager or a leader for that office. Those girls are there fending for themselves. I don’t see what good monitoring Johnson’s employees will do when frankly, she doesn’t give a damn. That office will only be as good as it’s leader and for the past 20 plus years, they have had NO leader.


ANOTHER anonymous poster commented in the same article:

“5 prior terms and she has had no achievements? I think she should retire NOW! If not, that office will be in an even WORSE MESS by the time this term is over nobody will want it! Disgusting......”

I agree, she should have retired YESTERDAY! As a matter of fact, she shouldn’t have even run for reelection! What was the purpose of that? Of having the “prestige” in holding that office? Yes, the longer she is in office, the worse the mess will be. However, I’m sure there is some good-hearted soul out there somewhere that would be willing to take that office and turn it around. After all, her opponent Steve Schaeffer was willing to do it if he had won.

To you the voter I ask: Does this look like she is doing the job that she was elected by YOU THE VOTERS AND TAX PAYERS of Erie County to do?

Side Note: There are 5 “anonymous” comments in this article. As you can see, it’s hard to put an identity to these comments as I mentioned in this article. It just makes it a lot easier to ID posts if people would put a name to them; even if it’s a factious name (such as John Doe, Julie R, Cross, Buff, or the many others that post on the Sandusky Register web blogs). End of Side Note.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, we have gone a bit long with this article, so I’ll stop here. But we will continue where we left off next week, so stay tuned! ! !

Friday, May 8, 2009

LET'S GET SOME ID ON THE COMMENTS

Most people have been posting under "anonymous" in the comment section which is fine. The only problem with that is that it's impossible to have an "ID" (or associate an individual) with the post, especially if one person posts about a particular topic. I am hoping that with future posts, instead of clicking on "anonymous," that people will make up a name, or URL and post under that name every time. This will give each poster an "ID" much like on the Sandusky Register website, so we have a particular individual attached to comments rather than a mass of random "anonymous." And you can do this without having to register to post comments (unlike on the SR site)! ! !

To do this, after you've finished writing your comment, 1) click on "Comment As" arrow; 2) Click on "Name/URL;" 3) under "Edit profile" type in either your name or URL; 4) Click on "Continue;" 5) Then continue as you would normally to finish posting your comment.

Just a reminder to follow the 3 rules in the "Commenting Guidelines" in the sidebar. I have had to delete some comments because they were off topic.

NEW NAME: SAME SITE, FORMAT, & INFORMATION

A reader suggested to me that I change the name of this site because the "Remove Barb Johnson From Office" sounded a little to.....well....harsh or hostile, or something that should be done now. So, after much thought and consideration, I think they were correct. This site is so that she does not get reelected in 2012. We are not necessarily trying to get her removed now with a recall petition (but if she were to retire now, that would be perfectly fine with us).

This site is to "watch" her; to keep an eye on her; to hold her accountable for not doing her job. Then if she does decide to run for reelection in 2012, her opponents(democrats and republicans) can use any or all of the information on this site against her. With her track record, after 20 years of not doing anything in the COC office, I'm willing to bet my first born male child that she won't do anything these next 4 years either.

So here it is; New name, but the same site, with the same format, and the same never-ending flow of information and insight.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

JOHNSON'S ACHIEVEMENTS OVER THE PAST 20 YEARS

Well, I got this up sooner than I thought.

If you were at the same elected important government job for 20 years, I bet that you could list several, if not many achievements that you did in those 20 years. Well......read on.........

I was at one of the community candidate forums where a VERY interesting question was asked, “ Excluding moving the office from the 3rd & 2nd floor to the 1st floor, please Name 5 accomplishments that you have done in that office in the past 20 years.” (I wish I could take credit for THAT one!).

Well, she NEVER answered the question! ! She “hoe & hummed” and said a lot of “flowery – puffy” things, she even talked about moving her offices from the 2nd & 3rd floors to the first floor (which she was asked not to talk about), but she COULD NOT answer the question! ! (she also did not use a microphone – I think on purpose so that people could not hear her answers). How sad is that? Being in office for 20 years, and you don’t have any accomplishments that you can brag about! ? ! ? ! ?

It doesn’t stop there. There were times, during the campaign, on the SR blogs, that bloggers posted the same question (perhaps by the same person?). First they started with 5 accomplishments, but then they took it down to 3 (THREE) accomplishments, and neither Johnson nor her supporters could list any accomplishments.

If you can’t name THREE accomplishments in 20 years in office, what the hell are you getting paid for? Oh, that’s right, I forgot, for the first 20 years, she was RARELY in the office, so she couldn’t have made any accomplishments! Now, she’s in the office everyday and she STILL isn’t accomplishing ANYTHING! ! ! It is now the beginning of May, 2009, and what has she accomplished since she was called out on this in October & November of 2008? That’s ok, I’ll wait………[crickets chirping]……………..[crickets chirping]…………….[crickets chirping]………….that’s correct NOTHING! ! !

If you want to see some of the blogging on this, go here.

One blogger “John R.” seems to have a real grasp on things! I suspect he is either an attorney or works for a title company. His really good posts are Oct. 10 at 3:36 and Oct. 14 at 7:46 AM

There is also an “interesting” post on Oct. 10 at 11:12 that I think we pretty much de-bunked in our series “Records on Line: Ohio’s 88 Counties.”

How sad. Twenty Years of receiving tax payer money, and not a single achievement to show for it. I suspect the reason why the person asking that question at the candidate forum did not want to include the moving of the offices is because that was such a dismal disaster! Moving those offices from a small office where they were literally "bursting at the seams" to a SMALLER office! I think the person asking the question was trying to cut Johnson some slack...but then she went on to talk about it anyway! And in turn slit her own political throat. Unfortunately, it was only a flesh wound because most of the public did not pick up on it and voted her in again anyway!

I’m not sure what next week’s article will be. But I can guarantee that it will be worth reading! Perhaps, I will comment on the comments while I was on vacation.

Friday, May 1, 2009

NEW ARTICLE COMING SOON

I just got back into town. I'll have the new article up either Sunday or Monday. Stay tuned! !