Rooster in Review: The web we weave
Plus a Pickaway County man admits to fatally shooting a miniature pony named Cyclone in a dispute with his neighbor.
I don’t know about you. But when I am a citizen in a county where the treasurer gets paid $98,000 a year, one story I don’t want to read about them is their being on the verge of losing their home.
But that’s precisely what happened this morning before I crawled out of Hilltop Husband’s bed on Friday.
From Jordan Laird of dispatch.com:
Franklin County Treasurer Cheryl Brooks Sullivan is tied up in an ongoing legal battle as her bank tries to foreclose on her home for failure to pay her mortgage, The Dispatch has learned.
Her attorney said Brooks Sullivan is confident the case will be resolved.
As treasurer, Brooks Sullivan is responsible for collecting property taxes and other revenues owed to the county and for managing the county's investment portfolio worth more than $1 billion.
I need to know the status of Franklin County’s investment in Israel bonds before I know how much sympathy I have in my heart. Last I read in The Columbus Free Press, Brooks Sullivan said in late January that she was “uncomfortable” about reinvesting with Israel due to their downgraded credit rating and negative outlook. (Left unmentioned: The numerous war crimes committed in Gaza.)
According to the article, the invested bonds were set to mature on Feb. 4th. However, I haven’t read any reporting about Brooks Sullivan pulling the plug or reinvesting despite her concerns.
But perhaps there were warning signs in Brooks Sullivan’s past that she might be bad at managing money:
When Brooks Sullivan first became treasurer in 2017, the county struggled to buy bond insurance for her and had to pay extra. Brooks Sullivan was previously convicted of a felony in 1997. She and her ex-husbands filed for bankruptcy three times, most recently in 2011. When she took office, Brooks Sullivan readily acknowledged her past but said that's not who she is now.
I’m not saying that people don’t deserve second chances. They absolutely do. And some even deserve third, fourth, and fifth chances.
But maybe those second chances shouldn’t come as a professional public accountant when the person has three bankruptcies and a felony conviction in their past!
Another troubling sign is that local attorney Troy Doucet is representing Brooks Sullivan.
Doucet, according to multiple Columbus sources, is blacklisted by the local party in large part due to sending a mass email to the Franklin County Pary accusing now-State Representative Crystal Lett of being an anti-vaxxer.
Lett put her child on a delayed vaccine schedule, which is weird… but also a far, far cry from being an anti-vaxxer.
Doucet is Brooks Sullivan’s lawyer, which suggests that she has no political capital with the local party. And if someone is on the verge of losing their house, what are the odds that their work life is in order?
This scandal also reminds me of a current City Council candidate who had a history of financial mismanagement by going on multiple international vacations while owing the city $4,000 in paid tickets.
Will Franklin County’s beautiful property value voters learn their lesson? As always, I’m skeptical.
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DEI for me, but not for thee!
State Rep. Josh Williams led the charge to ban DEI at Ohio universities and was very proud to be the only Black man standing next to five white men when Governor Grandpa Sleepy Tea signed SB-1 into law.
But Williams and his wife accepted DEI scholarships to attend the University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University, respectively.
Williams seems to think it’s not hypocritical because he offered an amendment to save those scholarships that he knew would go nowhere. He then worked with the white legislators who killed those scholarships to gut DEI programs at Ohio universities.
I doubt Derek Merrin’s team will see it the same way when the two begin their (likely) battle to face longtime Democratic Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur in 2026.
This week in Ohio Man…
Gun zealots love to pretend that ownership of a murder machine is the only thing stopping a crazy-eyed criminal from breaking into their house and raping their family. (Gun zealots also love to fantasize about horrible things happening to their family.)
But if that were the case, insurance rates would go down for gun owners instead of up. That’s because insurance companies understand the law of large numbers, and they know it’s much more likely for a gun-owner to do something buffoonish with their murder machine than use it in home defense.
We turn to Pickaway County for the latest example.
From Adam Conn of nbc4i.com:
WILLIAMSPORT, Ohio (WCMH) – A Pickaway County man is facing charges after he allegedly shot a miniature horse, claiming that it was attacking his dog over the weekend.
According to the Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were dispatched to the 9900 block of U.S. Route 22 West in Williamsport, Ohio after receiving reports of a miniature horse shot dead. Upon arrival it was discovered that “Cyclone” was dead and appeared to have bullet holes in him.
Two days later a man called the sheriff’s office and wanted to confess to shooting the pony. That afternoon, Sgt. Tracy Andrews met with 29-year-old Kyle Hansen, of Williamsport. Hansen admitted to shooting the pony in the middle of the night, not realizing it was a pony at the time until he read a Facebook post on a Williamsport, Ohio page.
I usually wouldn’t buy the excuse that “I thought I murdered a dog, not a pony, your honor!” But I am moved by the image of Mr. Hansen, likely suffering from a massive hangover, browsing Facebook on his couch and suddenly being hit in the face with the enormity of his crimes.
RIP Cyclone. You are gone but not forgotten.
This week in The Rooster…
The Stupidity Seppuku. Well, at least the stupidest economic meltdown in world history would almost guarantee J.D. Vance will never be president.
Embattled Buckeye beat writers face new allegations of pilfering from players. Things certainly aren’t looking good for veteran Ohio State football reporters Austin Ward and Jeremy Birmingham. This dispatch is free for all.
A game of inches. The final, scrambled push to stop a sweetheart bond deal fell short at the goal line. And a North Olmsted Democratic legislator played a decisive role.
The devils in the details. Some of the shadiest suspects from the
We’ll do it on the same schedule next week.
Until then… stay frosty, my friends!
THOSE WMDs. How to relax without feeling guilty about relaxing… I should have seen this conservative movement coming… Florida waters are getting worse with runaway pollution… The truth about organic milk… Is it more important to run faster or longer?