As he prepares to depart, Dave Yost regrets not scrutinizing JobsOhio more while AG

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has admitted that, while he is proud of his and his team’s record since he took office in 2019, he regrets not continuing an investigation into JobsOhio, the state’s controversial economic development arm.

JobsOhio has been plagued by questions about its record, questions that reemerged following a recent scandal that led to the resignation of The Ohio State University’s president.

“One of my biggest regrets is not having taken the fight against JobsOhio’s opaqueness from the auditor’s office into this office,” Yost told The Blade of Toledo in an interview about the nonprofit that is funded through state liquor profits and was meant to bring jobs to the state.

Yost announced his resignation, effective on June 7. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Ohio Department of Public Safety Director Andy Wilson to the post until voters elect a new attorney general in November.

While serving as Ohio auditor, Yost confronted former Gov. John Kasich, the man behind the creation of JobsOhio back in 2011, and leaders of the Ohio General Assembly over the authority to audit the organization’s finances, but later abandoned the idea.

“I just kind of concluded that was no longer my issue and stopped talking about it,” he said. “The recent scandal with the podcast suggests that … my concerns were well-founded, and we should have been thinking more carefully about this.”

Yost referred to the scandal involving former Ohio State President Ted Carter, who resigned after OSU investigators revealed that he had an inappropriate relationship with Krisanthe Vlachos and helped her secure a $60,000 JobsOhio contract for four podcast episodes, with only one being released.

JobsOhio spokesman Matt Englehart defended his employer to the Toledo newspaper, saying that JobsOhio is one of the most transparent nonprofits in the United States.

“JobsOhio has clearly and consistently reported its business metrics and financial information since its inception and earned numerous recognitions — including Candid’s Platinum Seal of Transparency,” Englehart told The Blade. “JobsOhio remains committed to publicly sharing as much information as possible while maintaining Ohio’s competitive advantage in attracting jobs and investment.”

Yost said that being one of the most transparent nonprofits in the country is nothing to brag about because “that’s not a high bar.”

Yost, who previously co-wrote an op-ed published in The Columbus Dispatch, in which he criticized JobsOhio, told The Blade that he supports the nonprofit and its mission in theory, but pointed out that he cannot support it in practice due to various factors, including the lack of transparency, which eventually resulted in the exposed scandal.

“They’re still playing with public money, even though it washed through the bond market, so it’s now magically private money — there is no JobsOhio, there is no private money without the public monopoly proceeds,” Yost told The Blade. “The public has a greater interest in transparency at JobsOhio than they’d want to allow.”

Ohio lawmakers in both chambers introduced two bills to increase transparency at the nonprofit, House Bill 779 and Senate Bill 420, but neither received a committee hearing yet.

“After a yearslong relationship full of promises, communities like mine have yet to see the job creation or investment they deserve,” state Rep. Justin Pizzulli, R-Franklin Furnace, a co-sponsor of HB 779, said in a release. “There must be public accountability and real transparency to deliver results for our constituents.”