Whitfield takes a direct approach to state probe

Avoiding even the appearance of impropriety is important in public service. Former Elyria Mayor Frank Whitfield rightly recognized that in a Facebook post explaining why he dropped off a cashier's check for $956.67 at Elyria City Hall over the weekend. Whitfield, an independent, intended the check to resolve questions raised by the Ohio Auditor's Office over whether he had used city funds to pay a city contractor for video used on his personal campaign social media account, including during his unsuccessful reelection bid in 2023. (Whitfield lost to now-Mayor Kevin Brubaker, a Democrat.) "I've reviewed the Auditor's report and our campaign records," Whitfield wrote. "I do not believe that there was any misuse of city resources, and I remain confident in how we conducted ourselves. That said, to avoid any appearance of impropriety, and to ensure this matter does not distract from the important work ahead, I'm addressing this directly and moving forward." To be clear, we don't know if he did anything wrong. The investigation was still ongoing when Whitfield, in town from Atlanta, where he now lives, swung by City Hall and put his check in a drop box used to collect payments to the city's Utility Department. Elyria Finance Director Ted Pileski told City Council on Monday that he had received the check. "I forwarded that information to the state Auditor's Office, so hopefully that will now be a closed matter," he said. While the check would indeed cover the debt if Whitfield owes any money, the investigation must still be completed to determine whether the former mayor broke the rules prohibiting expending city resources on campaigning. Last week, Whitfield insisted in a statement that the majority of videos posted to his campaign page "were either self-produced or reposts of content from other pages." The city contractor wasn't hired during the campaign to produce video for his reelection effort, he argued. That's different from what the Auditor's Office wrote last month in a letter to the city's insurance company, Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services, Inc., about a proposed finding for recovery of $956.67. Such findings are issued by the Auditor's Office when public officials are found to have misspent public dollars. The contractor, the letter said, was hired to produce promotional content for the city, but Whitfield "used the city contract with (the contractor) to produce content for his personal social media account, which is outside the parameters of the intended contractual work." Some of that content "related to posts and events solely appearing on Mr. Whitfield's campaign Facebook page," Melissa Barnett, a senior forensic audit manager, wrote in the letter. Again, we don't know whether Whitfield crossed the line. To have a better sense of the matter, the public will need to wait and see what the investigation turns up. Whitfield expressed confidence in his Facebook post that he would be vindicated. "If the investigation concludes as I expect, with no findings of wrongdoing, my request is that the City apply these funds to support Elyria's residents," he wrote. If Whitfield did nothing wrong, we don't see why he should be out nearly $1,000, but it's his call whether to seek reimbursement from the city. If Whitfield did break the rules, he's ahead of the game when it comes to fixing a mistake. As appearances go, it was a decent way to deal with something that he correctly predicted might have become a distraction, both for the city and himself.