Same Robber, Different Mask (Part 2)

Same Robber, Different Mask (2010)

The Ohio Association of Security & Investigative Services was founded in 1947 and incorporated in 1954 as the Ohio Association of Private Detective Agencies, Inc., a not for profit Ohio corporation. The later name change came about as security companies applied for membership and representation in the organization.

Initially, those entities were licensed by the Ohio Department of Commerce.  As with any licensing entity, their assigned task was to collect fees and regulate the industry.  They exceeded in their expectation in the collection of fees but poorly failed at the regulation of the industry. They were so good at collecting fees that the industry overpaid the State of Ohio $1.4 million dollars in licensing fees. Because of this overpayment, the industry was promised that licensing fees would never be raised.

Three problems arose with Commerce from this overpayment issue. First, when asked by the industry to increase its regulation enforcement the industry was told that there was a hiring freeze and they could not add additional personnel, even though there was a surplus. Secondly, when public records request was forwarded to Commerce to view the accounting of the licensing fees and this surplus it was repeatedly denied. And finally, when a previous administration had a budget shortfall it “stole” $400,000 from the industries surplus and moved it into the General Fund. 

Because of the industries, frustration with Commerce legislative action was taken to move the licensing and regulation of our industry to the Division of Homeland Security. This was legislative action taken by OASIS, after 9/11 that was forced upon Public Safety. Part of that legislation included wording for a Governor’s advisory commission of industry professionals to advise those in Public Safety of the difficulties of operating a successful business in Ohio without dated rules and regulations.  The commission was legislatively directed to be up and running in a year’s period.  Two years after the legislation passed the commission was still not operational and it was not until the Chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee held up Public Safety legislation and requested the then Director of Public Safety explain to the committee why the commission had not been seated. In order to forward Public Safety’s legislation, the then director relented and proceeded with the forming of said commission.

It should be pointed out here that at the time of the movement of the PI/ Security industry from Commerce to Public Safety that there remained $1, 000,000 in what was then called the rotary funds. Public Safety subsequently billed our industry $800, 000 as the cost of the move the PI/ Security industry from Commerce to Homeland Security, i.e. Public Safety.

As if the $800,000 movement fee was not enough our industry was told that the computer system used for licensing our industry was a proprietary system that could not be transferred from Commerce to Public Safety, so the industry was requested to cough up $395,000 for a new computer system. The system was acquired through a no-bid contract by the then Director of Public Safety through, a Tom Noe associate, and has never lived up to the bill of goods the industry was sold.  Since the remaining $200,000 in the rotary fund was not enough to cover the computer’s acquisition the industries license holders agreed to a $25 yearly increase in fees.   In 2010 we called this a Robber with a Different Mask.

Same Robber, Different Mask (March 2019)

Those increases in licensing fees, enacted in 2005, have now allowed the State to almost double the amount of overage paid by the PI/SG industry since the enactment of HB 230 in 2004.
Below please find the Public Records Request submitted to the Ohio Department of Public Safety regarding the above-mentioned overage and their response.
Requested:

Copies of the 2017 & 2018 profit/loss statements to include

1. 1.funds received by PI/SG from the licensing and fines from licensed and non-licensed entities
2. expenses to include the cost to the licensing entity of licensing the PI/SG industry for those two years
3. the amount of surplus (profit) made by the licensing entity for those above years
4. the entity currently maintaining those surplus funds Also a copy of the budget submitted for 2019.
Response:

The State of Ohio’s information is maintained within the confines of Ohio’s fiscal year which begins on July 1 and ends June 30. The current fiscal year is FY2019, which ends on June 30, 2019. Below is an accounting of the revenue, expenditures and cash balances for fiscal years 2017 and 2018. Cash remaining in the fund at the end of each fiscal year is retained in the fund by the State of Ohio to fund future expenses of the program.

The budget for the fiscal year 2019 is $1,794, 295 as appropriate by Ohio’s 132th General Assembly in Sub. H.B. 26.

Private Security Guard Provider Fund
Fiscal 2017 Fiscal 2018
Beginning Cash Balance 1. $ 2,641,002.25 2. $ 2,723,274.33

Revenue Receipts
Fines/Civil Penalties $ 126,537.65 $ 115,530.30
Licensing $ 1,363,268.31 $ 1,481,150.00
Other $ 0.09 $ -
Total $ 1,489,806.05 $ 1,596,680.30

Expenditures
Disbursed during the fiscal year * $ 1,407,533.97 $ 1,657,744.09


Ending Cash Balance $ 2,723,274.33 $ 2,662,210.54

This is not to say that the current administration at PI/SG doesn’t do an outstanding job in the issuance of licenses, because they do; but at what cost. When did the State become a for profit business? The ending cash balance for each year should be a zero-sum balance not an excess $.2.6 million. Where are those additional funds? Are they making interest?  The State needs to be reminded that it’s not their money. Those funds belong to the license holders who in good faith hoped that the State would spend them wisely. 

Since it was seated The Ohio Private Investigation & Security Services Commission (OPISSC) has done little if any to forward the request of the PI/SG industry to Ohio’s Director of Public Safety or those requests having for years fallen upon deaf ears. You have become accomplices in this travesty. After 14 years of existence has there been one piece of legislation moved forward to promote the professionalism or accountability of the industry? No.

You continue to hold the door open while the “Same Robber, Different Mask” continues to raid the till as the PI/SG Industry remains the redheaded stepchild and cash cow for the Ohio Department of Public Safety. You should be ashamed.

Ethics 102 or Learning How to Say NO!

               The adage for ethics was “Doing the right thing when no one was looking”. A question arises in that, if you believe in a higher deity or have a conscience then someone is always looking. You had to just look in a mirror and only be accountable to yourself or to your chosen deity to justify your actions as ethical. 

Their-in lies a problem in that every religion, business or government entity has its own set of rules and definitions as to what is presumed to be ethical.

A thought comes to mind as in the late Nancy Reagan’s campaign of “Just Say No.”  This one little word, containing just two letters is one of the hardest words or actions to complete in any language. As a grandparent have you ever tried to say “no” to a grandchild wanting a piece of candy just prior to dinner?  Where is the “harm” in that?

Wait, there’s the other adage for ethics is “Do no harm”.  But again, whose definition of “harm” do we adhere. Prisons are full of individuals who just couldn’t say no and did harm. Others build their own mental prisons because they can’t look in the mirror or inner soul. They have no or have lost their conscience; their soul.

Not a day goes by for a private investigator that they are not asked by a client to do something that would be considered unethical by someone’s standards. They must ponder, as any business person, the thought of do I make a monetary gain or “just say no”.  One of man’s many weaknesses is the inability to distinguish his needs from his greed and at what cost do you lose your conscience sell your soul.

The answer to that question is learning how to say no; no matter the cost. Nothing is worth the loss of self-respect.  One must justify to his or self what the right thing is and sometimes the right thing is just saying NO!.