Executive Director of the Ohio Ethics Commission David E. Freel will speak at 7 p.m., Wednesday, May 28, in the Elson Hall Auditorium on the Ohio University Zanesville Campus. The event is sponsored by the campus' Cultural Committee and is free and open to the public.
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| David Freel |
Freel has supervised and directed investigations into the conduct of state and local officials since joining the Ohio Ethics Commission as counsel in 1983. The office's investigations are often conducted jointly with federal and state agencies and special prosecutors.Executive director of the Ohio Ethics Commission since 1994, Freel served as associate director from 1987 to 1993 and later became special assistant prosecutor in ethics-related prosecutions.
Freel has written articles on Ohio's Ethics Law and given ethics presentations in the United States and Canada. He is a past president of the Council of Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL) and received the COGEL Service Award in 2002. COGEL is an international organization responsible for the administration and implementation of ethics, financial disclosure, elections, campaign finance and freedom of information laws and provisions.
In 1973, the Ohio General Assembly created the Ohio Ethics Commission as part of the Ethics Law. The law, effective Jan. 1, 1974, created new ethical standards for public officials and employees by requiring personal financial disclosure; created new restrictions upon unethical conduct with criminal sanctions; and established uniform review of ethics issues by statewide commissions of the three branches of government.
The Commission possesses the unique authority to interpret the Ohio Ethics Law and related statutes by issuing both formal and staff advisory opinions on ethics statutes. Formal opinions are issued on novel questions or questions of statewide interest. Staff opinions are responses to more routine questions, and follow Commission precedent.
For more information on this event, contact Cultural Committee Chair Sheida Shirvani at (740) 588-1499 or shirvani@ohio.edu.
