OHIO-Gov. puts ODJFS Chief on leave over Illegal Records Search on “Joe the Plumber”

Gov. Ted Strickland said today he is placing Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, on paid administrative leave “due to the possibility, as yet unconfirmed, that a state computer or state e-mail account was used to assist in political fund-raising.”

Strickland’s office said the matter surfaced in a review of agency e-mail in response to a public-records request. The governor has asked Inspector General Tom Charles to include it in his current, ongoing investigation of confidential state records being accessed involving Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, otherwise known as “Joe the Plumber” of suburban Toledo.

Cabinet Secretary Jan Allen has been asked to serve as acting director of the agency.