State replaced $51,000 worth of office furniture as Taft left

By Mark Niquette
Besides leaving behind more than $44,000 in office-related bills, Gov. Bob Taft’s staff also initiated the


purchase of more than $51,000 for new furniture before leaving office, records show.
The furniture included several chairs, lamps, tables and bookcases for the 30th floor of the Riffe Center — ranging from a $233 keyboard tray to a light cherry executive desk for $2,683.
Gov. Ted Strickland’s staff had input on the purchases, which were made to replace old or worn-out items, Strickland spokesman Keith Dailey said. But former Taft chief of staff Jon Allison said Taft’s staff put in the order to accommodate the incoming administration and that Strickland’s staff picked out the furniture.
And although Strickland’s office is counting the purchases as coming out of Taft’s budget, Allison said there is one two-year budget for the governor’s office.
“If the new administration is dissatisfied with the furniture they picked out and are sitting in, they’re allowed to return it and not pay the bill,” Allison said.
Strickland’s staff says it has spent about $8,000 so far on the governor’s facilities, according to documents provided by his office.
That includes $5,861 for audio-visual equipment in the governor’s conference room in the Riffe Center and $925 in new furniture in the development director’s office for Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher.
The largest bill left behind by Taft’s administration is $32,395 by the Cochran Group to help produce a glossy book chronicling Taft’s achievements.
That includes 1231/2 hours of work by a Cochran executive vice president at $210 an hour and 34 hours of work by a senior account manager at $190 an hour, records show.
Strickland’s staff is reviewing the outstanding invoices and has started paying them, Dailey said. They have not gone as far as former Gov. George V. Voinovich, who in early 1991 canceled a planned $120,000 project on the administration of Gov. Richard F. Celeste.