Councilman K. C. Collette
K. C. Collette (3rd Ward) never thought crap would hit the fan when he recently applied for a new job in Florida. It seems that the 7 term Findlay City councilman and assistant Hancock county prosecutor was arrested twice in the 1990’s for soliciting a prostitute in Florida. While I think that someone convicted of a misdemeanor shouldn’t be precluded from serving as an elected official, lying by omission about the crimes, when the county first hired him in 1996 and when he ran for council, does lead me to think he needs to resign his offices.
According to the Findlay OH Courier, Collette was arrested in 1993 and 1995 and plead no-contest both times. He had to perform community service each time and get counseling after the 2nd conviction. It also seems that the current County Prosecutor Mark Miller didn’t know about the convictions and the man who originally hired him, Robert Fry, now a Municipal Court judge knew about the 1993 arrest but not the 1995 one.
The crimes happened 19 and 17 years ago and it doesn’t appear that Collette has had any legal problems since then so I don’t feel those arrests should keep him from his current job. However, his lying by omission should lead him to the conclusion he needs to resign both his prosecutor job and his council seat even if that ethical problem doesn’t automatically lead to the loss of either or both jobs.
Collette is in two jobs of trust and the fact that he lied about his criminal past calls into question his ethics and integrity. The moral high road is he should resign.
The other reason he should resign is the reasonable question that if Robert Fry had known about the 2nd conviction would he have hired him in the first place and if the voters of the 3rd Ward had all the information about Collette, would they have elected him.
That question will be a black cloud over Collette unless and until he resigns.
Another interesting note besides the comments on The Courier website, from readers trying hard to rationalize keeping him in his elected job, is the bit in the article that noted Collette’s major cause while on council was trying to keep adult-oriented businesses out of Findlay and Hancock County’s townships by zoning them into desolate industrial areas in hopes they would wither and die off with no regular store traffic.
This seems to a common Republican operating procedure – the thing they scream and kick about the most is related to their membership in the thing they are trying to outlaw – besides adult bookstores there is also Republicans trying ban abortion and gay rights.
I call it Hypocritical Governance.
