TIES THAT BIND: The PD's story this morning headlined "Bureau deals reek of old ties" adds an obscure link among George Forbes, BWC CFO Terry Gasper, and Cleveland-cop-turned-broker Patrick White to the ongoing Bureau of Workers' Comp saga.

But I don't think anyone has noticed another "old tie" behind this story, also going back to Cleveland City Hall in the 1980's.

The PD story says that "White and Forbes met in 1980, when White was a police officer assigned to cover Cleveland City Council and Forbes was council president". It doesn't mention that 1980 was also the first year of the mayoralty of one George Voinovich. And it doesn't mention that Voinovich's chief of staff -- the guy who had to go over to the other side of City Hall and deal with the iron-fisted Forbes -- was one James Conrad.

Yup, that James Conrad. The one who resigned as BWC boss a couple of weeks ago. The one the Toledo Blade described as "a veteran top state bureaucrat whose nickname was 'Mr. Fix-it'". The one former Democratic PUCO Chairman Henry Eckhart was talking about in that same Blade article:

One of the major ironies is that the figures linked to the Bureau of Workers' Compensation scandal were appointed by then-Governor Voinovich, now a U.S. senator, Mr. Eckhart said.

Mr. Taft didn't sweep all Voinovich appointees out of state government when he took office in 1999, and Mr. Eckhart suspects the reason is business interests wanted the "pro-employer" Mr. Conrad in charge of the Bureau of Workers' Compensation.

Conrad followed Voinovich to the Governor's Office in 1990, was eventually appointed by his patron to run the BWC, then stayed on when Voinovich ascended to the Senate. Forbes ran for mayor in 1989 and lost, then "retired from public life" to a lucrative and influential law practice... whence he was eventually appointed vice-president of the BWC Oversight Commission. And his daughter got a job with a Pittsburgh firm that handled and lost lots of BWC funds. And... well, you know the rest of the story.

See this Columbus Free Press piece for an entertaining, if not necessarily reliable, reminiscence of Forbes' dealings with Voinovich and Conrad in the good old days at 601 Lakeside. (Scroll down to the section called "Silly Council", paragraph 2.) The writer says George F. made George V. cry at the committee table.

But who's crying now?