When a thorny problem comes up, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine calls on friends and experts to quickly size up the issue and draft recommendations.
Since he took the oath of office in January 2019, DeWine has appointed two dozen working groups to wrestle with issues such as school bus safety and nursing home safety. Task forces are as much as DeWine's brand as homemade pie, baseball and grandkids.
"It's a way to focus on particular problems and come up with practical solutions that will work," DeWine said. He added "I think with every task force we've been able to do something that was positive."
The latest groups are working on property tax reforms and how to restrict SNAP recipients from using the program to buy sugary drinks.
Not surprisingly, a chunk of the 24 working groups has focused on issues near and dear to DeWine: children, health and safety, and criminal justice. Some of DeWine's appointed groups are spurred by investigative journalism such as a Cincinnati Enquirer, Columbus Dispatch, Akron Beacon Journal and Canton Repository investigation into conditions in Ohio’s youth prisons, and Dispatch projects on failures in how missing persons are handled, and problems with outstanding warrants.
Here’s a list of working groups launched by DeWine:
2025: Public safety in state parks; property tax reform; Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program; missing persons.
2024: Diversion from state mental health hospitals; children's vision screening and eyeglasses.
2023: Juvenile detention and youth prisons; school bus safety; nursing home quality and accountability.
2022: Volunteer fire service.
2021: Racial disparities in infant mortality.
2020: COVID-19; traffic safety.
2019: Home Visitation for newborns; Mental health and drug abuse; minority health; criminal warrants; Medical Board's handling of Dr. Richard Strauss case; school safety; oversight of people released from prison; foster care system; Ohio State Fairgrounds upgrades; preventing lead poisoning; transportation infrastructure.
"Yeah, I like it. I think it works. We're going to continue to do them," DeWine said.
Some of the task forces resulted in change. Ohio plans to close its larger youth prisons and replace them with smaller, closer-to-home facilities. The State Medical Board reopened 91 cases of sexual assault allegations against licensed medical professionals.
And one of DeWine's earliest task forces, established when he was attorney general, made recommendations on how to clear an enormous backlog of untested rape kits held in evidence rooms by local police departments.
As governor, John Kasich didn't use working groups very often, but Bob Taft did. Calling in outside advisors can broaden input and support for recommendations, said Jon Allison, who served as Taft's chief of staff.
"My observation has been that Bob Taft and Mike DeWine kind of come out of the same era of governing," said Allison. "He loved a good blue ribbon task force. And as snarky as I could be about them, I'd say they absolutely have a legitimate place."
State government reporter Laura Bischoff can be reached at [email protected] and @lbischoff on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine appoints a lot of task forces
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