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New lobbyists in Ohio have strong Republican ties

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- When Republicans swept Democrats from office in Columbus last November, they triggered a political ritual among the Capitol Square crowd.

Special interests -- from business associations to gaming companies -- rushed to hire lobbyists with ties to the new government. Lobbying firms beefed up their rosters to feature GOP players. And political operatives in the winning party set out their shingles.

More than 375 new lobbyists have registered with the state since Republican John Kasich defeated Democrat Gov. Ted Strickland and the GOP regained control of the House and improved its grip on the Senate, according to a comparison of 2010 and 2011 lobbying registration rolls.

These lobbyists include Republicans new to the lobbying game, well-seasoned GOP campaign consultants and lobbyists who sat out the recent Democratic-controlled years. The bulk of the new members are state employees -- who work for officeholders or are recent appointees to boards and commissions – and are directly involved in legislative matters.

All of the new members join an army of Statehouse lobbyists that total more than 1,500, according the Office of the Legislative Inspector General, which tracks lobbying registrations.

The roster changes underscore the perception that who you know matters in Columbus. And the jockeying doesn't appear slowed by Kasich's anti-lobbyist rhetoric, which includes his now infamous epithet of entrenched special interests as people "with their snouts in the trough." Or by his warning that if they don't get on his metaphorical policy bus, he'll run them over.

Emerging lobbyists have strong GOP connections

The most prominent member of the new crop of policy pushers is Donald Thibaut , one of the governor's closest friends, who in March formed a lobbying company, the Credo Company, with another long-time GOP operative and newly registered lobbyist, Robert Kovey.

Thibaut has been a political adviser to Kasich for decades and was Kasich's chief of staff during his nearly 20 years in Congress, a point Thibaut makes on his company website .

His dozen clients include companies with a keen interest in the new Republican leadership's stated goal of reducing business regulations and privatizing aspects of state government.

Among Thibaut's clients are utility companies; GTECH, a gaming company that hopes to run the day-to-day operations of the Ohio Lottery; and Corrections Corp. of America, which operates prisons. (The budget Kasich signed last week allows six state prisons to be sold to private operators.

Business Base » Risk Management and Auto Dealer Car Lot Cleaning ...

Every small business must worry about risk management, especially service companies. It hardly matters if you are running a landscaping company, a home inspection service, or even a mobile car wash business, there are always inherent hazards of the trade. It is imperative that you reduce these risks whenever you can. As long as we’re talking about the mobile car wash business, which is something I know intimately about, having been in that sector prior to retirement, let me give you a case study and example of how risk management changes the way you do business.

First, I’d like to explain that business insurance isn’t cheap in the service sector, and the insurance costs are based on your gross revenues and sales. As you make more money, and as you have more employees your revenue should go up, and so too will your insurance costs for general liability, because it is based on a percentage. Additionally, you will need workers compensation insurance, and the more injuries you have on the job, the higher it gets. If your company is accident prone, this can cause you to actually lose money and not be able to retain a profit at all, because your workers compensation insurance rates will go through the roof.

Now then, let’s discuss a mobile car wash cleaning at auto dealership car lots, they are done twice per week. I am sure you have seen crews out cleaning the car dealerships in the morning spraying off all the cars when you drive by. The reason it is done in the morning, is the car dealerships would like to get the washing crews off the parking lot by 10 AM when customers might start showing up. This is because they don’t want the customers to trip on the hoses.

I’d like to talk about four different items of concern for mobile carwash operators worried about risk management;

* Hoses to trip on

* Ice on the ground

* Length of wands

* Damp, wet, and catching a cold considered

Not only can customers trip on the hoses, but also your employees, and it does happen, I’ve actually tripped and fallen on the hoses many times myself. More often than not I trip and catch my balance, but I’ve had skinned up knees and eaten gravel on more than one occasion. Throw in a little ice on the ground on a cold wet morning, and it’s like that song; “slip sliding away,” worse, is the fact that when you put water on the cars it drips off onto the ground, flows onto the pavement and forms the ice that you will later slip on.

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