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COLUMBUS — Gov. Bob Taft, who has been a lawyer in Ohio since 1976, should be disciplined for failing to report golf outings and other gifts on his annual ethics statements, according to a complaint that the Ohio Supreme Court’s disciplinary counsel has filed.

Mr. Taft, a Republican who is the great-grandson of a U.S. president, pleaded no contest in August to four misdemeanor violations of state ethics laws.

In his court-ordered apology to Ohioans, Mr. Taft admitted that over seven years he had failed to report 45 golf outings, including one in 2002 with Toledo-area coin dealer Tom Noe, as well six other social events and a Senior Open gift set that he received from Mr. Noe.

The governor was found guilty and fined $4,000. He was the first sitting governor in Ohio to be convicted of a crime.

Jonathan Coughlan, the Supreme Court’s disciplinary counsel, said Mr. Taft violated Ohio’s code of professional conduct for lawyers, which states that a lawyer shall not “engage in any other conduct that adversely reflects on the lawyer’s fitness to practice law.” The governor could face discipline ranging from a public reprimand to a permanent loss of his law license, Mr. Coughlan said.

His law license could also be suspended for up to two years.

“A public office is a public trust,” wrote Mr. Coughlan in the five-page complaint that became public yesterday. “… Such offices are created for the public’s benefit, not for the benefit of the incumbent. Improper conduct on the part of an attorney in government service is more likely to harm the entire system of government in terms of public trust.”

Mr. Taft’s criminal convictions for violating state ethics law grew out of the scandal that erupted after The Blade reported in April, 2005, that the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation had invested $50 million in rare-coin funds controlled by Mr. Noe.

The newspaper reported that the state continued to invest in Mr. Noe’s funds despite strong concerns raised by a bureau auditor about possible conflicts of interest and whether the state’s millions were adequately protected. The state has shut down the rare-coin investment, and a Lucas County grand jury has indicted Mr. Noe on 53 felony counts that accuse him of stealing millions from the state coin funds.

Mr. Taft has hired Geoff Stern, who was the Supreme Court’s disciplinary counsel from 1993 to 1997 and is in private practice, to represent him. Mr. Stern referred questions to the governor’s office.

Mark Rickel, Mr. Taft’s press secretary, said yesterday that the governor is “hopeful that the disciplinary panel will consider that his failure to report gifts was unintentional and that he self-reported this situation to the Ethics Commission as soon as he became aware of it.”

On June 21, 2005, Mr. Taft admitted that he had failed to include golf outings on his annual financial disclosure statements after The Blade, earlier in the day, began asking questions of the governor’s office about whether Mr. Taft would try to revise his ethics statements. The Blade had learned Mr. Noe had played golf with Mr. Taft in 2002 at Toledo’s Inverness Club.

Mr. Taft has until May 3 to respond to the complaint.

Mr. Coughlan said the complaint could be resolved this year if the disciplinary counsel’s office and Mr. Taft reach a consent agreement, in which both sides agree to the facts and a sanction.

That consent agreement would require approval by the Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline and the seven-member Supreme Court.

The governor’s law license has been inactive since 2002, which means he doesn’t have to pay a registration fee or take continuing education courses.

Brian Rothenberg, a spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party, said the disciplinary counsel’s decision to file a complaint against Mr. Taft “does not come as much of a surprise, considering the governor thought it was so serious an offense that he fired people in his own cabinet for doing this. I think that Ohioans in general think it is a story that won’t end, all of this corruption. I think they are ready for change and they can’t wait for November to happen.”

John McClelland, a spokesman for the Ohio Republican Party, said: “The Democrats are doing a lot of wishful thinking lately. It’s too bad they don’t spend some of that time thinking about a substantive agenda for leading Ohio. Governor Taft isn’t on the ballot this year, and it seems to be taking a while for Democrats to cope with that.”

Mr. Taft, whose last day as governor is Jan. 7, 2007, has not set his future plans.

Contact James Drew at: jdrew@theblade.com or 614-221-0496.

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