Someone must take ownership of the infraction
Until shortly after 5 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1, to the best of my recollection, I had never clicked on Highland County Commissioner Tom Horst's "link" at the county's publicly funded government website, www.co.highland.oh.us.
Although I have visited the county website, quite frankly, I had no reason to click on the links of commissioners Jeremy Shaffer, Shane Wilkin or Tom Horst (in order of their appearance at the commissioners' website). I have their emails in my address folder and I see them every Wednesday.
Nonetheless, on Thursday afternoon, The Highland County Press began receiving calls and emails that the link for Commissioner Horst took the online user directly to the commissioner's political website.
And, indeed, it did.
The links for commissioners Shaffer and Wilkin would take the user to the commissioners' respective public e-mail addresses. However, the link for commissioner Horst would direct the user to Horst's political campaign website – which is a clear violation by someone.
As incredulous as this seemed to me when I clicked on the commissioner's link, I asked my co-workers to try it from their computers, thinking that maybe it was some sort of Halloween prank.
It wasn't.
Everyone who went to the website saw the same thing: A direct link to Commissioner Horst's campaign site.
My first call was to Highland County Prosecutor Anneka Collins. She confirmed that the link did re-direct the online visitor to the political website. She said it was a "very serious situation."
It is.
My next call was to Commission President Shane Wilkin. I left a voice message and sent an e-mail.
Since this was all taking place on a circulation Thursday evening, I left it at that for the time being, and went to work on the unloading of more than 17,000 newspapers and Real Estate Monthly publications.
Perhaps two hours later, I called commissioner Horst and was told he was at the county commissioners' office. I called the office and no one answered.
A few minutes later, commissioner Wilkin called my home number and told me he was arriving at the commissioners' office after having spoken with the prosecutor about the website issue.
As we reported Friday morning, Wilkin said that commission clerk Beth Bell "does most of the uploading" to the commissioners' website. He said that Thursday was the first time he was aware of the political link from the county website.
Horst said on Thursday that he, Wilkin and Bell, along with Greystone Systems were looking into how the political link was placed on the county website.
"We have no idea, yet," Horst said on Thursday evening. "Tim Hamilton (of Greystone Systems) and Beth are looking at it."
Horst said, "I have never clicked on it," (his link at the commissioners' website).
"We have called Debbie (Sansone, the former commissioners' clerk)," Horst said. "Beth said she never really looked at it – it was set up when she came on (as clerk). Today is the first day any of us saw it. I didn't even know you could click (on our names)."
When asked if law enforcement or an independent investigator had been called, Horst said: "We haven't gotten that far."
The link was disabled at approximately 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 1. Commissioners said they did not know how long the political link had been active.
On Friday, both commissioner Wilkin and Tim Hamilton told The Highland County Press that the network is secure and confirmed there were no signs of criminal hacking.
They also said the web server host is a Columbus company.
In light of the situation with the Highland County public website, The Highland County Press made a formal request for the names of all county employees who were authorized to have – or use in their public capacity – the user name and password for both of these websites:
and,
http://www.co.highland.oh.us/Department%20Home%20Pages/Commissioners.ht…
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In the absence of an independent investigation into this, it would be useful to know how many public employees – in all county offices – had authorized access to this information.
Additional questions that come to mind include:
• Were any other county websites compromised in any way?
• How many people have access to the "back end" of the county website?
• Can the county website be accessed from any online computer or is it a stationary site? In other words, would someone have to be in a county government office in order to modify the site?
• Have commissioners requested that the county's online archives and backup files be examined in order to determine how long the political link was online?
These are relatively routine questions and most website companies can provide this information in a relatively short period of time.
Since the county has ruled out intentional "hacking," that narrows the investigation. (And let's leave all speculation aside until the investigation has been completed. There's a good reason that readers' comments are not being posted at this time.)
The county also might ask of its technical support associates for suggestions or recommendations to improve online security.
To his credit, Commissioner Horst told me on Friday that he had contacted the County Commissioners Association of Ohio, the Ohio Ethics Commission and the Ohio Elections Commission about the matter.
That's a good first step in taking ownership of the problem. Given the county Board of Commissioners' occasional lapses in that particular area, it's a very good initial response.
Someone did this. Someone abused a taxpayer-funded government website.
Whether that someone did this to help – or possibly harm – a political candidate does not detract from the seriousness of the act.
However, if this abuse of a government website proves to be an internal and deliberate act, someone in county government must assume ownership of the infraction. The sooner, the better.
Rory Ryan is publisher of The Highland County Press.