franklin county auditor

Delaware County has a new auditor.

Former Powell City Councilman George Kaitsa, 65, easily obtained the Delaware County Republican Party’s appointment to the auditor’s office Wednesday, receiving twice the number of votes cast for the other three candidates combined.

His vote total was likely bolstered by the support of U.S. Rep Pat Tiberi (R-Genoa Township), whose personal endorsement marked the first time he has issued a recommendation for a local appointment before the central committee.

A state senator representing the northern edge of the Rend Lake Conservancy District is advancing legislation to "clean up" the district.

State Sen. John O. Jones, R-Mount Vernon, announced Wednesday his intent to push legislation that would "create a board membership that better represents all customers of the RLCD."


The legislation would disband the RLCD's seven-member board and create a nine-member board.

"As it stands we have a board that is dominated by Franklin County members," Jones said in a news release. "Jefferson County and its RLCD customers are underrepresented."

The board is currently composed, by state law, of two board members from each county in the district as well as one member from each city with at least 5,000 residents.



Kaitsa will serve out the remaining two years of the four-year term vacated by former auditor Todd Hanks, who himself was appointed to the county’s board of commissioners earlier this year.

“Thank you so very much,” Kaitsa told the committee after the vote was announced. “I’m deeply honored by this.”

Hanks said Kaitsa’s years of fiscal experience made him a worthy successor to the auditor’s office.

“You can’t ask for anything better than that,” Hanks said.

Before the vote, Kaitsa pledged to run for re-election in 2010 and to not seek any other office in the future. The auditor’s office has recently been a stepping-stone to other local and state offices. Its alumni include Hanks, former State Rep. Jon Peterson and current county prosecutor Dave Yost.

Kaitsa is the facility manager for the Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission. He has government finance experience, including high-level positions in the Ohio Department of Development under former Republican Govs. George Voinovich and Bob Taft.

He was also the finance director for Franklin County from 1988 to 1991.

He is the vice-chair of the Delaware County Port Authority, and was elected to two terms on Powell City Council in 1997 and 2001. He was a member of the county GOP’s central committee from 2004-2006 and served on the Delaware County 20/20 Planning Committee.

Kaitsa said he did not know when he would take over for interim auditor Jerry Heston. He said he would meet with auditor’s office employees this morning and then head over to the county board of elections to make preparations for assuming office.

“The auditor’s office is exceptionally well-run and has a lot of lot of talented people,” he said. “I look forward to working with them.”

Kaitsa received 66 of a possible 98 votes. Lewis Center financial planner Matt Scheibeck received 16 votes, Sunbury banker Shawn Stevens received 15, and certified public accountant Karl Priedeman, of Westerville, received none.

Each candidate gave a two-minute opening statement and then had the opportunity to have two people speak on their behalf for one minute each.

Tiberi, who was in the area to help with his family take care of his newborn triplet daughters, said that he didn’t want to see the Republican Party “lose its edge” in Delaware County as it had in Washington D.C. following the November election.

Although the issue did not come up directly during the meeting, party members may have been concerned with the past financial and legal troubles of two of the candidates.

“We have to have the candidate where we don’t give the Democrats a gun with bullets in it for the next election,” Tiberi said.

As previously reported in the Gazette, Scheibeck and Stevens have both previously declared bankruptcy due to failed business investments.

Scheibeck has a 1988 DUI conviction and a 1992 misdemeanor disorderly conduct conviction.

Kaitsa, the co-chair of a Tiberi hog roast fundraiser from 2000-2005, has been an active supporter of Tiberi’s in the past.

Kaitsa also received the endorsement of county treasurer-elect and former county State Rep. Jon Peterson.

Peterson said Kaitsa was “ideally suited” for the position.

“He’s twice as qualified as either myself or (Yost) were when we received the appointment,” he joked.

Nobody spoke on behalf of the other three candidates.

Stevens said he called his speakers and told them not to come after Tiberi informed him that he would be personally attending to endorse Kaitsa.