Hillsboro, Ohio, mayor bedeviled by 'witch hunt' investigations

HILLSBORO, Ohio — Having your wife's and your underwear examined and toilet usage analyzed might sound like something for veteran stand-up comedian Drew Hastings' routine.

Although it sometimes seems like “a ‘Saturday Night Live' sketch,” he says, Hastings is finding it increasingly difficult to see humor in the continuing investigations into his actions as a small-city Ohio mayor.

“They are definitely troubling, to put it mildly,” said Hastings, whose language is rarely mild. “I am flabbergasted as to what the hell could have incited this type of witch hunt, political targeting, whatever you want to call it. ... I just know I've been a real lightning rod.”

Not much is being said officially about the probes by a court-appointed special prosecutor from the Ohio auditor's office, with a state ethics investigator and the Highland County sheriff's office. Among the allegations are improper personal use of Hillsboro city trash bins, forgery involving a $500 vacant building fee refund and election falsification concerning residency in the city of about 6,600, where he has a downtown apartment. Hastings has called them politically motivated and a “gross waste of taxpayers' time and money.”

After buying a small farm 60 miles east of Cincinnati a decade ago for a quiet refuge from life on the road, Hastings made his foray into politics when he became a downtown property owner. Like a scaled-down version of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, Hastings ran in 2011 as an anti-establishment Republican ready to shake things up, scoffing at political correctness. He declared that “America is going to hell in a handbasket” but said he could help revitalize Hillsboro. He won with 62 percent of the vote.

Hastings — a frequent guest on radio's syndicated “Bob & Tom Show” who appeared on Jay Leno's “Tonight Show” and Comedy Central — has been praised by The Hillsboro Times-Gazette for improving the city's finances and for downtown progress.

But others see a heavy-handed, self-serving mayoral style.

“There are a lot of strongly held opinions in Hillsboro on a lot of things, including the mayor,” said Laura Curliss, a former Hillsboro deputy law director and now a Yellow Springs attorney. She thinks the probes dating to December have gone on too long, appearing to be in search of “anything (to) nail the guy on.”

The first investigation was three years ago, when Ohio's attorney general responded to a challenge on whether Hastings was a city resident and concluded there was no cause for action. A lawsuit alleging official misconduct was filed in December, but a judge dismissed it as moot because allegations stemmed from Hastings' first term. Another judge appointed special prosecutors in January.

A spokeswoman for the auditor's office said the state office wouldn't discuss its work but specified there was no “special audit” under way. Carrie Bartunek declined to elaborate, but a special audit would be triggered by fraud or misuse of funds.

In February, investigators took photographs and inventoried clothing including underpants at Hastings' apartment, and they have studied his water usage records in a revisit of the residency issue. Hastings, 62, pledges to persevere, citing “a combination of spite and determination and a lot of support out there.”