For more information, contact:
Ohio Ethics Commission
(614) 466-7090

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

HOUSING AUTHORITY DIRECTOR CONVICTED OF ETHICS CHARGES

Fairfield Metropolitan Housing Authority (FMHA) Executive Director Mary Bozman pleaded no contest and was found guilty of two Conflict of Interest violations today in Fairfield County Common Pleas Court for authorizing employment contracts for her brother at FMHA and an FMHA subsidiary, the Lancaster Community Housing Corporation (LCHC).

Fairfield County Common Pleas Judge Richard Berens sentenced Bozman to 6 months in jail on the two criminal misdemeanor offenses. Judge Berens suspended the jail time, placing Bozman on 2 years supervised probation, under the conditions that she perform 40 hours community service, make $7,500 restitution to the FMHA toward the monies unlawfully paid to her brother, and pay all court costs. Bozman's role in her brother's contracts was not fully disclosed to the Board of the Housing Authority until after the fact. Bozman also agreed to resign her position, to not seek any further employment at the FMHA, and to fully disclose these convictions should she seek future public employment as part of a plea agreement reached with Faifield County Prosecutor David Landefeld's office.

The Ethics charges resulted from an investigation by the Ohio Ethics Commission. The investigation revealed that Bozman used her position as Executive Director at FMHA to advocate and gain her brother's employment at FMHA and LCHC from March 2004 through his resignation in 2006, from a series of employment contracts. Under the contracts, Bozman's brother performed project coordinator and related services first with FMHA and then with LCHC, a wholly owned subsidiary of FMHA.

"The Ethics Law prohibits public officials from spending public money or using their authority to hire their own family so that the public can have greater assurance that employees are hired for the public's necessity and on their own merit, removed from potential nepotism or illegal influence," Ethics Commission Executive Director David E. Freel stated.

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