Name: Greg Brush
Age: 49
Education: Masters degreee in public administration from Central Michigan University
Current residence: Butler Twp.
Current employment: Montgomery County Clerk of Courts
Political experience: Clerk since 2007, previously Butler Twp. fiscal officer from 1999 to 2007
Political party: Democrat
Name: Mike Foley
Age: 44
Education: Bachelor’s of science in finance and hospitality management from Ohio State University
Current residence: Oakwood
Current employment: Self employed small business owner
Political experience: None
Political party: Republican
Montgomery County Clerk of Courts Greg Brush says he’s running for re-election on his record of making his office more efficient.
His challenger, Mike Foley, says he is running on his experience managing small business.
Both have uncomplimentary things to say about their opponent. Brush says Foley is trying to take advantage of the similarity of his name to a Democratic county commissioner.
Foley says Brush’s office is bloated and inefficient.
Voters will decide Nov. 6 which man will hold the job managing a budget of $6.3 million and an office of 92 positions tasked with maintaining and processing records and fees within strict time lines for the county common pleas court, municipal courts in Huber Heights and New Lebanon and five auto title offices.
The clerk of courts salary for next year is set by state law at $100,779.50.
Brush was appointed to the post in 2007, and then elected to a full four-year term in 2008. The seat became vacant when his predecessor, Dan Foley, was elected county commissioner.
Brush said Mike Foley’s signs look very similar to Dan Foley’s and don’t have a first name. Democratic mailings accuse the GOP of “hand-picking” Mike Foley to run for the clerk’s job to trick voters into thinking he’s Democrat Dan Foley. The mailing has a picture of an elephant wearing a donkey mask.
Mike Foley — who is not related to Dan — conceded the name confusion might help his campaign, but said, “I’ve never claimed to be Dan Foley or his brother.”
Foley currently runs a kids’ gymnasium in Kettering named Jack n Jill’s Hill, as well as four tax preparation franchises in Highland, Adams and Clinton counties. From 1999 through 2011, he managed the Huber Heights Bureau of Motor Vehicles under contract with the state as a deputy registrar.
At the BMV, which shared an office with the clerk’s title office, Foley said he saw “a lot of inefficiencies” in how the county operations were run.
“I wanted to bring my business knowledge to assist in their operations with an emphasis on controlling costs, training, improving customer service and a hands-on leadership approach,” he said.
Foley said the clerk’s office needs to streamline its operations. “When I was involved for 12 years there was plenty of measures that could have been taken to help taxpayer dollars,” he said.
The Dayton Daily News reviewed county finance records and found the clerk’s office has reduced its staff from 117 positions in 2007 to 92 this year. The department budget went from $7.4 million in 2007 to $6.3 million this year.
Brush said he was able to cut staff by being the first county in Ohio — and one of the first in the country — to require certain legal records be submitted electronically and cut down on the manual process.
“We are a leader in the state,” he said. “Our program has been displayed from New Jersey to California and spots in between.”
Foley argued that Brush has done little to collect on the more than $40 million owed the county in outstanding fees, costs, fines and restitution. He said the county should look at garnisheeing tax returns or blocking license renewal for vehicle registration if people don’t pay.
“I feel that’s a lot of money and some of the budget can be cut (if it’s collected) and I feel that money can be used for other services without subsidizing tax dollars,” he said.
Brush said much of the amount due is from people who can’t pay because they are in prison or dead. He said he is using a collection agency to go after those who can pay, and working to garnishee taxes and find other methods to collect more money.
“No one has a legal way in the state of Ohio to collect more money than we do,” he said.
Brush said his biggest regret was agreeing to cuts he now says were too big in municipal courts. The cuts led to an increase in mistakes being made by an overworked staff and an increased usage of sick days. He may have to undo some of the cuts, he said.
“That was a huge mistake on my part,” he said. “These are people’s lives. Plus when you push people and they start making mistakes, that’s someone else’s life.”
Foley bid on keeping the BMV contract last year but was passed over after failing to submit a complete credit report, according to state scoring documents reviewed by the Daily News. Foley said he didn’t realize the document was incomplete when he submitted it.
He also defended his actions leading to the dismissal of a title agency clerk who assisted Foley with a passport application in 2009. The clerk was fired after accepting a faxed copy of the application when federal rules say the forms must be presented and signed in person.
“I asked her what documents I needed and I supplied her with the documents she requested and the next thing I knew she was in trouble,” Foley said. “I didn’t know there was any rules being broken.”
Foley became a registered Democrat in 2008 and changed back to a Republican with this year’s primary, his voting records show. Foley said he has always been ideologically a Republican and voted for Republican John McCain in 2008. He said he wanted to vote in the Democratic primary for Barack Obama that year at the urging of Rush Limbaugh.
Brush was in the news most recently when his wife was accused in December of theft after scratch-off lottery tickets reportedly went missing from a liquor store where she worked. The charges were dropped in March, and Brush says they were politically motivated. He doesn’t believe anything was ever stolen.
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