Taft joked about Noe, rare coins at roast; '04 speech did not mention BWC fund

Toledo Blade
Aug. 29, 2005

At a 2004 roast of Tom Noe, Gov. Bob Taft talked about rare coins and giving money to the Toledo-area coin dealer, but he did not make a direct reference to the $50 million rare-coin investment that now, a year later, has enveloped his administration in scandal.

Mr. Noe's penchant for fine wine was so well-known it was an opening joke in Mr. Taft's roast of him, a speech delivered with razzes about golf, Mr. Noe's waistline, his status as a college dropout, and his "100-room mansion in the Florida Keys."

The August, 2004, speech includes oblique references to rare coins and money but not a direct reference to the state's failed investments with Mr. Noe, something the governor insists he did not know about until it was reported in The Blade on April 3, 2005.

Legislators have said that if Mr. Taft - who was convicted earlier this month of ethics violations connected to the scandal - is not being truthful, they would call for his impeachment.

William Wilkinson, lawyer for Mr. Noe, said the governor knew about the coin investment from a May, 2001, conversation he had with Mr. Noe. Mr. Wilkinson allowed that Mr. Taft might have forgotten.

The lawyer said yesterday that the statements in the roast "were consistent with the proposition that he knew."

"I think there is a limit to how much that is going on around you that you can be oblivious to," he said.

Mr. Wilkinson also said that the governor's recent statement that Mr. Noe worked hard to "conceal" the investment's existence was illogical because the coin fund was part of the public record. He said Mr. Noe was "angry" about the statement and wanted a retraction from the governor. Mr. Taft won't comment on the issue.

"He seems to think piling on Tom Noe is good sport," Mr. Wilkinson said.

At one point in the roast, the governor joked about Mr. Noe's work as chairman of the Ohio Turnpike Commission, saying that a toll booth would be named after him.

"When you think about it, there are a lot of similarities between Tom and the turnpike: He's always taking our $, he's as dense as concrete, he's as slick as asphalt, and he's adding a third lane around his middle," Governor Taft read from a prepared text that includes his hand-scribbled changes in the margins. "… By the way, can't you just imagine Tom Noe out there in that booth collecting tolls - scrutinizing each coin to determine its actual value and cutting deals for drivers who buy some of his rare coins."

Spokesman Mark Rickel said that the "our $" noted in the typed copy of the speech, released by the governor's office yesterday, referred to the political donations collected at the roast, not to the state's $50 million rare-coin investment, which is now confiscated and being liquidated by the state.

Mr. Noe's rare-coin business and love of wine were common knowledge in Columbus political circles and among Mr. Taft's staff, some of whom were regulars at restaurant parties hosted by Mr. Noe and dubbed the Noe Supper Club.

In the speech, Mr. Taft jokingly referred to "the other life that [Mr. Noe] leads down there in Columbus … the wine stewards in Columbus know him as Magnum Tom," a reference to a large-sized bottle of wine.

The speech was delivered on Aug. 24, 2004, at Mr. Noe's 50th birthday party roast, which doubled as a fund-raiser for the Lucas County Republican Party and included Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro and state Auditor Betty Montgomery as guests.

Mr. Taft was invited by Bernadette Noe, who is Mr. Noe's wife and at the time was chairman of the Lucas County Republican Party. Mr. Noe was chairman before her.

The almost-prophetic roast seems to trace the events of the $50 million rare-coin scandal that has involved Mr. Taft's staff and the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation, which invested the $50 million, and is threatening to define the governor's administration and legacy.

The coin scandal has spawned more than a dozen investigations, including one that resulted in the governor's conviction for ethics violations for not reporting free golf games and other gifts he received from Mr. Noe and others, which included lobbyists and businessmen.

The findings and court actions resulting from the investigations so far include:

●Mr. Noe golfed with the governor three times at Toledo's Inverness Club - three rounds that helped lead to Mr. Taft's misdemeanor convictions, for which he was fined $4,000 and was ordered to apologize to the people of the state. He became the first sitting Ohio governor to be convicted of a crime.

●Mr. Taft's former chief of staff, Brian Hicks, was convicted of a similar ethics violation for not reporting two stays at the Noes' Florida Keys home, mentioned in the roast, for cheaper-than-market-rate rent.

●Cherie Carroll, who was Mr. Hicks' executive assistant, also was convicted for accepting several free dinners from Mr. Noe at the "Supper Club," which was held at various places, including Morton's steakhouse in downtown Columbus.

Mr. Rickel said that Ms. Carroll and another former staffer, Beverly Martin, helped Mr. Taft come up with anecdotes about Mr. Noe for his speech, but said he wrote the roast himself.

Near the end of the roast, the governor talked about the irony of Mr. Noe's dropping out of college but ending up as chairman of the Ohio Board of Regents, which governs Ohio's public universities.

"Actually, we are going to feature Tom in our new ad to promote college enrollment and completion in Ohio," Mr. Taft said in the speech.

"Scene #1 shows Tom relaxing in his lawn chair down at his 100-room mansion in the Florida Keys while the camera pans over to the foreclosure sign in the front yard," Mr. Taft said.