Full Biography for Jim Petro

Candidate for
Auditor of State

AUDITOR OF STATE Jim Petro is the chief inspector and supervisor of public offices in the State of Ohio. Managing a staff of 900 and a budget of nearly $65 million, Jim Petro heads the largest state auditing agency in the United States, second in size only to the U.S. General Accounting Office.

As Ohio's 29th Auditor of State, he is responsible for auditing the financial records of Ohio's 4,500 units of local and state government, including cities, villages, universities, libraries, counties, and townships. Jim Petro extends financial and technical training services to local governments and identifies incidents of fraud, waste and abuse in publicly funded institutions.

Petro has promoted numerous initiatives to help ensure accountability in Ohio schools, including performance audits for urban schools and creation of the fiscal emergency/fiscal watch law for financially troubled districts.

Moreover, he has brought his passion for efficiency to his own office, returning more than $15 million from his general fund appropriation back to the state in his first three years in office.

Proven Public Servant

As Auditor of State, Jim Petro draws upon his expertise in public service at the local, state and national levels. In 1971, he was an Assistant to the Mayor of Cleveland and became a special assistant to then-United States Senator William B. Saxbe the next year. He served as Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for Franklin County as a trial lawyer responsible for adult felony prosecutions. Petro then returned to Northeastern Ohio to serve as Assistant Director of Law for the City of Cleveland.

After beginning a private practice of law in 1974, Jim Petro continued public service as Prosecuting Attorney for the City of Rocky River, Ohio. He was then elected to the Rocky River City Council in 1977, and later to the position of Director of Law for that city.

From 1981-90, Jim Petro served four terms in the Ohio House of Representatives. As a state legislator, he was a member of the House Finance Committee and was the ranking member of the House Committee on Ethics and Standards, and of the Committee on Commerce and Labor. In 1991-1995, he served as a Cuyahoga County Commissioner, including one term as president of the board.

Jim Petro is a member of the Association of Government Accountants, The Government Finance Officers Association, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the National State Auditors Association, and numerous other civic and professional organizations.