Ohio - After calls for Mahoning County Clerk of Court Michael Ciccone to resign, and following repeated inquiries by 21 News to his office about whether he had reported for work, we investigated what the Ohio Revised Code states regarding the work requirements for elected officials.

According to state law, if any county officer fails to perform the duties of the office at the officer's principal location on at least one out of 30 consecutive days, then the office should be declared vacant.

State leaders stated this law is meant to ensure those elected to do the people's work actually show up and do it.

"It's basically so that the general public, the voting public can see its public officials doing the job they were elected to do and they're getting paid to do," Senator Bill DeMora (D) OH-DISTRICT 25 said. 

Senator DeMora explained that the law does not specify how many hours the elected county official has to work. Essentially, if an officeholder walks through the door once a month they are still meeting the legal requirement.

But who is responsible for keeping track of their attendance? Senator DeMora stated that this responsibility lies with the county commissioners.

21 News contacted a Mahoning County Commissioner who could not confirm whether they are responsible for tracking Michael Ciccone's attendance.

The senator said if a county officer is absent for more than 30 consecutive days, excluding cases of sickness or injury, the county commissioners should declare their office vacant.

"And then you go through the process of appointing a new officer so the central committee of the county party where the officer was from can name a new person and then the commissioners take over the office until that person is named," DeMora  said. 

Currently, there is no pending legislation to tighten this law. However, DeMora emphasized that this needs to change.

"I'm going to look and see maybe how we can clean this up [...] because there's no direction on how they are removed. But I think we have to do that," DeMora said.