Campaign pays Dayton landlord for mess

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - Ohio benefited from being a key state in the presidential race, but a Dayton Landlord tells 2 NEWS Investigates when keys weren't returned and paint was pulled off walls, he wondered if it was all worth it.

Jon Neidert owns the building at 411 East Fifth Street in Dayton's historic Oregon District.  He has since 1996.

At the end of December 2011 he got a call from the Obama for America campaign interested in renting space in his building.

He told 2 NEWS Investigates, "I actually charged them half of the security deposit I would normally charge anybody else just because it was a presidential campaign and I figured they would treat the space like it was their own."

Neidert said the Obama campaign wanted to use its own lease.  The agreement called for $2200 a month in rent and  addressed maintenance, repair, alterations and improvements. Neidert said the campaign never failed to pay the rent, but failed him at the end.

"When they moved out it involved a lot of clean up, a lot of,  I had to repaint everything because of that. I've had tenants in the building, in that space for ten years and maybe the walls looked like, maybe a little touch up, a little 409, but no big deal, but this looked like they'd been there a long time."

Neidert sent 2 NEWS Investigates nearly three dozen photos he said he had taken after a walk-through in the middle of November.  They are of damages he says weren't there prior to the campaign's use of the facility. 

They showed carpet stained and snagged, paint peeled off the wall and off the front door which was still the case when we saw the building January 17.

The photos were attached to an email he had sent Bret Benack of the Obama for America campaign on November 26, 2012.

Neidert followed up with an email to Benack sent December 4.  He listed what he spent to take care of the damage left behind by the campaign and what it cost to change the locks because the landlord alleges the campaign only returned one of four sets of keys.

The total came to $3,485.  The campaign had given Neidert an $1100 deposit so that meant he was out $2,385.

Neidert told 2 NEWS Investigates, "Since you guys got involved there's been a lot of communication and a lot of effort to put this to rest, but until now they've pretty much been ignoring me."

2 NEWs Investigates got involved in January calling and sending emails to Obama campaign staffers on JANUARY 28, 29, 30, AND 31 and February 1.  We never heard back from anyone, but we did get a hold of the Ohio Democratic Party spokesman Jerid Kurtz on February 4 and two days later got this written statement in an email:

"The Ohio Democratic Party provides payroll and office leasing services to many candidates, including Barack Obama's recent presidential reelection campaign.  In these instances, the Ohio Democratic Party looks to guidance from those involved with the campaign when there are disputes on payments and services.  Last week, those involved with the President's campaign approved full payment to resolve a dispute over an office rental in the Dayton region."

Jon Neidert did indeed receive a check for $2,385  from the Ohio Democratic Party.  He told me there was no note, no explanation at all.  He's just glad it's over.