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Marc Dann should listen to Marc Dann
Published on Wednesday, Apr 09, 2008
During his winning campaign for attorney general in 2006, Marc Dann traveled the state vowing to end a ''culture of corruption'' in Ohio. Now the Democrat faces tough and fair questions about how his office is handling an investigation into sexual harassment that allegedly took place at, among other locations, a Columbus-area condo Dann once shared with two high-ranking staff members. One of the staffers, Anthony Gutierrez, director of general services, was placed on paid leave Monday pending an an internal investigation of accusations he sexually harassed two female employees, both 26 years old.
Republicans called accounts involving the women and Gutierrez, long a friend of Dann's and a fellow native of the Youngstown area, a ''major scandal'' and a ''bombshell.'' Perhaps they forget what happened on their watch, top Republican fund-raiser Tom Noe siphoning millions from the Bureau of Workers' Compensation into questionable investments. That's major. The scandal ended more than a decade of Republican dominance at the Statehouse.
The third condo occupant, Dann's chief spokesman Leo Jennings, insists the office is following standard policy for investigating such complaints. That may be so. Still, according to reports in the Columbus Dispatch, the two women were approached by Angela Smedlund, the attorney general's equal-employment officer, about a settlement just two days after filing a complaint.
Besides placing Gutierrez on leave, Dann turned over the investigation to Ben Espy, a former state senator and one of the attorney general's top lawyers, and Julie Pfeiffer, an assistant attorney general who specializes in employment law. The question is: Why not remove any appearance of a conflict of interest by tapping an outside investigator?
Jennings rebuffed the notion. Yet candidate Dann, as the Democratic point man on the Noe scandal, pressed at every turn for a full and credible investigation. He blew the whistle when he thought Republicans (then in charge) were going easy on themselves. With that in mind, Dann now should apply the Marc Dann standard to himself and hand this matter over to an independent investigator.
During his winning campaign for attorney general in 2006, Marc Dann traveled the state vowing to end a ''culture of corruption'' in Ohio. Now the Democrat faces tough and fair questions about how his office is handling an investigation into sexual harassment that allegedly took place at, among other locations, a Columbus-area condo Dann once shared with two high-ranking staff members. One of the staffers, Anthony Gutierrez, director of general services, was placed on paid leave Monday pending an an internal investigation of accusations he sexually harassed two female employees, both 26 years old.
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