Saturday, July 19, 2008
The ex-attorney general attributes the success to a lack of cronyism in the office.
YOUNGSTOWN — Even with all the problems at the attorney general’s office when Marc Dann was in charge, the agency set a new state record for debt collection in a fiscal year.
The office announced Friday that its revenue recovery services and collection enforcement department ended its fiscal year June 30 with $344,039,150 in debt collection for state agencies. The debt includes unpaid income and sales taxes and insurance premiums owed to the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation.
In response to an e-mail from The Vindicator seeking comment, Dann wrote: “Rae Ann Estep [a former Taft administration official] who I appointed, and Marcia Macon-Bruce, who I promoted, have done an incredible job putting professionalism in and taking the politics and cronyism out of the collections process of the attorney general’s office.”
Estep is chief of revenue recovery services and Macon-Bruce is the collections enforcement chief.
“Their success is no mistake,” Dann added. “We knew if collection firms and lawyers were hired and retained based on merit rather than political contributions that millions more could be collected for the state.”
Ironically, an internal attorney general investigation that validated sexual harassment complaints by two female office workers criticized the office under Dann’s leadership for cronyism, creating a hostile work environment and an overall lack of professionalism.
The results of that report, released May 2, led to the firing of two top Dann staff members and the forced resignation of another. The three were close longtime friends of Dann. Dann, a Democrat from Liberty, resigned as attorney general under pressure May 14.
Despite the scandal that engulfed his office, Dann always insisted that the agency handled its responsibilities to state departments and taxpayers with excellence.
The fiscal year began July 1, 2007, and ended this past June 30. Dann was attorney general for 101‚Ñ2 of those months.
The debts collected are returned to the state agencies to which they were owed.
The amount collected exceeded the two departments’ goal by more than $14 million. It also broke the record for collecting money owed to the state by about $16 million. The record was set in the 2006-07 fiscal year.
“Another significant aspect ... is that the proportion of funds collected in-house by the hard-working lawyers, paralegals and other professionals in the office has grown significantly in relation to the amounts collected by outside lawyers, saving the state additional money that would have been paid in contingent legal fees,” Dann wrote.
Estep said the “secret of our success is enthusiasm. The employees of these departments are here because they love their job and helping Ohio.”
skolnick@vindy.com