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Attorney general admits arrogance
Marc Dann said he is ‘incredibly disappointed’ with himself.
YOUNGSTOWN — Attorney General Marc Dann blames arrogance for a litany of errors in judgment, including hiring close friends for top management jobs and living with two of them.
After weeks of silence as scandal enveloped his office, Dann, a Liberty Democrat, spent Friday answering many questions from members of the media, and he ended his day with an appearance in front of the editorial board of The Vindicator.
He admitted he was “arrogant” during his 2006 campaign for attorney general, a race he said he never thought he’d win.
That attitude only worsened when he became attorney general.
“All of a sudden, I’m being treated differently, and that level of arrogance increased,” he said. “I was surprised and overwhelmed” going from a tiny law practice to running an office with 1,400 employees. “It was bigger than I was clearly ready to manage.”
Dann said he erred in surrounding himself with yes-men, who rarely, if ever, questioned his decisions.
“I’m empowering more people now,” he said. “I want that. I need that. I now have people who will say no to me. That was part of the problem, and it’s been addressed.”
After an internal attorney general office investigation into charges of sexual harassment, Dann fired director of general services Anthony Gutierrez, who created a “hostile work environment,” according to the report on the probe released Friday. He also fired Leo Jennings III, a trusted political adviser, as his communications director because the investigation determined Jennings urged a female attorney in the office to not be truthful when questioned.
Because of his failure to stop improper conduct by management employees, Edgar Simpson, Dann’s chief of policy and administration, resigned. Simpson would have been fired if he didn’t resign.
Also resigning was Jessica Utovich, who worked as Dann’s scheduler and later as the office’s travel director, with whom he admits he had an affair.
Dann said Simpson and Jennings were good employees, and Gutierrez did a fine job at first. But he said he shouldn’t have hired Jennings and Gutierrez at all and was disappointed with Simpson’s failure to keep control over the employees.
“I made the decision to hire them, and I take full responsibility,” Dann said. “I could have done a better job” with hires.
The report released Friday and Dann’s own admissions reveal an informal work environment at the office. It wasn’t just dress-down Fridays or casual conversations.
Documents show an office in which profanity, sexist remarks and crude jokes were often the norm. Management and subordinates would go out drinking or hang out together, including a few times at a Dublin condominium shared by Dann, Jennings and Gutierrez from February to December 2007.
“I am heartbroken by my failure to recognize the problems being created and by my failure to stop them,” Dann said. “... I should have put in place a management structure that would have addressed these types of problems long before they ever became front-page news stories or more importantly, personal tragedies.”
Then there was his affair with Utovich, which Dann, who is married, said lasted several months.
“Among the thing I took responsibility for was setting a bad example,” he said. “That’s why I stopped the behavior. Among other things, my behavior impacted others.”
Among those affected, Dann said, was Gutierrez.
Gutierrez hired Cindy Stankoski as an administrative assistant after talking to her dad, who works at the Rhodes State Office Tower, where the attorney general’s office is located.
Gutierrez also hired Vanessa Stout for a similar job. He met Stout shortly after Gutierrez, driving a state-owned vehicle, struck her father’s car. Stout, who has a criminal record, lived across the street from the condo.
The two women said Gutierrez repeatedly sexually harassed them. That led to complaints filed with the office’s Equal Employment Opportunity officer and eventually to the house cleaning and Dann’s admission of infidelity.
When Dann found out about Stout’s hire he said he was furious.
That hiring wouldn’t happen now under the office’s new policy that has a committee screen every hire, Dann said.
Despite the possibility of lawsuits, Dann said he may fire Stout because she “misrepresented herself” on her job application, omitting some of her criminal convictions.
“I’m incredibly disappointed in myself,” Dann said. “... My friends ended up being my undoing.”
For the past six months, Dann said he gets “up every day scared to death that I’ll do the wrong thing.”
Dann’s attracted a great deal of positive national press during his 16 months in office. He said the problems in the office, including Gutierrez’s improper use of state-owned vehicles, should have been his top priority.
“I should have been focused on the fleet and the general services department than The New York Times,” he said, referring to a now-infamous comparison the newspaper once made noting the crime-fighting reputations of both men. The comparison was made long before the sex scandals that each has endured became public.
At the epicenter of the sexual-harassment investigation was a Sept. 10 incident at the Dublin condo. Stankoski said she went out drinking that night with Gutierrez, who then brought her to the condo for pizza. Dann and Utovich were at the condo when the pair arrived. Stankoski didn’t feel well and ended up sleeping on Gutierrez’s bed.
Dann said when he learned Stankoski was an office employee, he felt uncomfortable, but he took no action. The woman with whom Dann was having an affair also was at the condo that night.
The next day, Dann said he pulled Gutierrez, who’s also married, aside and told him to “stop fraternizing with the staff.” Dann also said he was concerned about Gutierrez’s drinking and asked that he receive help for it. Dann said he demanded the counseling to Gutierrez in January or February with the threat of being fired if he didn’t. Dann said Simpson confirmed that Gutierrez received the counseling.
Gutierrez, a neighbor of Dann in Liberty, had a laundry list of tax liens and civil lawsuits as well as a bankruptcy and he owed money to the federal and state governments for unpaid back taxes when Dann added him to the staff.
“He never got a break in life,” Dann said of Gutierrez. “I had high hopes for him. I was excited to give him a second chance.”
As for Jennings, Dann called him “brilliant,” but said “he was a fish out of water in government, and I should have known that.”
While others lost their jobs, Dann continues to serve as attorney general.
Ben Espy, the office’s executive assistant attorney general who headed the investigation, said he’s powerless to recommend Dann be suspended or reprimanded.
A number of prominent Republicans have called for Dann’s resignation.
Dann, who has no plans to step down, said he’s been punished by the public airing of his dirty laundry.
“I’ve been battered for four weeks,” he said. “... I’ve been harassed. My kids have been teased at school. It’s been a very difficult time.”
Dann wants to get past this issue, even though there are numerous outside agencies investigating various incidents at his office.
“I’m incredibly disappointed in myself,” he said. “But I’m so committed to this job.”
There is a possibility Dann, who frequently travels home to Liberty from Columbus, may move to the capital city. If nothing else, he said he’s considering moving from his home, which is close to Gutierrez’s.
skolnick@vindy.com