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E-mails show disorder in office
The advice of a top-level official to be careful with hires was ignored.
YOUNGSTOWN — E-mails between employees of the scandal-ridden attorney general’s office show confusion and disorganization and acknowledge violations of the department’s hiring process.
The office released hundreds of staff e-mails about 5:30 p.m. Monday, primarily from September to November 2007.
Also included were e-mails between Alyssa Lenhoff, wife of Attorney General Marc Dann, and Edgar Simpson, Dann’s then-chief of policy and administration and a close friend of the couple’s.
One series of e-mails focuses on the rushed Sept. 11 hiring of Alvin Donner as Dann’s assistant scheduler at $14 an hour.
Donner was hired to help Jessica Utovich, who served as the attorney general’s scheduler at the time.
In a Sept. 11 e-mail to nine people, Joyce F. Chapple, Dann’s chief operating officer who worked just below Simpson, wrote: “Team, This ‘timing’ is unfortunate, but at times, when the big boss [meaning Dann] needs something ASAP, we all jump into gear, and I thank you for your quick action in this matter. ... I realize that this type of hiring puts a lot of pressure on this team, many people apparently do not understand the lead time necessary to get a new employee set up.”
Apparently, Dann was one of those people because Donner was hired at his insistence.
In the e-mail, Chapple expressed concern about the hire.
“With some of our new hire ‘embarrassments’ of late, it appears that learning the hard way has not helped.”
She added a “P.S.” to Simpson in the group e-mail reading: “Ed, I know that we just had a big issue due to ‘quick hiring’ of a staff person without all the necessary ‘due diligence’ being carefully completed. I do not understand why the guy below could not have started ‘after’ proper preparation were completed for him to report to work. Help me understand — I will be over to see you.”
Her e-mail was sent just a few days after The Dispatch, a Columbus newspaper, wrote about the office’s top fiscal watchdog, Rick Houze, failing to include on his r sum that he was no longer a licensed accountant. That led to his resignation as internal auditor.
The quick hire of Donner also was questioned by Stephanie Bostos Demers, the office’s director of human resources.
“What happens if this person does not pass his background check?” she asked Simpson in an e-mail.
“Then he’s gone,” Simpson responded. “I know this violates all our policies, but there it is.”
Simpson also sent an e-mail Sept. 17 to himself, titled “The list,” that includes ways to improve the office.
One dealt with hiring. “Quicker, more energetic hires, Marc’s input.”
In an interesting twist, Chapple’s e-mail was sent a day after an incident at the Dublin condominium shared by Dann, Anthony Gutierrez, his then-general services director, and Leo Jennings III, Dann’s then-communications director. The three are from the Mahoning Valley and are longtime friends.
The Sept. 10 incident was at the epicenter of a sexual-harassment investigation.
Cindy Stankoski, an administrative assistant who worked for Gutierrez, said she went out drinking that night with her boss, who then brought her to the condo for pizza.
Dann and Utovich were at the condo. Stankoski didn’t feel well and ended up sleeping on Gutierrez’s bed, waking up with Gutierrez next to her, she said.
The incident is among a number of sexual-harassment incidents by Gutierrez against Stankoski and Vanessa Stout, also an administrative assistant who worked under Gutierrez.
Dann fired Gutierrez for harassing the subordinates and fired Jennings for urging a female attorney to lie for him.
Simpson and Utovich resigned, and Chapple was ordered to receive additional management training.
The report also criticized Dann for permitting the inappropriate and unprofessional behavior to occur.
Top Democrats and Republicans in the state have called for Dann to resign, something he refuses to do. The state Legislature, at the request of top Democrats, is looking to impeach him.
The e-mails released Monday show Donner was originally hired to work no more than 39 hours a week.
On Oct. 17, Donner sent an e-mail saying he was working full time as assistant scheduler, retroactive to Oct. 15.
This also raised concern with Chapple, who wrote in an Oct. 15 e-mail: “Should we be getting something from a ‘supervisor’ telling HR [human resources] that he is to go full-time? No just a staffer telling us his new status??? Otherwise, I am going to come down and tell you guys that I have a ‘raise’ coming — I am just kidding, but want our team up here to do things right. That may be wishful thinking.”
Molly Taylor, the office’s administrative director, asked in an e-mail to Utovich, Chapple, Simpson and Bostos Demers: “So do we have to back date this” hire?
Chapple again objected to a proposal to violate office policy. “We absolutely cannot back date,” she wrote. “... All I am sure of is that we need to do it right and do it next week, if that does not present a problem.”
When Utovich was moved to run the office’s travel office, Donner was promoted in January to Dann’s scheduler, said Ted Hart, the office’s deputy communications director.
Donner quit about a month ago because “he wasn’t happy doing all that work,” Hart said. John Sauter is serving as Dann’s scheduler.
The office released the e-mails Monday to honor “various lesser requests made by journalists” for e-mails, Hart said.
Among these e-mails are ones sent to more than a dozen people between Oct. 4 and 17 forbidding overtime for certain employees without a supervisor present.
Also included are Oct. 3 e-mails from Simpson, and copied to Dann, making sure Utovich received a pay raise.
Also released are a number of e-mails between Simpson and Lenhoff, who worked together years ago at the Tribune Chronicle, a Warren newspaper.
The e-mails between Simpson and Lenhoff, who remained close friends after leaving the newspaper, are very casual.
Meanwhile, Dann plans, as early as today, to name an outside investigator to examine the internal AG report, Hart said. It isn’t known how long the outside investigation would take.
The internal investigation, led by Ben Espy, Dann’s executive assistant attorney general, took about three weeks to complete.
The Ohio House was to start a process today to allow Ohio Inspector General Tom Charles to begin an investigation into Dann and his office. The Senate is to vote Wednesday. Gov. Ted Strickland agrees with the proposal.
With Dann refusing to resign, the Legislature is looking at impeachment, something that has never been done to an elected executive statewide officeholder.
The last successful impeachment was of a judge about 200 years ago.
State Rep. Bill Batchelder, a Medina Republican and former judge asked by House Speaker Jon Husted to study the impeachment process, said he’ll continue to review the situation. He said the Charles investigation will give him more time to review impeachment laws in other states with constitutions similar to Ohio’s.
skolnick@vindy.com