Clock keeps ticking away for embattled attorney general

By David Skolnick

YOUNGSTOWN — Marc Dann’s time as attorney general is being measured by a clock, not a calendar.

Dann offered to resign during a wild and unpredictable Tuesday in Columbus.

The resignation would have occurred “within the hour” had lawmakers removed an emergency clause from legislation permitting the Ohio inspector general to investigate Dann and his office, said state Rep. Robert F. Hagan of Youngstown, D-60th, a longtime friend of the attorney general’s.

Hagan said he talked to Michael Harshman, Dann’s attorney and confidant, after the Ohio House approved the inspector general legislation.

Hagan said Harshman told him Dann, a Liberty Democrat, would resign if the Senate agreed to remove the emergency clause.

The clause permits the inspector general to investigate Dann immediately after Gov. Ted Strickland signed the bill rather than wait 90 days.

“I think that [Dann and Harshman] were hoping that, if [Dann] resigned, that cooler heads would prevail in 90 days instead of 10 days or instead of immediately,” Hagan said.

There is no time frame for the investigation, and the Republican majority rejected a Democratic proposal on the House floor to give the inspector general 90 days to complete the report. Republicans on the House State and Local Government Committee rejected a Democratic amendment to have the investigation conclude within 60 days.

Senate Republican leaders refused to take out the emergency clause. The bill passed in the Senate on Tuesday, a day earlier than scheduled.

Strickland signed the bill a few hours after the Senate approved it. The bill was effective when the governor signed it.

After negotiations with Senate Republican officials failed, Dann’s office released a statement to his staff and the Ohio media that “Dann has not resigned and no further announcements are planned.”

When contacted, Harshman said that he couldn’t talk but that Dann wasn’t going to resign Tuesday.

“But I can’t say anything about [Wednesday] or the next day,” Harshman said.

Another close friend of Dann’s, who asked not to be identified, also said a resignation could come as early as today.

Dann, a Liberty Democrat, didn’t return a call from The Vindicator seeking comment.

By any measurement, Tuesday was an unusual day in state politics.

It started with the Ohio House Democratic Caucus filing nine articles of impeachment against Dann, accusing him of malfeasance, improper exercise of authority, nonfeasance, gross neglect of duty, neglect and gross immorality.

Then the House overwhelmingly voted to have Inspector General Thomas Charles, who grew up in Hubbard, investigate Dann.

The original plan announced Friday by the Republican legislative leaders was to vote on the matter today. But it was put on the front burner with the Senate approving the legislation Tuesday.

While the Senate was considering the vote, Dann met with Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher in the attorney general’s office, said Keith Dailey, the governor’s spokesman.

The content of the discussion is private, Dailey said. But it’s strongly believed the topic was Dann’s resignation, something Fisher, Strickland and other top Democrats have demanded.

Democrats and Republicans have called on Dann to resign after an internal report, released May 2, detailed a hostile and unprofessional work environment in the office.

Dann has said his extramarital affair with his then-scheduler Jessica Utovich contributed to that environment.

skolnick@vindy.com

XMarc Kovac, Vindicator correspondent, contributed to this report.