Official faces sensitivity training

This is not a ‘Marc Dann case’, the judge said.

staff report

YOUNGSTOWN — Sensitivity training is likely in store for the Youngstown Municipal Court administrator whose inappropriate comments to women in the probation department led to a sexual harassment complaint.

Also, Kevin B. Ward’s supervision of the five women will cease, said Judge Robert A. Douglas Jr., the courts’ administrative/presiding judge. Judge Douglas said a final decision in the matter will be made after he receives input from his colleagues, judges Elizabeth A. Kobly and Robert P. Milich.

“This is not a Marc Dann case here,” Judge Douglas said, referring to the ex-Ohio attorney general who resigned this week after an aide’s sexual harassment scandal. “There was no solicitation, no touching. Some comments Kevin made were inappropriate. [The women] just wanted it to stop. I believe it has stopped, and we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Judge Douglas said Ward will be required to receive some type of sensitivity counseling or training. The women did not confront Ward with their concerns, the judge said, but instead had their supervisor approach him.

The comments Ward made were brought to Judge Douglas’ attention in March, and he turned the matter over to the law department for investigation in April.

Dan T. Pribich, first assistant law director, interviewed the women and Ward and reviewed their respective written statements and then turned his findings over to the judges.

Pribich had no comment.

Ward, in his statement for the law department, said most of his comments were a retelling of real-life situations and not inappropriate given the context. He told The Vindicator that the women found offensive some of the words he chose to describe the situations.

The newspaper reached Ward on Friday at a seminar in Columbus, for a comment about sensitivity training and no longer supervising the probation department. “If that’s the assignment Judge Douglas gives me, that’s what I will do,” Ward said. “He speaks for the court.”

The 48-year-old court administrator, hired July 9, 2007, is paid $57,605. He had been Alliance Municipal Clerk of Court, earning $36,576.

Ward remained employed by Alliance until Oct. 24, 2007, when Judge Kobly found out he was holding two jobs and told him to quit. He resigned the Alliance job that day.

Judge Douglas said he was aware of Ward’s continued employment in Alliance, saying it was part time and would have ended at the end of last year. The judge said Ward is very capable.

Ward said he was working in Youngstown during the day and in Alliance in the evenings. He described it as a transition period.