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On way out, Dann staff departees get checks
The four got $20,413 combined in their final checks.
Three former top-level Ohio attorney general officials either fired or forced to resign as a result of a scandal at the office received their final paychecks, as did Marc Dann’s former scheduler, with whom he had an extra-marital affair.
The checks were dated Friday and total $20,413. The money was for unused vacation, sick leave and personal time.
Anthony Gutierrez of Liberty, the office’s ex-director of general services, and Leo A. Jennings III of Poland, the former communications director, who were both fired, also received their weekly salaries of $1,682.40 and $1,961.60, respectively, for a week’s worth of paid administrative leave.
The pay period was for April 27 to May 10. The office pays its employees twice a month. Checks are issued for the previous two weeks’ worth of work, said Ted Hart, the office’s deputy communications director.
Gutierrez and Jennings were fired May 2, the day a damaging internal report criticized the office for cronyism, mismanagement and a hostile work environment.
The report stated that Gutierrez sexually harassed two subordinates and that Jennings tried to get an attorney to lie for him during the investigation into Gutierrez.
Jennings and Gutierrez shared a condominium in Dublin with Dann from February to December 2007. The three were longtime, close friends.
Gutierrez was placed on paid leave April 7 and received $4,172.35 in salary during that time.
For Jennings, his paid suspension began April 14, and he received $4,560.72 in salary while on leave.
Edgar C. Simpson of Raymond, the former chief of policy and administration, resigned May 1 rather than be fired for failing to properly oversee the office.
Jessica Utovich, who worked as Dann’s scheduler and had an affair with her former boss, submitted her resignation May 1. Utovich of Columbus wrote in an e-mail that Dann persuaded her to rescind that resignation shortly after she turned it in. But it was accepted by Thomas R. Winters, the first assistant attorney general, and office administrators refused to allow her to remain past her May 8 resignation date, she wrote in the e-mail.
Simpson’s final paycheck from the office is for $7,625.92, including four days of work. Simpson received $52.89 an hour.
Utovich received $1,961.28, including payment for 38 hours of work. She received $21.28 an hour in her final job with the office as its travel office director.
Utovich took 10.26 hours of personal leave of which she wasn’t entitled to receive. The $218.33 she owed the office for that time was deducted from her final paycheck, Hart said.
Dann, a Liberty Democrat, resigned May 14. That was a day after the state Legislature voted to allow Inspector General Tom Charles to conduct an investigation of the attorney general’s office. Gov. Ted Strickland signed the bill into law the day the Legislature approved it.
Hours before Dann’s resignation, investigators with Charles’ office and with the Ohio State Highway Patrol seized computers, Blackberries and documents from the attorney general’s office as part of the investigation.
skolnick@vindy.com