Dann’s expenses raise questions

Photo

Former Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann

By David Skolnick

All expenditures were legal, says the ex-attorney general.

The Ohio secretary of state’s office is questioning the legitimacy of several of ex-Attorney General Marc Dann’s campaign expenses.

A 10-page letter sent Friday to Dann, a Liberty Democrat, seeks information on expenses including hotel stays, airfare, purchases at stores including Babies R Us and a candy store, tickets to see Ludacris at the Chevrolet Centre, utility bills, membership in the Trumbull County Bar Association and a $33,500 security system at his house.

“Portions of this letter require additional information and/or explanation for expenditures made by the committee,” wrote J. Curtis Mayhew, the SOS’s campaign finance administrator, to Dann.

“Some of these relate to travel paid by the [Dann for Ohio] Committee while other entries appear to be for the personal benefit of the candidate.”

In an e-mail to The Vindicator seeking comment on the letter, Dann wrote: “All campaign expenditures were made with advice of counsel and are legal. We look forward to providing the secretary of state answers to all of the issues related.”

The findings were part of a routine audit.

“Our examination ... indicated that additional information and documentation is needed in order to complete or clarify the content of the reports,” Mayhew wrote.

Dann’s campaign committee spent $5,187.67 for eight stays from Dec. 19, 2006, to July 10, 2007, at the Best Western Clarmont Inn.

Mayhew wrote that it’s “unusual” for a campaign committee to spend that amount of money “at the same hotel while also paying for the rental of separate space in Columbus during the same period of time.”

Dann’s campaign report lists $33,524.76 in expenses for security at his home.

With Dann’s May 14 resignation, the security no longer appears to be related to his performance of public office duties, Mayhew wrote.

“It is necessary at this time for the candidate, Marc Dann, to reimburse the committee the current fair market value of the security enhancements/upgrades,” Mayhew wrote.

Mayhew also sought explanation of $1,170.32 in expenses for “lawn work [and] repair, cleaning, pool work for Turkish party.”

Dann’s committee spent $979.21 for the April 5, 2007, “Spring Thang” rap concert featuring Ludacris at the Chevrolet Centre in Youngstown.

Mayhew wrote that the expenses were reported as related to fundraising.

“However, the report does not reflect any contributions received as a result of this event,” he wrote.

Mayhew also inquired why the committee paid Dann’s $100 membership in the Trumbull County Bar Association.

“Please clarify how this expenditure was campaign related or to the performance of the duties of public office and not an expense which the candidate would have normally paid with personal funds,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, two administrators in the attorney general’s office are leaving.

Stephanie Bostos Demers, the human resources director, resigned Friday, effective July 11, to “pursue other opportunities,” said Ted Hart, an attorney general’s office spokesman.

Demers’ office was criticized in a May 2 internal attorney general investigation report for failing to promptly act on complaints by two female staffers against their then-boss, Anthony Gutierrez.

Gutierrez, a longtime friend of Dann’s, was fired the day the report was released.

The report concluded he sexually harassed the two subordinates.

The investigation led to the firing of Leo Jennings III as Dann’s communications director and the forced resignation of Edgar Simpson as chief of administration and policy.

Jennings and Simpson were also close friends of Dann’s.

Dann resigned May 14 when the state inspector general began an investigation into the attorney general’s office.

Mike Deemer, the office’s chief deputy attorney general for governmental affairs, is leaving, Hart said.

Deemer will start working June 9 as a policy executive assistant focusing on economic development for the governor’s office, according to Keith Dailey, a spokesman for the governor.

Also, Joy Freeman, an employee in the revenue recovery office, was placed Friday on unpaid leave. She was among three people federally indicted for conspiring to distribute drugs.

Freeman was on paid leave since Sept. 20 when the federal government notified the AG’s office that she was being investigated, Hart said.

skolnick@vindy.com