The Dayton Daily News has a new piece to the Impeachment Dannce...Marc Dann failed to report a freebie trip.Remember this gem from the guy who railed against the "Culture of Corruption"?
"Taft, like all governors, lives in a bubble world," Dann told the Akron Beacon Journal in the midst of Taft's ethics travails. "He has schedulers, a highway patrolman assigned to him 24/7, and in-house lawyers to advise him and review his disclosure statements. The idea that this was an oversight is just not believable."I guess Marc Dann didn't learn anything from that because now he is the one who has lived in the bubble world with schedulers, drivers, and in-house lawyers.
The best part of this story, is that there is a Cincinnati connection...
Dann's last financial disclosure statement is missing a trip from June when, as attorney general, he flew to Washington, D.C., on a private jet owned by Cincinnati attorney Stan Chesley for an overnight trip to deal with a securities case.Why am I not surprised to see that Stan Chesley is involved in this?
The cost doesn't show up on Dann's financial disclosure statement or his state travel records because Chesley's firm has yet to bill Dann for the ride, Dann spokesman Ted Hart said.
If Chesley had charged Dann the minimum fair market price for the trip — either before or at the time of the flight — the trip wouldn't be considered a gift and the attorney general wouldn't be required to disclose it, according to a 1996 Ohio Ethics Commission opinion.
Hart said Chesley plans to bill the state for the trip once the lengthy case is finished and he is paid his contingency fee. Until then, it amounts to free travel.
You know, I'd be willing to chuck this whole thing up as an oversight on Dann's part if it weren't for two things: 1) He was the biggest loud mouth on the whole "Culture of Corruption" nonsense; and 2) as always with Marc Dann, there's more...
And while he shared a suburban Columbus apartment — paid for at least in part by his campaign fund — with AG staffers Anthony Gutierrez, and Leo Jennings III, Dann and Gutierrez do not list the campaign as a source of gifts. Jennings does.Ah, Ohio Democrats, the true champions of the Culture of Corruption...
Freel said that in general, "Private lodging or lodging provided by someone other than the person reporting has to be listed."
Earlier this month, Dann fired Jennings and Gutierrez for their roles in a sexual harassment scandal in the attorney general's office. And Dann's office asked the ethics commission to investigate allegations that Gutierrez had been running his construction business, MTV Construction, on state time.
Gutierrez did not disclose the business on his 2007 statement, although he transferred it to his wife early in the year.
Jennings did not disclose his business name, Progressive Solutions Group, which received consulting work from the Dann campaign and Ohio Democratic Party in 2007.
"The form requires the listing of any business you use to do business in the state of Ohio, any one you're a partner in, you or your spouse are a partner in, you or your family are a significant shareholder in, or you or your family own," Freel said.
These ads write themselves...in fact, I think we'll just use the old Democrat ads and change the names.
UPDATE 1: The Columbus Dispatch has something to add:
Kathleen Walley, 43, who is paid $32,864 annually as an office assistant in the Youngstown office of the general services division, was placed on paid administrative leave April 21, spokesman Ted Hart said. She was hired in July.More lies...more ethics trouble...and yet another employee fired...
The suspension, disclosed by the Dann administration yesterday only after The Dispatch inquired about it, contradicts Dann's statement last Friday that all matters related to the investigation had been fully disclosed.
Walley had been suspended 11 days earlier, "pending investigation of alleged misconduct, violating policies and procedures of the office by failing to follow orders, neglect of duty, misfeasance and failure to follow good behavior," Hart said.
He said Walley "had a computer wiped clean by (office) employees without approval. We don't know what she had on that computer, but given who she worked for, it is of interest to the investigation."
Sources told The Dispatch that Walley is suspected of using the computer to help Gutierrez allegedly operate his Youngstown business, MTV Construction, from his state office.
