– When We Asked the House Operator for the Number, We Were Transferred to Jason Parsons Who Told Us “I’m not sure that’s a public record”
– We’re Still Waiting for a Response to Our March 7 Request from the House GOP Caucus
For weeks, we pressed former Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger about comments considered by many to be degrading to women by Majority Leader Bill Seitz. Were these the first he’d seen or heard of this type of behavior from his powerful Majority Leader? What steps was he taking to ensure it wasn’t part of a pattern? We got no reply.
While asking these two simple questions, we heard from two sources that Rosenberger set up a confidential sexual harassment hotline to respond to the ongoing ethics problem in Columbus. Intrigued, we called the House operator and asked for the phone number. After waiting on hold for several minutes, the House Administrative Office’s Jason Parsons came on the line and told us, “I’m not sure that’s a public record.” We asked for a call back when he found out, but that never happened.
Is the confidential tip line that confidential?
State Rep. Candice Keller was reportedly furious about Seitz’s comments and had considered an official complaint. Was a tip line created outside of the formal complaint process for her and others who felt harassed or demeaned?
On March 7, we sent identical requests to Rosenberger and Senate President Obhoff for documents about a tip line for reporting sexual harassment. Specifically, we asked for:
- Any document relating to the creation of a sexual harassment tip line by the Ohio legislature, Ohio Senate, House of Representatives or Ohio House Republican Caucus, and how many calls the hotline has received.
- The time period of our request was for January 1, 2017 through today.
No Records Says Senate
The next day at noon, we heard from the Ohio Senate’s Dep. Legal Counsel Donn Parsons, who wrote: “There are no responsive records to your request.” Later that afternoon, Ohio House Dep. Legal Counsel Sheila Willamowski wrote, “We will begin processing your request.”
Six weeks later, we’re still waiting.
All of this begs the question: What’s the purpose of a having a sexual harassment hotline if no one knows about it?
Scott Peterson is executive director of Checks and Balances Project, an investigative blog that seeks to hold government officials, lobbyists and corporate management accountable to the public. Funding for C&BP comes from sustainable economy philanthropies and donors.
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