Despite Mounting Evidence of Ethics Problems in the Ohio House, Continued Silence from Schuring on Seitz’s Conduct
Update: In response to our reporting, Rep. Bill Seitz sent us a letter that declared “The anonymous complaint was investigated by outside counsel and was found meritless.” He also sent a memo by Ohio House Chief Administrative Officer Kim Flasher that states, “The investigators later learned of the identity of the complainant, but she had not elected to participate in an interview at the time the report was finalized.”
Yesterday, Checks and Balances Project (C&BP) was the first to report on an Ohio House staffer’s anonymous letter that cited “a pattern of incidents” that created “an ongoing hostile workplace environment” in the Ohio legislature. C&BP learned that the Ohio House of Representatives conducted and finalized a thorough investigation through independent counsel. Today, we sent a letter to Ohio House Speaker Pro Tempore Kirk Schuring asking him to release that report to the public.
We have also asked Schuring for all documents related to the hiring of the independent counsel, so Ohio citizens understand what the scope of its duties were. Finally, we have requested all documents relating to the manner in which House staff was informed of the outcome of the investigation.
Yesterday, we excerpted portions of the staffer’s letter in our own post. We repeat the final section here again:
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Why did the author of the letter believe that it “was reasonably foreseeable that Rep. Seitz would make offensive remarks”? If you have information you want to share, you can send us a confidential tip by clicking on the link at the top of this site or here. We protect all sources.
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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