States Archives - Checks and Balances Project

C&BP Files Ethics Complaint Against Seitz’s Former Law Firm that Cleared Him in Sexual Harassment Investigation

2018-06-22

Attorney General DeWine’s spokesman: Taft Stettinus & Hollister LLP, where Bill Seitz worked for 36 years, conducted the conflicts review internally “and tell us if they’re clean or not…. It’s their professional licensure at risk.”

Toledo Blade Is First Major Paper to Call for “Re-do” of Seitz Investigation

2018-06-21

Attorney General Mike DeWine hired the law firm of Taft Stettinius & Hollister to conduct the Seitz Investigation as Special Counsel for the Ohio House of Representatives. The problem is that the outside firm is a former long-time employer of Rep. Seitz.

Ohio House of Representatives’ “Seitz Investigation” into Sexual Harassment Cost Taxpayers $12,000 to Interview Just Two People

2018-06-15

Records now obtained by C&BP from the Ohio legislature reveal that the law firm hired to conduct what it called the “Seitz Investigation” was Taft Stettinus & Hollister LLP —the firm where Bill Seitz worked for 36 years.

Checks and Balances Project Sends Final Demand Letter to Ohio House for Release of Special Counsel’s Report on Sexual Harassment

2018-06-5

Watchdog Also Seeks Details of Ohio House Sexual Harassment Investigation: Scope, Targets, Costs, Who Was Hired and How They Were Hired.

Checks and Balances Project Hires Ohio First Amendment Attorney Jack Greiner to Enforce Citizen Access to Public Records

2018-05-23

Jack Greiner will explore a lawsuit enforcing public access to a Special Counsel Report on Sexual Harassment in the Ohio House of Representatives. The watchdog group is also seeking documents revealing the scope of the investigation, as well as who served in the role of Special Counsel, how they were hired, who decided to hire them and how much the work cost taxpayers.

3rd Rail Politics to Ohio House GOP Caucus: Clean Up Your Act

2018-05-16

Declares House Majority Leader ill Seitz “should be immediately stripped of leadership titles and all committee assignments, shunned.”

Seitz’s Use of Special Counsel Report Raises More Questions in Ohio

2018-05-15

On May 4, we sent a letter to Ohio House Speaker Kirk Schuring and asked him to release the Special Counsel’s Report on Sexual Harassment and other documents. But Rep. Seitz responded to our reporting with his own letter.

“Elected Officials in Bakersfield and Kern County are Becoming Poster Kids for Secrecy and Evading Simple Records Requests”

2018-05-11

If there is nothing in elected officials’ texts messages to be concerned about, wouldn’t it be simpler and more cost effective for members of the Bakersfield City Council and Kern County supervisors to allay concerns and release them? Why work so hard to keep them hidden? Perhaps soon citizens will find out.

C&BP Calls for Release of Ohio House’s Independent Counsel Report on Sexual Harassment

2018-05-4

Despite Mounting Evidence of Ethics Problems in the Ohio House, Continued Silence from Schuring on Seitz’s Conduct

“Why Would Anyone Report Their Harassment to Their Legislative Employer If They Were Just Going to Be the Object of Amusement?”

2018-05-3

Days After Rep. Bill Seitz’s Demeaning Comments, a Female Staffer in the Ohio House of Representatives Reports a Pattern of Incidents in an Ongoing, Hostile Workplace