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EducateWorthington.org

The 912 Project - Glenn Beck

912 Group of Central Ohio

Please let me know if you'd like your link added

Considering the bull sh*t this guy pulled before he ran for office of how screwed up Jim Petro was he's starting to sound like Idiot Spitzer. There really is more than enough here for the State Highway Patrol to start an investigation after everything else that has happened since he's taken office.

It's time the Republicans at the statehouse pushed this issue to bring it all to an end.


Sexual Harassment Alleged

Two attorney general's office employees complain of supervisor's inappropriate comments, touching

Sunday, April 6, 2008 3:38 AM
By Alan Johnson and James Nash
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Without investigating the veracity of the allegations, the attorney general's office is trying to settle sexual-harassment complaints filed by two women against a supervisor in the office.

The complaints, filed Monday, allege that Anthony Gutierrez, a section chief for Attorney General Marc Dann, sexually harassed the women at work or in the Dublin condo once shared by Gutierrez, Dann and Leo Jennings III, Dann's communication chief.

Vanessa Stout, 26, and Cindy Stankoski, 26, filed the complaints against Gutierrez with the Equal Employment Opportunity office. They were surprised to be approached two days later by Angela Smedlund, the agency's EEO officer, who acknowledged "a problem," the women said.

Smedlund suggested that Gutierrez might be transferred and that agency officials would "do anything you want" to resolve the matter quietly without making it public, they said. Both declined the offer.

Gutierrez did not respond to requests seeking comment about the harassment complaints. Jennings said Gutierrez "has no intention of talking" about the matter. Likewise, he said the attorney general's office will not comment because of the pending investigations.

Both women said in their complaints that Gutierrez pressured them frequently to have sex, often saying "you owe me" in reference to getting them state jobs.

According to the complaint, less than three weeks after Stankoski was hired, Gutierrez pressed her on Sept. 10 to have a drink with him after work. He took her to two Downtown bars before ending up at Mitchell's Steakhouse. There Gutierrez received a call from Dann, urging both of them to come to the condo for pizza.

Though she was becoming intoxicated and increasingly uncomfortable with Gutierrez's sexual comments, Stankoski said she decided to go along.

Dann was at the condo when they arrived. Already there was Dann's scheduler, Jessica Utovich, who, according to the complaint, "walked in w. pj's and laptop" and lay down on the floor to work on her computer.

Stankoski said by that time, she was feeling very tipsy and asked if she could lay down. Gutierrez told her she could use his bedroom. She awoke several hours later, she said, to find three buttons of her pants undone and Gutierrez lying beside her wearing only underwear.

Jennings said that staffers, including Utovich, occasionally visited the condo, but only for work-related purposes: "She was there to deliver schedules."

Utovich, 28, did not respond to multiple attempts to contact her.

Dann moved from the condo on Tuttles View Drive in December, but Gutierrez and Jennings still live there. All three are friends of about 20 years from the Youngstown area, where Gutierrez lived about two doors down from Dann.

Stout went to work for the state Nov. 26 as a $14-an-hour administrative staffer. Stankoski was hired for a similar job Aug. 20.

Dann hired Gutierrez in January 2007, even though Gutierrez's background check uncovered 27 tax liens and civil judgments and a personal bankruptcy. At the beginning of 2007, Gutierrez owed more than $5,000 in unpaid state income taxes, which are collected by the attorney general's office, and more than $10,000 in unpaid federal income taxes. Gutierrez, who ran a construction firm when hired by Dann, has since repaid his debt to the state and is on a repayment plan with the Internal Revenue Service.

Stout said in her complaint that Gutierrez, who is married, began pressuring her to go out with him and have sex with him shortly after she was hired. At one point, when Stout visited his condo with a friend, Gutierrez gave her a sex toy, she said.

Gutierrez called her personal cell phone so much, often at night, that Stout changed her number, she said. She offered dozens of pages of cell-phone records as well as a hand-written journal to support her complaint.

complete article

It's simply amazing Marc Dann's office won't use the Ohio State Highway Patrol to conduct this investigation. This is letting the fox clean up it's own house.



Dann puts manager on leave

Office didn't try to suppress investigation of sexual harassment claims, spokesman says

Tuesday,  April 8, 2008 3:14 AM
By Alan Johnson and James Nash
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Attorney General Marc Dann suspended a middle manager accused of sexual harassment yesterday, and a spokesman denied that his office had tried to short-circuit an investigation into the allegations.

Dann placed Anthony Gutierrez, his director of general services, on paid leave while an investigation is conducted into complaints that he sexually harassed two female staff members.

"We take all allegations of this nature extremely seriously," Dann said in a statement.

Yesterday evening, Dann announced that the investigation will be handled by Ben Espy, a former state senator who is one of Dann's highest-ranking attorneys, and Assistant Attorney General Julie Pfeiffer, who works in the employment law section. They replace Angela Smedlund, who as the office's equal-employment officer fielded the complaints from the two employees.

Smedlund "felt that she no longer could be impartial in the investigation because of comments from the complainants," the attorney general's office said without elaborating.

Dann, a Democrat elected in 2006, and Gutierrez are longtime friends and neighbors from the Youngstown area and shared a Dublin condominium where the employees said some of the sexual harassment occurred.

Gutierrez, 50, will receive his $87,500-a-year salary while the investigation proceeds. As director of general services, Gutierrez oversees purchasing, the mailroom and telecommunications and other support services.

complete article

"She's never been in my house wearing pajamas, so she certainly wasn't there that night wearing pajamas,"

Posted by Reginald Fields
April 09, 2008 17:06PM

Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann on Wednesday denied a report that a female member of his staff was wearing pajamas at his apartment.

"That's just the strangest thing I can imagine anyone saying," Dann said in Columbus before a hearing on payday lending. "And it's hurtful because I have children who are embarrassed by the fact that this has been repeated over and over again in the newspapers."

Dann was referring to sexual harassment complaints filed by two female employees who allege that one of Dann's top managers, Anthony Gutierrez, 50, pressured them for sex. One of them reported an unwanted encounter with Gutierrez last September at a suburban Columbus apartment that Dann, Gutierrez and Dann's spokesman, Leo Jennings, shared. The three are all friends who are married and maintain homes in Youngstown.

The woman mentioned that she saw Jessica Utovich, 28, who handles travel arrangements for Dann, with her laptop, lying on the floor of the apartment in pajamas.

"She's never been in my house wearing pajamas, so she certainly wasn't there that night wearing pajamas," Dann said, though he added that he believes Utovich was at the apartment that evening.

It was the first time that Dann spoke publicly about the allegations. He said his office is conducting a full investigation of the sexual harassment complaints against Gutierrez, who is on paid leave from his $87,500 job as director of general services.

"It's tragic that these kind of allegations have been made about conduct in my office," Dann said. "If it is true I want to make sure that the appropriate discipline is taken as it relates to everybody that is involved. So I want to make sure that that happens."

The women last month filed complaints with Dann's Equal Employment Opportunity office and on Tuesday filed federal complaints with the EEOC in Cleveland.

"If they feel comfortable at the EEOC, that is totally, perfectly right to do," he said. "They had an opportunity to file in our office for an extended period of time. And to be honest with you I wish they would have done it sooner."
 

A small list of prior Marc Dann events would include:

1) Before his election: admonished by the Ohio Supreme Court for handling a case without proper preparation

2) <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/nYZdySmD0C4&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/nYZdySmD0C4&rel=0</a> questioning him in a public place, Dann’s verbiage could have been more refined, his anger was justifiable for the reporter had broken an unspoken rule of politics: Children of elected officials are supposed to be off limits – unless the circumstances are extraordinary. For both President Truman and Attorney General Dann, this became a tipping point.

The reporter had also broken a Dann family rule: All three of the children who grew up in their household are family, even though one of them came from a different set of parents.

The odd child out is 22-year-old Mavilya Chubarova, known to most as Mia. She and her mom moved to the United States from the old Soviet Union and Mia’s mother served a stint as the Dann’s nanny. The two families grew close – so close that when Mia’s mom headed to medical school in Michigan she stayed behind to temporarily live with the Danns.

She calls Marc Dann “Dad.’’ He refers to her as his “daughter.’’ He’s the only father figure she’s ever known.

Mia has a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, and after Dann became AG, Mia landed a $37,000 per year job with Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner. Dann and Brunner are both Democrats, and a reporter from the Tribune Chronicle of Warren thought the story of her hiring proved that the Democrats were guilty of nepotism.

3) Hiring as his "top cop" a guy who attempted to collect full salary, pension credits, and benefits from both Youngstown and the State

4) Using state tax money to fit his overpriced state-paid SUV with flames

5) Hiring as his driver a man convicted of involuntary manslaughter after shooting and killing someone in Pennsylvania in 1975. the guy was initially charged with murder, then manslaughter, before pleading down.

6) Complains about graduate student, making a public record requests while working as a summer intern for the ORP. Funny how when Dann spoke at the Black Wing Shooting Center he had to trouble criticizing Republicans in regards to his records request.

Yes this is the party for me, screw the ORP.

Which night was it then?



"She's never been in my house in pajamas," Dann said. "She certainly wasn't that night. That's the strangest thing I can imagine."

Thursday,  April 10, 2008 11:39 PM
By Alan Johnson
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Pj's or sweat pants? Whatever Attorney General Marc Dann's scheduler was wearing while visiting his Dublin condo one night late last summer, it was not work clothes or even jeans, according to an employee who was there.

Jessica Utovich's attire arises as an issue because of a sexual-harassment complaint filed by Cindy Stankoski, a telecommunications employee in the attorney general's office, against her boss, Anthony Gutierrez.

The events that unfolded at the condo on the evening of Sept. 10 play a crucial role in Stankoski's complaint. Gutierrez has been suspended with pay while Stankoski's complaint and one by another employee, Vanessa Stout, are investigated both inside the attorney general's office and by the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Stankoski's state complaint, first detailed Sunday by The Dispatch, says that while she was at the Dann condo, Utovich "walked in w. pj's and laptop" and lay on the floor in front of the television to work on her computer and eat pizza.

Dann acknowledged Tuesday that Utovich, who is no longer his scheduler, was "at my house a number of different times." He said she was delivering schedules and related information because Dann prefers them on paper, not via e-mail.

Further, he said he believes she was there Sept. 10, but had no "specific recollection" of it.

"She's never been in my house in pajamas," Dann said. "She certainly wasn't that night. That's the strangest thing I can imagine."

complete article

Why not just fill the record request?


Records request to state officials came from GOP operative

Posted by Mark Rollenhagen
September 27, 2007
09:40AM
Columbus

Mysterious, huge public records requests that a Stow woman made to Gov. Ted Strickland and other Democratic statewide officeholders were the work of the Ohio Republican Party.

Jennifer Thrasher, a University of Akron graduate student, made the requests while working as a summer intern at the party's headquarters, a top Republican official acknowledged Wednesday.

The requests seek hundreds of thousands of records -- six months' worth of e-mail messages to and from dozens of officials in each agency -- and are causing headaches for Strickland, Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner and Attorney General Marc Dann.

The officials' response, which Republicans say is too slow, could lead to a lawsuit from the party, according to Jason Mauk, executive director of the Republican Party.

The Democrats say they're working as fast as they can.

Strickland's staff estimated they might need to review up to a million pages of e-mails to ensure they do not release sensitive, exempt information, ranging from proprietary business information to criminal investigations to computer security details.

"I think most people would agree it's going to take a reasonable length of time to comply with," Strickland spokesman Keith Dailey said Wednesday.

The governor complained about broad records requests in an interview last week and said he suspected there might be "political motivations" behind Thrasher's request because Auditor Mary Taylor, the only Republican statewide officeholder, did not receive one.

"We can find ourselves just absolutely bogged down in doing nothing but trying to respond to these requests, but we are trying to respond to them as best we can," Strickland said.

Thrasher's requests did not mention her affiliation with the Republican Party or her reason for asking for the records, and Ohio law does not require her to do so.

"Marc Dann made a commitment to providing quick and efficient access to public records and so far he has not upheld that commitment," Mauk said. "Unfortunately, Jennifer has also been stonewalled by Gov. Strickland's office and by Secretary of State Brunner."

Lawyers for Strickland and Brunner have spoken with Thrasher about her request and in letters asked her to make an advance payment for the minimum cost of printing e-mail messages so that they could be reviewed and redacted. Strickland's office wants $3,680. Brunner wants $1,400.

David Marburger, counsel to the Ohio Newspaper Association's Coalition for Open Government, said state law does not allow officials to charge people for the costs of printing records as part of a redaction process.

Lawyers for the governor and secretary of state said they are allowed to recover that cost.

Dailey, Strickland's spokesman, said the governor's office is continuing to talk with Thrasher and is waiting for either a check or for her to narrow the scope of her request. He said that learning that the request was a project of the Republican Party will not change how the request is handled.

complete article

Cast your votes.

Marc Dann resignation watch

The Marc Dann explanation.

Timeline of Marc Dann's troubles

Wednesday, April 09, 2008

April 2008: Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann puts his general services director, Anthony Gutierrez, on paid administrative leave, pending the outcome of an internal investigation into sexual harassment complaints filed by two women on staff.

February 2008: Dann uses a state plane and his state-owned SUV to travel to political events. He then pays for the trips out of his campaign account, his 2007 campaign finance report shows.

December 2007: Dann disciplines his close friend, Communications Director Leo Jennings III, who sent a profane, abusive e-mail to a co-worker in the fall.

June 2007: Dann, standing on a street in an upper-middle class neighborhood, spots a reporter who had written a story he didn't like. Dann says, "Hey Steve, write this down: Go (expletive) yourself!"

May 2007: For the past three months, a man who served time in prison for involuntary manslaughter has been driving Dann throughout the state and attending to his security details. Dann's office fires David L. Nelson, 57, when a national criminal background check turns up his conviction from 1976 in Mercer County, Pa.

April 2007: Dann fires Rick Alli, his "top cop," and asks the Ohio Ethics Commission to investigate him for possible ethics law violations. Alli, 52, had been a sergeant with the Youngstown Police Department when Dann hired him Jan. 8 to be Director of Law Enforcement Operations. But Alli failed to resign his Youngstown job, according to Dann's office.

January 2007: Dann taps Steve Lamantia, 67, to be interim superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Identification. BCI assists local law enforcement, conducts criminal background checks and processes forensic and DNA evidence on many cases statewide. However, when Lamantia led the Howland Twp. Police Department in Trumbull County, his property room was a mess and his policies — covering issues such as when to shoot — were inadequate. The problems were detailed in press reports and a 120-page report by the Ohio Chiefs of Police Association in late 2002.

Compare this final print to the online edition that ran today in the below article.

Utovich, 28, is a longtime Democratic party operative who served as president of the Cuyahoga County Young Democrats. After high school she attended Cuyahoga Community College and Ohio State University.

Dann denies aide wore pajamas at his apartment

Posted by Reginald Fields
April 09, 2008 17:06PM
Columbus

Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann on Wednesday denied that a woman he supervises was wearing pajamas when she was in his Columbus apartment on the night another staffer claims to have been sexually harassed by one of Dann s top managers.

" That's just the strangest thing I can imagine anyone saying," said Dann, who is married. "And it's hurtful because I have children who are embarrassed by the fact that this has been repeated over and over again in the newspapers."

Two 26-year-old women have accused their boss, Anthony Gutierrez, Dann's close friend and director of general services, of using his authority to pressure them for sex.

The women complained last month to Dann's office of Equal Employment Opportunity. And on Tuesday they filed a federal complaint, Dann said. He expressed confidence in an internal investigation and welcomed a federal inquiry.

"It's tragic that these kind of allegations have been made about conduct in my office," said Dann, a Youngstown Democrat, who spoke with reporters before a payday lending hearing in Columbus. "If it is true I want to make sure that the appropriate discipline is taken as it relates to everybody that is involved.

"They had an opportunity to file in our office for an extended period of time," Dann said, noting that one alleged incident occurred seven months ago. "And to be honest with you, I wish they would have done it sooner."

One woman reported an unwanted encounter with Gutierrez last September at the suburban Columbus apartment Gutierrez shared with Dann and Dann s spokesman, Leo Jennings.

The woman, who works in the information technology section, said Dann and staff member Jessica Utovich were at the apartment and that Utovich was wearing pajamas.

Dann said he believes Utovich, a graduate of Avon Lake High School, was at his apartment that night but only in her official capacity of discussing his work schedule.

"She's never been in my house wearing pajamas, so she certainly wasn t there that night wearing pajamas," Dann said.

Utovich, 28, is a longtime Democratic party supporter who served as president of the Cuyahoga County Young Democrats. After high school she attended Cuyahoga Community College and Ohio State University.

She's been an officer in the Ohio Young Democrats and worked as the Northeast Ohio field director for the Ohio Democratic Party in 2006.

Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern, whom Utovich lists as a reference on her resume , recalls her as a good employee, a hard worker and outgoing.

In January 2007, after about two weeks in office, Dann hired Utovich as his scheduler at an annual salary of $35,000. Seven months later, her pay was raised to $45,000 and her duties expanded. She now handles travel arrangements for Dann and other top officials in the office. Utovich has not responded to requests for interviews.

complete article

In this morning's edition of the Columbus Dispatch is an article detailing how Marc Dann refuses to give up certain emails.

The only reason I find this to be interesting is because the Columbus Dispatch is alleging to be encountering technical difficulties which is preventing the web edition of the paper to be posted. I don't like tin foil hats, I merely find this interesting.  

[Mervyn Jones II had trouble getting his start date as a $10-an-hour intern with Attorney General Marc Dann's Cleveland office this year.]

That's right make sure the kids of your Dimocrat friends don't have to work hard to find a job, just call Uncle Marc.


Attorney general's style makes news, raises eyebrows

E-mails show attorney general's management style can be vulgar. But 'it is what it is,' staff member says.

By Laura A. Bischoff
Staff Writer
Sunday, November 11, 2007
COLUMBUS

Mervyn Jones II had trouble getting his start date as a $10-an-hour intern with Attorney General Marc Dann's Cleveland office this year.

No problem. The 6-foot, 5-inch tight end for Hiram College got help from his mom, U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones. "I just got a call from an irate Congresswoman who wants to know when her son is starting his job. Can we get a quick answer from Columbus so we can get moving on this," wrote Ed Kraus, co-director of Dann's Cleveland office.

When Jones had trouble getting his first paycheck, Dann knew about it. "He e-mailed me that he got his check on Saturday," Dann wrote his chief of staff, chief operating officer and first assistant attorney general a few days later. "Thanks."

Tubbs Jones is unapologetic about asking Dann's office to hire her son. "I help everybody in the world — kids — get a job," the Cleveland Democrat said. Dann, who runs an office with 1,400 employees, brushed off the question of whether the hire was political favoritism. "I hired a couple hundred people who weren't a Congresswoman's son," he said. "Should I discriminate against him because he's a Congresswoman's son?"

In his first 10 months in statewide office, Dann has emerged as an activist attorney general with a high profile, crusading against everything from under performing charter schools to stores that sell cosmetic contact lenses without prescriptions. But while Dann has garnered plenty of media attention, a Dayton Daily News review of 4,300 e-mails from his office provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse into a management style not seen by the public. In the e-mails, he sometimes comes off as vulgar, overscheduled and a publicity hound.

"Marc says what he says. It is what it is," said Communications Director Leo Jennings III. "I'm sure everybody, at some point or another, has said 'Ah, I wish I had phrased that differently' two-tenths of a second after they hit the send button."

The e-mails show:

• Dann was furious with an agent for the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation and his supervisor for sending a critical letter to Montgomery County Prosecutor Mat Heck, a fellow Democrat. "Have the (expletive) apologized to matt heck yet?" Dann wrote in an e-mail.

• Jennings commented in an e-mail to Dann about a draft of a speech Dann was to give to the Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers: "This is a total bj for the trial lawyers," he wrote.

• Dann, who is Jewish, e-mailed Jennings on April 6 about an editorial that ran in his hometown paper, The (Youngstown) Vindicator: "Bentley said there are six nasty posts after the Vindy editorial. All about you," he wrote. "Jesus had it better on good friday."

Asked last week about the Good Friday line, Dann said, "Did I say that? ... I really stay away from religious jokes. So I would be really surprised about that, if I said that. That's not my sense of humor."

In this morning's edition of the Columbus Dispatch is an article detailing how Marc Dann refuses to give up certain emails.

 

 Tweet:

I also find this interesting. Mark Dann sent 3000+ school board members in the state a CD containing a document with Ohio's Sunshine Rules. You (and presumly the 3000+ recepients of said document) can access it here:

http://www.ag.state.oh.us/legal/pubs/Ohio_...e_Laws_2008.pdf

Page 86 of this document specifically mentions that email messages that "document the function of the office" are public record.

There is a lot not to like about this law. For example, a parent who emails a school board member  about their child's teacher might have  inadvertantly created a public record even if no public email servers were used. Nevertheless, the law is the law except, apparently, if you are Mark Dann.

The Dispatch article had this quote:

Dann's office also denied The Dispatch request on the basis that e-mail is not a public record.


When his own document clearly states the opposite.

 

Very early this morning a well placed state employee friend of mine and I discussed this situation face to face and some of Marc Dann's past stunts.

These emails fall under the scope of the very definition of the same information he sued Buffalo Bob Taft over in regards to Tom Noe and BWC.

His parting words this morning where "this could be the beginning of the end for Dann, it all depends how deep the Cleveland Plain Dealer digs....the Columbus Dispatch is seen as more of a vulture picking over what's left".


Dann refuses to release e-mails between him and ex-scheduler

Communication between attorney general and his ex-scheduler deemed private

Sunday, April 13, 2008 3:36 AM
By James Nash
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Attorney General Marc Dann, who campaigned on a pledge to uphold transparency in government, is refusing to turn over e-mail messages between him and his scheduler.

Dann's office on Friday denied a request from The Dispatch under Ohio's public records law to review three months' worth of e-mail messages between him and his then-scheduler, Jessica Utovich.

Dann in the past has said e-mails are public records and also has sought troves of messages from public offices when he was a state senator and the Democratic candidate for Ohio's top legal office.

One of Dann's first acts as attorney general was to order his staff to retain e-mail messages for 180 days.

"Good government is open government, and we cannot be responsive to citizen requests for information if the information is routinely destroyed, including electronic communication such as e-mails," Dann said at the time.

The Dispatch requested the messages between Dann and Utovich under Ohio's public records law on April 2, four days before publishing a story about sexual-harassment allegations against a Dann aide who also is a close friend.

In one of the written complaints, an employee reported seeing Utovich, 28, in Dann's condo at night wearing pajamas or sweats last September.

Utovich was reassigned in January as the office's travel director. She earns $44,300 a year, up from the $35,000 she made when hired in early 2007.

Dann's office said the request for all written correspondence between Dann and Utovich in September, October and November would not be granted because it is "overbroad."

The request "lacks the specificity and particularity that the law requires to assist both requesters and public offices in carrying out their responsibilities," wrote Assistant Attorney General Lisa G. Whittaker.

complete article

[Dann grew up in Shaker Heights]

Dann has habit of hiring his friends; some have proved to be embarrassments

Posted by Mark Naymik
Plain Dealer Politics Writer
April 12, 2008 19:00PM

Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann has been good to his friends from the Mahoning Valley, bringing more than a dozen of them to Columbus since he took office in January 2007.

But sometimes, that loyalty hasn't served him well.

He had to fire his top cop for drawing two government salaries. He let his driver go for failing to disclose a manslaughter conviction. And now, his Liberty Township neighbor and onetime roommate, Anthony Gutierrez, has been accused of using the management position Dann gave him to pressure two young subordinates for sex.

The accusations against Gutierrez could cause the most damage to the Democratic attorney general's reputation as a hard-charging reformer and aggressive advocate for Ohio consumers.

That's because some of the alleged conduct happened in Dann's former suburban Columbus apartment, which he shared with Gutierrez and Leo Jennings III, another Mahoning Valley ally and Dann's communication chief.

Jennings, who spent most of last week trying to protect Dann, is reluctant to talk about the current controversy but defends Dann's commitment to his hires from the Youngstown area, most of whom have not generated headlines.

"He is willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt, and he understands how important it is to have someone around he can trust," said Jennings, who himself was once reprimanded for sending a profane e-mail to a co-worker "Can that be a problem? Sure it can. But in every instance, the people he was hiring he believed were qualified for the job and confident that they could do the job."

Dann grew up in Shaker Heights

Despite his strong connection to the Mahoning Valley, Dann's roots run to a Cleveland suburb, Shaker Heights, known for its wealth and liberal ideals.

He was interested in politics early, volunteering in high school for Shaker resident Lee Fisher, now lieutenant governor, who ran for a seat in the Statehouse back then.

Dann worked on the Democratic presidential campaigns of Jimmy Carter and Gary Hart and for the U.S. Senate bid of former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Mary Boyle.

Dann didn't make it to Youngstown until 1991, several years after graduating from Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

He moved there with his wife, Alyssa Lenhoff, whose family is from the valley and helped Dann network. He set up a law practice. Lenhoff worked as an investigative reporter for the Tribune Chronicle.

Dann later moved his family to Liberty Township in Trumbull County and won a seat on the school board.

He first jumped into Mahoning Valley politics by helping Democrat Bob Hagan run for the Ohio Senate in the 1990s.

"Loyalty means a lot to him," said Hagan, now a state representative from Youngstown. "If somebody is not liked, or is shunned by others, but who Dann can see some good in, he is loyal to them."

complete article