Yet another WTF? moment revealed about Marc Dann...

This has to be the oddest way anyone has ever gotten a state job.  Why am I not surprised it personally involves Marc Dann??

From today's Columbus Dispatch:

The first time Vanessa Stout met her future boss, Anthony Gutierrez, was an August morning last year when she crossed the street to talk to the new neighbor who had backed his black Chevy Suburban into her father's truck.

“I approached him and advised him that my neighbors and my boyfriend saw him hit my father's truck,” Vanessa Stout wrote in a journal obtained by The Dispatch of meeting Gutierrez for the first time. “He seemed confused, but then told me that he will take care of the cost no matter what.” 

A few weeks later, Gutierrez called Stout and invited her to visit the condo to meet the attorney general. She was watching Cops on television, she told him. 

“Stop wasting time watching cops on TV and come hang out with the real cops and have some cocktails,” Gutierrez replied. Shortly after she arrived at the condo, Dann found out she was unemployed and instructed Gutierrez to find her a job in his office “anywhere she fits.”

First, there's the crazy idea that Jennings and Gutierrez consider themselve "real cops."  Guiterrez was in charge of the office administrative needs.  That means when the guys from Dunder Mifflin wanted to give the AG's office some paper and office supply lovin' Gutierrez was their boy.  He didn't go on raid, patrolled the streets, or had any law enforcement powers whatsoever.  You were in charge of ordering paper clips and filing reports.  And by all accounts, you didn't even do that!

Dann spokesman Ted Hart said the report that was supposed to be filed with the Ohio Department of Administrative Services in case of any accident was instead stuck in a file and never submitted.

Amazing!  An accident report in which Guiterrez was involved in while driving a state vehicle was never turned in but stuck in a file instead.  Hey, who was in charge of reporting the incident?  Oh, that's right Guiterrez.

Second, is it true that all it takes to get a job at the AG's office is to watch "COPS" and then wait until an AG employee hit one of my family member's cars?  Boy, how stupid do I feel borrowing all that money for law school, then?

So, let's recap.  After Guiterrez hits a family member's car with a state vehicle, one of the complainants was offered a job "anywhere she fits."  The incident is never reported to the police, or even to the Department of Administrative Services because the person involved in the accident is the same person in Dann's office responsible for reporting it.  Instead, it mysteriously got lost in a file somewhere.

Nobody has yet to explain why Guiterrez even has a state car, except for the fact that he's the one in the office who decides who gets state vehicles.  Since Dann took office last year, Guiterrez has been involved in reportedly three separate accidents in which a state vehicle was damaged.  All of which, Guiterrez, apparently, was at fault.  And yet, he continued to have access to state vehicles and nobody checked to make sure that he reported the incidents as required to the Department of Administrative Services.

This is the same Guiterrez that Dann himself picked up from his DUI arrest shortly before the election.  Again, why should Guiterrez have access to a state vehicle.  Doesn't COTA go from Dublin to Capitol Square?

The same Guiterrez that has mired the office in a sexual harassment scandal and brought question of sexual impropriety and gross mismanagement in the AG's office which has been characterized now as more like "Animal House" than the serious, professional law enforcement office Dann promised he would make it.

Whenever there has been favorable news for Dann during this ordeal, I was one of the very few bloggers who would promote it.  But I don't think it's unreasonable to ask:

WHY HASN'T DANN FIRED GUITERREZ BY NOW?!?

WHAT IS THIS OFFICE DOING TO CHANGE THE CULTURE THERE TO A MORE PROFESSIONAL ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH DANN'S SCHEDULER DOESN'T FEEL COMFORTABLE SAYING "F.U." TO HER BOSS AND HARD DRINKING AND PARTYING IS STANDARD OFFICE CONVERSATION AND AFTER HOURS ACTIVITIES?!?

At what point does Marc Dann realize that we're not just talking about his political career at stake, but his professional one as well?  And when will we see some real leadership from him to deal with these issues?

I'm just getting disgusted by the daily drumbeat of ridiculous stories about how Dann has ran his office and allowed others to behave.  It's time someone over there demonstrate that the grown-ups are in charge and that this kind of culture cannot be tolerated.  And I'd like to see that grow-up be the Attorney General.  If not, then maybe some of senior leadership in the Party outside Dann's office need to say: we can't justify keeping you around before November.

Do I think these are resignable offenses?  Yeah, I'm increasingly beginning to think so.  And here's why, the knock on Petro and Montgomery from Dann was that they turned a blind eye to Coingate because of their partisan allegiance to Tom Noe, one of the GOP's best ATMs.  How, with all this going on in the office, can Dann say that his office is able to focus and do their job in a professional manner?  How can he deny that this whole series of mismanagement mistakes is, at a minimum, causing a huge distraction in the office that is preventing his office from doing its job as it should.

What's worse than deliberating turning a blind eye?  A hung over one that it too busy fighting the fires you started rather than the ones threating the public.

Marc Dann cannot wait another day.  He cannot wait until his office announces its internal investigation (that most people are going to automatically discount).  He cannot wait for the federal EEOC to finish his investigation.  He needs to come out of the shadows, fire Guiterrez, maybe Jennings (we haven't heard exactly why Jennings has been suspended, but beyond that, Jennings has been a poor spokeman who has made Dann's office look boorish and down-right thugish at times), and start answering questions and changing the culture he has created in his office.

Take charge Dann or get out of the way and allow the party to put someone in there who will.