WITTE'S LETTER TO HATCH ACT UNIT U.S. OFFICE OF SPECIAL COUNSEL
G. Michael Witte
Attorney at Law
Registered Mediator American Bar Association
Chair-elect, American Bar Association Judicial Division National Asian Pacific American Bar Association
Past Chair, ABA Judicial Division Standing Committee on Indiana State Bar Association
Minorities in the Judiciary Fellow of the American Bar Foundation
May 17, 2010
Ms. Carolyn S. Martorana
Attorney, Hatch Act Unit
U.S. Office of Special Counsel
1730 M Street, N.W. Suite 218
Washington, D.C. 20036
Re: Request for Hatch Act inquiry or advisory opinion
Dear Ms. Martorana:
In my capacity as County Attorney for the Dearborn County Board of Commissioners, and on their behalf, I must advise you that Dearborn County, Indiana might be out of compliance with several federal grant contracts of which we are the recipient. Specifically, I believe we are non-compliant with the Hatch Act provisions of several grants. It is the intent of this self-reporting letter to notify you of our internal review and to let your office act accordingly. I understand that the act of questioning election candidacies does not rest within our authority, but rather with the Office of Special Counsel and the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, or with our state election board and judicial review process.
The purported non-compliance scenarios are outlined below. I ask for the Office of Special Counsel to conduct inquiries and/or issue advisory opinions.
I. Victims of Crime Act (VOCA), Grant #09VA023, $80,116.00
Recipient: Dearborn County Government
Beneficiary: Dearborn-Ohio Counties Prosecutor’s Office
Hatch Act Employee: Bryan Messmore, Dearborn-Ohio Counties Prosecutor Victim Advocate Coordinator and Dearborn County Council member
Mr. Messmore’s salary and benefits totaling $50,988.0 are funded by a VOCA grant awarded through the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute. In late 2009 or early 2010 Mr. Messmore was elected to the Dearborn County Council through a special election. The election was by a caucus of the Republican Party Central Committee to fill a mid-term vacancy caused by an incumbent councilman resigning his office. Mr. Messmore competed in a contested election with at least two other candidates, a Mr. Schmitts and a Mr. Baker.
During this election process, Mr. Messmore was a full-time employee of the Dearborn County Prosecutor’s Office whose salary was funded by a federal grant. Mr. Messmore continues to serve the dual role of councilman and Victim Advocate Coordinator under VOCA funding. He is a local officer or employee whose principal employment is in connection with an activity which is financed in whole or in part by loans or grants made by the United States or Federal agency.
II. 2009 Recovery Act JAG Subgrantee, Grant #09-JRA-005, $174,673.00
2009 Recovery Act Edward Byrne JAG, Award #2009-SB-B9-0261, $57,951.00
2009 Edward Byrne JAG , Application #2009-H1473-DJ, $14,372.00
Recipient: Dearborn County Government
Beneficiary: Dearborn-Ohio Counties Prosecutor’s Office Special Crimes Unit
Hatch Act Employee: Shane McHenry, Detective for Dearborn-Ohio Counties Prosecutor’s Office Special Crimes Unit
In January of 2006, the Dearborn-Ohio Counties Prosecutor’s Office in conjunction with the Dearborn County Sheriff’s Department, the Lawrenceburg Police Department, and the Aurora Police Department formed a multi-jurisdictional task force to address serious felony crimes in Dearborn County, Indiana. Operating under the name of the Dearborn County Special Crimes Unit (SCU), it is comprised of three detectives from the Dearborn County Sheriff’s Department, one detective from the Lawrenceburg Police Department, one detective from the Aurora Police Department, and two investigators from the Dearborn-Ohio Counties Prosecutor’s Office.
Detective Shane McHenry is one of the three detectives of the Dearborn County Sheriff’s Department assigned to this SCU. Although his pay is routed through the Sheriff’s Department, he is assigned to the SCU and is viewed by many as the lead detective for the unit.
Mr. McHenry was a candidate in the May 4, 2010 Republican primary election for the office of Dearborn County Commissioner. Mr. McHenry won the election over two other candidates, a Mr. Thompson and a Mr. Rowland. He is now the Republican candidate for County Commissioner in the fall election. During this election process, Mr. McHenry was a full-time employee of the Dearborn County Sheriff’s Office assigned to the SCU which was funded by at least $246,996.00 in federal grant money. Mr. McHenry continues to work for the SCU and act as the Republican candidate for County Commissioner for the November 2, 2010 general election. His campaign material referenced himself as a “Detective for … Special Crimes Unit”. He is a local officer or employee whose principal employment is in connection with an activity which is financed in whole or in part by loans or grants made by the United States or Federal agency.
After June 18, my contact information will change to the following:
G. Michael Witte, Executive Secretary
Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission
30 South Meridian Street, Suite 850
Indianapolis, IN 46204
I will no longer be serving as Dearborn County Attorney, but I will be available for any discussion on these issues if necessary. Attached to this letter is contact information if needed. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Respectfully,
G. Michael Witte
Dearborn County Attorney
Possible points of contact for any inquiry are as follows:
Mr. Ralph Thompson
President, Dearborn County Board of Commissioners
Dearborn County Administration Building
215-B West High Street
Lawrenceburg, IN 47025
812-537-1040
Ms. Gayle Pennington
Dearborn County Auditor
Dearborn County Administration Building
215-B West High Street
Lawrenceburg, IN 47025
812-537-1040
Mr. F. Aaron Negangard
Dearborn-Ohio Counties Prosecutor
Courthouse
215 West High Street
Lawrenceburg, IN 47025
812-537-1040
Mr. Bryan Messmore
4374 Messmore Lane
Lawrenceburg, IN 47025
Mr. Shane McHenry
7 David Drive
Aurora, IN 47001
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
10 comments:
Let's see if this comment gets deleted.
It remains to be seen whether the scenario Witte presented is indeed the case.
But one thing IS clear: Witte is still licking his wounds from being defeated in his last election.
If this were not a purely political move, and if Mr. Witte were truly competent, he would have raised this issue long before the election -- before he knew how his ally Thompson would fare.
But -- he waits until after the election, and waits until he gets a cushy job in Indy.
It is bogus for Witte to claim he didn't bring it up because McHenry was not in violation until after he was election. Baloney. Mr. Witte, if you really had the best interest of Dearborn County at heart, you would have brought it up earlier.
And certainly Ralph Thompson thought about this before the election. But did he bring it up? No.
Way to go, Ralph. You couldn't win at the ballot box, so you will try to get in the back door.
People will see this for what it is: Pure petty political payback.
I think you are wondering if your comment will be deleted because it is pure garbage. The fact is that there are ethical and honest people in this county and there are those that are unethical. Witte pointed out the unethical. Just like illegal immigration. Do we just look over illegals? Do we just look over the unethical people? No. Witte did the right thing.
Witte should be thanked for his courage.
It is not easy to stand up and speak out against the status quo.
I bet he took a lot of flack about it.
He did the right thing.
Thanks to Witte this county might get back on track.
Isn't Mike Kreinhop an employee of the same Sheriff's office as Mr. McHenry? That being the case and given that he was also running for office, wouldn't he also be in violation of the Hatch Act? If not, why not?
OK, scratch that. I think I get the difference. Mr. McHenry's position is in the federally funded SCU, Mr. Kreinhop's with the locally funded Sheriff's office, so Hatch doesn't apply to him.
P.S. @MustBeKidding - the law is the law. I suppose it wouldn't matter to you if it turned out that Mr. Obama had been born in Kenya as some have suggested?
Remember the same crooked development owned GOPers were telling us all the "law is the law" when they were trying to force inferior sewers on us to benefit themselves but now this "law" is B.S.????
Was Witte polite and courteous when speaking about this current problem during the meeting or was he shouting down the public while doing so????
Some development owned arrogant assholes must feel "real smart" today!!!!
Anti-acid is flying off the shelves of our local drugstores!!!!
Further, I wish I owned stock in Xanax today!!!!
Wow, a little touchy, aren't we?
Agreed. The law is the law. Nowhere did I say that Witte shouldn't uphold it. On the contrary. It's his job. But hey, timing is everything. And that's the problem.
Did it just hit him suddenly after the election and after he got another job offer that something might be amiss? Then he's not as smart as people think he is.
If he did know and waited, then he affirmed his status as a political tool of the Thompson crowd. Word on the street is that there were rumors of "something big" coming up at the commission meeting. Who knew and when did they know it? Just wondering.
And...Did Witte go to McHenry or to the Sheriff (McHenry's boss) and advise him that them there might be a problem? Just wondering.
Gee, if Witte is so concerned about conserving taxpayer dollars, maybe we could have saved a few bucks on an election that might not be valid.
Witte could very well be correct in his assessment of the situation. But his timing is very, very suspect.
Interesting. The homepage shows 8 comments, but 7 are here. What happened to my comeback to you folks? Too much for you to handle, perhaps?
Kreinhop is related to Aaron Negangard
Post a Comment