Hearing examines troubled BWC oversight council

Employers paying for body ask why it’s necessary

Thursday,  March 25, 2010

By Mark Niquette
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Logistical hurdles delayed the start of a legislative council created to help oversee the state's agency for injured workers, but there is still a clear need for it, the embattled council's first chairman testified yesterday.

House Minority Leader William Batchelder was the first witness yesterday in hearings being held by the House Insurance Committee after a recent controversy at the little-known Ohio Workers' Compensation Council.

But committee Chairman Dan Dodd said he wants more details and will continue holding hearings to determine whether changes should be made at the council or whether the council even is needed.

"I think the status quo in terms of how the council is operating is not going to be sufficient, not only for the legislature, but also for the employers of the state," said Dodd, D-Hebron, who also is a member of the council.

The council was created in 2007 to review legislation and other matters related to the Bureau of Workers' Compensation. It is under scrutiny after Director Virginia McInerney fired the entire three-member staff last month and they accused her of religious discrimination. McInerney denies the allegations.

Ohio employers fund the council through premiums they pay to the bureau, which has some critics questioning whether the council's work so far, which includes one bill analysis without a recommendation, justifies the more than $433,000 spent.

Batchelder, R-Medina, testified that a series of problems related to funding and other issues delayed the hiring of staff members and prevented the council from beginning its work in earnest until last year.

"It was the gestation period of an elephant," Batchelder quipped.

Batchelder also argued that the council, created as part of an overhaul of bureau governance in response to a series of bureau investment scandals, serves a needed role.

"It is my opinion that, had people felt free to go to some entity like this one, some of the problems over the years that have occurred would not have occurred," he said.

Dodd said he plans to have more hearings and would consider calling the two staff attorneys and administrative assistant fired by McInerney as witnesses. They all wrote letters to the council to protest their firings.

The council met last week in private to discuss the situation but has taken no action beyond creating a committee to examine personnel issues.

Dodd said he doesn't know yet how far his committee might go to investigate the workers' allegations but said the bigger issue is the operation of the council.

mniquette@dispatch.com

Ohio Workers' Comp Advisers Wanted Recommendation, Didn't Get It

By Julie Carr Smyth
March 23, 2010

The director of an embattled legislative panel bucked the position held by panel advisers when she declined to make a recommendation on a bill with sweeping consequences for the nation's largest state-run injured worker insurance fund, the Associated Press has found in a review of state records.

The neutral stance held in an analysis of Senate Bill 213 by the Ohio Workers' Compensation Council could be critical to the future of the fledgling council. The panel was created to counsel lawmakers in the wake of a wide-ranging workers' comp investment scandal five years ago.

Analyzing the bill was the first big assignment of the three-member council staff that has since been fired for other reasons.

Records show members of the council's advisory panel advised the staff on Dec. 1 that it should provide "a formal recommendation regarding the overall merit'' of each bill but "not reach a conclusion regarding the balance of effects on stakeholders.''

The staff's first analysis made no such formal recommendation.

The three women fired have accused council Director Virginia McInerney of religious and age discrimination, retaliation and wrongful discharge. They say McInerney, an evangelical Christian author and speaker, pressured them to pray at work, watch Christian videos and read her book - all allegations McInerney has denied.

Democratic House Insurance Chairman Dan Dodd has convened hearings starting Wednesday on whether the council's decision to stay neutral was improperly influenced by lawmakers and, short of that, whether a panel that doesn't make recommendations for up-or-down votes on bills is worth the $1 million-plus spent by taxpayers since 2008.

The bill in the cross hairs would suspend for two years a systematic overhaul by the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation of a premium discount program proven good for many Ohio businesses and bad for lots of others. The legislation also prohibits the bureau from handing out surplus cash refunds or rebates to businesses without legislative approval in gubernatorial election years.

State Sen. Keith Faber, R-Celina, the bill's sponsor, sits on the Workers' Comp Council. His bill cleared the Republican-led Ohio Senate Jan. 27 without the council getting a chance to weigh in.

The Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation's chief actuarial officer expressed "grave concerns'' over the bill during Senate committee hearings.

"Ohio's group program is not a model used elsewhere in the United States because we do not have a secret to success,'' John Pedrick testified. "The program is widely known and discussed, but only because it does not work and creates instability in the overall workers' compensation system.''

McInerney said in an AP interview that she felt it wasn't possible to formally recommend a position on Senate Bill 213 without weighing the impacts on individual stakeholders in the workers' comp system, as the advisers suggested. Stakeholders include injured workers, employers, the state insurance fund, managed care organizations, third party administrators and medical care providers.

"My job is to, as best as I understand it, follow the directives of the council, which is what I've always done,'' she said. "The idea that there's a very thorough document we produced with a tremendous amount of valuable, high-quality information, and for people to be pointing a finger because we didn't put out a recommendation is oversimplifying. It's not looking at the entire picture of what we did as a staff.''

That 20-page analysis ended by explaining why the staff had decided not to recommend a yes or no vote on the bill. It said the advisers had "recommended that Council staff not make policy recommendations that are based on balancing stakeholder outcomes.''

Internal emails show staff debated several versions of the paragraph and that McInerney signed off on the final wording. She said she considers it an accurate portrayal of what was decided.

"I can't stress enough that if the council decides to take a different approach, we will take a different approach,'' McInerney said. "At the January council meeting, the fact that the analysis did not contain a recommendaton they could use to vote on was (to be) a subject of discussion.''

She said the council is "in its infant stages'' and its future should not be decided on the first analysis it handled.

Views of Ohio workers' comp panel's role

By: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Associated Press
Excerpts from public documents on whether the Ohio Workers' Compensation Council staff should make thumbs-up and thumbs-down recommendations on bills:

"Vice-chairman (state Rep. Tom) Letson indicated ... that staff should not make a recommendation based on balancing stakeholder outcomes, but instead let Council members reach their own conclusions. Mr. Kendis agreed. Ms. Yazback asked for clarification regarding whether Vice-chairman Letson was referencing only the stakeholder section of the analysis, or whether his preference was that the staff not make any formal recommendation in the analysis. The Vice-chairman indicated staff should make a formal recommendation regarding the overall merit of the legislative proposal ... but not reach a conclusion regarding the balance of effects on stakeholders." _Minutes of Dec. 3 meeting of the Advisory Committee that handles the council's day-to-day business.

"At the December 1, 2009, meeting of the Workers' Compensation Council Advisory Committee, the Committee _ recognizing the non-partisan position of Council staff _ recommended that Council staff not make policy recommendations that are based on balancing stakeholder outcomes. ... In following this directive, Council staff makes no further recommendations concerning S.B. 213 at this time." _Jan. 20 preliminary analysis of Senate Bill 213.

Editorial: Clean up the mess

Ohio legislative leaders should fix Workers' Compensation Council

Wednesday,  March 17, 2010 2:56 AM

The employers who pay into Ohio's Workers' Compensation system deserve a good explanation of what's going on with an agency formed nearly two years ago to keep an eye on the system's soundness and review proposed laws that could affect it.

The Workers' Compensation Council was created as part of a 2007 law in response to scandals at the bureau. Since Virginia McInerney was appointed as director in July 2008, the agency has spent $433,000 out of the workers' compensation premiums that employers pay and has produced only one analysis of proposed legislation. Appointed members of the council say they're still "fleshing out" basic rules about how it should operate. For example, they are deciding whether the agency should provide neutral, technical analyses of how a proposed bill would affect Workers' Compensation or offer opinions of whether proposed legislation would help or hurt.

Shouldn't that already be figured out, after a year and eight months?

Turmoil in the agency's small staff also should be investigated.

McInerney didn't hire her first staff member until February 2009; that administrative assistant quit after about four months and was replaced in July 2009. McInerney hired two staff attorneys in September 2009. In the six months since, the staff produced the one legislative analysis, which one council member criticized because it doesn't recommend whether the bill should pass. Meanwhile, McInerney fired all three employees last month amid accusations that she inappropriately injected her Christian beliefs into the workplace.

In letters to council chairman Sen. Stephen Buehrer, R-Delta, the employees said McInerney led them in prayer at work, told one employee to listen to recorded sermons and take notes, and told them she believed God had placed her in the job.

The idea for the council is sound. It was to function like the Ohio Retirement Study Council, which provides invaluable guidance and technical research to the legislature on matters involving state pensions. But the Workers' Compensation Council is far from that model.

Starting a new agency from scratch indeed takes time, as McInerney has pointed out, but it shouldn't take 20 months and nearly half a million dollars to do almost nothing.

The speaker of the Ohio House and the president of the Ohio Senate, who appoint the members of the council, should insist on significant changes before any more money is spent.

During this session of the General Assembly, there has been a great deal of discussion regarding government waste and cumbersome regulations. Each house of the General Assembly passed bills to focus on regulatory reform and the elimination of bureaucratic hurdles in order to do business in our state but because neither bill has been passed by both houses, the status quo remains. Another example of a regulation or rule that does little to help our communities is the focus of a bill I introduced that passed the House Agriculture and Natural Resources by a 20-1 vote and will now hopefully proceed to the floor of the House for a full vote.

The Ohio Department of Agriculture historically monitored the audits performed of county agricultural fair boards. After a Supreme Court decision that had nothing to do with audits, then-State Auditor Jim Petro decided county agricultural societies were public entities and, as a result, must be audited by the Auditor of State biennially even though many county fairs accept no taxpayer dollars for the operation of their fairs. A list of "Frequently Asked Questions" stated that the average cost of these audits would be around $1,500.

Fast forward a decade and while the audits continue, problems run rampant. Last year, nine county fairs paid audit costs in excess of $9,000, six times the initial estimate for the average cost, and the vast majority of fairs paid more than $3,000 in audit costs, again for money that is not taxpayer dollars. Many county fairs report problems with auditors taking boxes and boxes of records out of their offices and back to Columbus or other offices for months at a time, not to be seen for months until the records are accompanied by an audit report and a hefty bill that cannot be challenged easily, if at all. All of this means that while county agricultural societies continually try to do more with less, they are constantly paying more money for audits and then have less to spend on improving their fairs.

House Bill 402 will simplify the audit process. County agricultural societies will have to carefully track how any public or tax money received is spent and the public money will continue to be subject to a state audit. The State Auditor will not be able to charge more than $3,000 for the audit, which is twice the cost estimated ten years ago. County agricultural societies will be required to post public reports annually from each fair's treasurer on how much money was taken in and spent by the fair board.



As someone who frequently attends county fairs in the district I represent, I can attest that the livestock auctions and 4-H exhibits and judging bring a great deal of happiness to children and parents alike. I believe money that fair boards have to invest is much better spent on enhancing and expanding the opportunities to enjoy county fairs than it is on paying for unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles.

By Julie Carr Smyth
March 17, 2010

A state House of Representatives committee will review a council created to protect Ohio's insurance fund for injured workers in the wake of the firing of the council's three-member staff.

House Insurance Committee Chairman Dan Dodd of Hebron, a Democrat, said that hearings on the Ohio Workers' Compensation Council will begin March 24. He says the group has cost employers nearly $1 million and has completed just one bill analysis.

The council was created in 2007 in the wake of an investment scandal at the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation.

The staff of the council has accused director Virginia McInerney of wrongful discharge, religious discrimination and harassment, age discrimination and retaliation.

McInerney fired the three employees - two staff attorneys and an executive assistant - on Feb. 16.

Employees previously had complained about the leadership style and priorities of Director Virginia McInerney. McInerney was reported to have viewed the staff as often disrespectful, moody and at times uncooperative.

Discrimination claims by fired workers in limbo

By JULIE CARR SMYTH

COLUMBUS, OHIO

Public discussion of accusations of religious discrimination, harassment and retaliation by three fired state workers against their former boss was effectively silenced Monday with a legislative panel's creation of a subcommittee over personnel.

After nearly three hours behind closed doors, members of the Ohio Workers' Compensation Council voted unanimously to create a five-member subcommittee on personnel and promptly adjourned. The three dismissed employees -- attorneys Kim Finley and Shadya Yazback and executive assistant Sue Irwin -- left the room without having a chance to speak. The three worked for the council, which was created to look out for the security of Ohio's insurance fund for injured workers.

State Sen. Stephen Buehrer, who chairs the council, declined to elaborate on what the personnel committee's role would be, if any, in resolving the employees' allegations against their supervisor, Virginia McInerney.

Committee member Robert Kendis, a Cleveland workers' compensation attorney who proposed the idea, said the subcommittee would review administrative policies and personnel dealings over an unspecified time period. He said it "wasn't necessarily a solution" to the flap over the firings.

The three employees allege that McInerney, active in an evangelical megachurch northeast of Columbus and an occasional guest on "The 700 Club," led the staff regularly in prayer, provided them with copies of "God at Work" CDs to listen to, and encouraged one to read a book she wrote, titled "Single not Separate: How to Make the Church a Family."

In letters sent March 2 to council members, the three alleged they were wrongfully discharged and asked to change the terms of their terminations from firings to a settlement. McInerney has said all their allegations are false.

Buehrer said the council held the executive session because personnel matters and pending litigation are both confidential. He said McInerney will continue in her role as executive director.

"The director is a capable professional with the right skill set to carry on the duties of the office," he said.

In response to a question by Buehrer, legal counsel John Williams told the council that sharing details from the closed-door session with the public could cost those members who are attorneys their law licenses.

McInerney sat in on the first portion of the 13-member committee's executive session, presumably to provide a synopsis of the events that led to the firing of her staff last month. She spent the remainder of the closed-door meeting sitting alone in the Statehouse.

Before the executive session, council member Dan Dodd, chairman of the House Insurance Committee, announced he would hold hearings on the council's operations in the wake of the firings.

Dodd, a Hebron Democrat, said hearings on the council will begin March 24. He says the group has cost employers nearly $1 million and has completed just one bill analysis.

The council was created in 2007 in the wake of an investment scandal at the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation.

It is not unusual for investigations to be launched into allegations of harassment by state employees against those they supervise. A high-profile sexual harassment case at the office of former Attorney General Marc Dann in 2008 resulted in an internal investigation of alleged wrongdoing that ended in the firings of several aides.

The Ohio Department of Health placed deputy health director John W. Francis on leave in 2008 as it investigated allegations of sexual harassment against female employees. The allegations were substantiated and he was fired.

This case may be treated differently because the threat of legal action accompanied harassment allegations.

House panel will probe Workers' Comp Council

Tuesday,  March 16, 2010

By Jim Siegel and Mark Niquette

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

The chairman of the House Insurance Committee said yesterday that he will start legislative hearings soon to investigate the Ohio Workers' Compensation Council.

"The council has been in place for over two years, it has cost Ohio employers nearly $1 million and it has only completed one bill analysis," said Rep. Dan Dodd, D-Hebron, the panel chairman. "We must review the costs and effectiveness of this council because, in a tough economy, employers must know that their money is being spent appropriately."

The council, meanwhile, met privately for more than two hours last night to address the firings of the entire three-member council staff last month, but it took no action besides creating a committee to "review and develop personnel policies and review the employees of the council."

State Sen. Stephen Buehrer, R-Delta, declined comment on the firings, citing personnel issues and possible litigation.

The two staff attorneys and administrative assistant fired by Director Virginia McInerney have accused McInerney of religious discrimination and harassment, saying she inappropriately brought her religious views into the office. She has denied any wrongdoing.

jsiegel@dispatch.com
mniquette@dispatch.com

General Assembly should abolish its do-nothing Workers' Compensation Council: editorial

BY MARK NIQUETTE

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH