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LINCOLN — A leading state senator says that if allegations against Carol Stitt, the longtime director of the Nebraska Foster Care Review Board, are found to be true, she should be removed from office.
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel announced Monday that it had filed a complaint seeking Stitt's firing, alleging that she had violated the federal Hatch Act by using her office to campaign for Tom Osborne when he was running for the Republican nomination for governor in 2006.
The special counsel filed its complaint with the federal Merit Systems Protection Board. That board has jurisdiction because Stitt's agency receives federal funds.
State Sen. John Harms of Scottsbluff said Stitt should have been aware of the provisions of the federal act, which prohibits partisan political activity among government officials.
Harms said Stitt should be held accountable if the merit systems board decides she violated the act.
“No matter how good a person you are, or how good of a job you do, that just brings down the whole agency,” said Harms. “You're the leader.”
Stitt said she was stunned by the special counsel's recommendation, which her attorney called “much ado about very little.”
“We feel very strongly that the facts of this situation will lead to a finding by the board of no penalty,” said Steve Grasz, Stitt's attorney.
The complaint alleges that Stitt, who has led the review agency since 1983, urged her employees and foster care families to attend a campaign event for Osborne.
The allegations aren't new. In 2007, the Nebraska Foster Care Review Board declined to take disciplinary action against Stitt after an investigation by the State Ombudsman's Office and a private internal review by Allen Curtis, a former Lincoln police chief. Stitt reports to the Foster Care Review Board.
It might be several weeks or months before the federal merit systems board rules on the case. The board has no authority to fire Stitt but could order that the federal government withhold two years' worth of salary — $185,936 — as punishment.
Stitt and her attorney said her actions in 2006 were motivated by a desire to have employees and foster parents meet Osborne, who was pushing for an overhaul of the foster care system in his primary race against Dave Heineman.
“I really didn't see it as a problem,” Stitt said, noting that Osborne was a U.S. congressman at the time and had a long history of concern for children's issues.
A performance audit done by the Legislative Research Office in December 2008 concluded that Stitt had potentially violated the Hatch Act. The audit stated that employees could have felt pressure to attend the event and that contributing to and supporting Osborne were implicit in Stitt's invitation.
The audit recommended that the Foster Care Review Board seek a ruling from the Nebraska Attorney General's Office about whether Stitt had violated the Hatch Act.
The state board didn't take action on the recommendation. Harms, chairman of the Legislature's Performance Audit Committee, sent the board a stern letter in March, telling it to seek a ruling from the U.S. special counsel, which is the federal authority on the Hatch Act.
That led to Monday's recommendation.
Georgie Scurfield of Papillion, chairwoman of the Foster Care Review Board, said she would meet Wednesday with three other members of the board's executive committee to decide how to proceed.
“We are taking it seriously,” Scurfield said.
The executive committee, she said, could only recommend a course of action. Disciplining or removing Stitt would take a vote of the full 11-member board.
Scurfield also said the committee could decide that no action should be taken until the federal merit systems board makes a decision.
Stitt and Grasz said that in similar cases, it took much more egregious actions — such as running a political campaign from a public office — to warrant a recommendation of removal by the federal merit systems board.
Stitt just received an award from Nebraska Supreme Court Chief Justice Mike Heavican for her work with children, and Grasz said her lack of previous offenses and her motivation for inviting people to the Osborne event should work in her favor.
Harms, however, said other senators have voiced concerns about operations at the Foster Care Review Board, including infighting among board members.
Maybe, he said, it's time for “fresh leadership.”
Contact the writer:
402-473-9584, paul.hammel@owh.com
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