Heritage of Flight Cruise-In
Homecomings of the past
Team Xtreme in Kettering
A day after resigning, Marc Dann now helping his wife run her business
Friday, May 16, 2008
COLUMBUS — Marc Dann lost his job, but he's not out of work.
On his first day as former attorney general, Dann walked two miles from his home in Liberty Twp. to his new job, helping his wife, Alyssa Lenhoff, run Zesty Dishes.
Extras
He took orders, packed dishes and pitched in, according to Mike Harshman, Dann's long-time friend.
"He has been helpful in that business all along. It's not something new to him," Harshman said. Zesty Dishes sells Fiesta Dinnerware online.
Harshman said Dann is weighing his career options. He has considered the law, teaching or — sometime down the road — even another run for political office. "He is not ruling anything out is what I'm saying," Harshman said. "He has no plans."
Dann couldn't be reached for comment. Harshman, an attorney and a private pilot, has been at Dann's side frequently the last two weeks. It was Harshman who sat with Dann in his office Wednesday, May 14, when state Inspector General Tom Charles seized Dann's state-issued computer and Blackberry and his campaign-funded cell phone. Harshman advised Dann to walk out of the office with only the clothes on his back — leaving family photos and even his law degree from Case Western Reserve University on the wall.
And it was Harshman who flew Dann home to Youngstown after Dann resigned as attorney general on Wednesday.
"I flew him back and I delivered him to the hands of his wife, his son and his father-in-law," Harshman said.
"They were all very happy to see each other. A tearful reunion."
Meanwhile, Charles said on Thursday,
"We're going to look at everything and anything. We may find things down the road that we're not aware of today."
Up until this week, the inspector general's jurisdiction was only over the governor and his agencies, not constitutional officeholders.
He met with the Ohio Ethics Commission, Ohio Highway Patrol, and Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O'Brien and extended invitations to any other entities, such as the secretary of state and Ohio Elections Commission, to participate.
Charles led a task force of the same players during an extensive investigation into financial and ethics scandals at the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation. That investigation, which is ongoing, led to 19 criminal convictions.
Dann resigned Wednesday, 12 days after the release of an internal report that substantiated allegations of sexual harassment. Dann admitted an extramarital affair with a 28-year-old employee that he acknowledged may have sent the wrong message to his employees about how to conduct themselves.
Contact this reporter at (614) 224-1624 or lbischoff@DaytonDailyNews.com.
