( This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy. )
A former employee of Mayor Andrew Ginther alleged she was illegally required to work long hours, including on Ginther's reelection campaign, which led to the city paying her a $195,000 settlement last month.
The settlement the city council approved with Denise Bauer, a former executive assistant, was presented as settling unpaid overtime and attorney fees. New details about how Bauer says she accrued that overtime were revealed in a settlement agreement and other records released by the city on Thursday, as first reported by the Ohio Capital Journal. The Dispatch also obtained the records.
Jennifer Fening, spokesperson for Ginther, said in a statement Friday that the city believes it did nothing wrong in the tasks assigned to Bauer.
"It’s the role of the mayor’s scheduler to understand the many requests of the mayor’s time and balance his official and personal responsibilities," she said in the statement. "Effectively managing his calendar is a core work responsibility of the role, and is completely appropriate."
In a draft of a lawsuit Bauer's attorney Edward Hastie did not file but provided to the city, Hastie said Bauer regularly worked 50 or 60 hours per week but was not compensated for time she worked over 40 hours. Hastie alleged that during Ginther's 2023 reelection campaign, Bauer regularly fielded "extensive inquiries and communications from Mayor Ginther's campaign staff asking her to perform work for the Mayor's campaign."
The document also alleged that after Bauer raised concerns about the inappropriateness of her working on the campaign, she was forced to resign on Aug. 3, 2023, effective Dec. 31, 2023.
"She was constructively terminated for calling into question the Mayor's work practices and intertwining of City and Campaign workload and staff," the draft lawsuit stated.
Bauer did not return to the office after Aug. 3, 2023 but collected a paycheck through Dec. 31.
In the meantime, Ginther won his reelection bid in November 2023 with 63% of the vote to challenger Joe Motil's 36%.
Hastie first contacted the city on Jan. 3 about a "claim against the administration for potential wage/hour/overtime violations, wrongful termination, and possibly other sensitive claims from her years as an employee in the Mayor's office."
When this settlement was brought before Columbus City Council for approval in September, Brian Shinn, deputy chief of staff to City Attorney Zach Klein, told council members that it was in the best interest of the city to settle the claim rather than fight it.
Hastie, directed The Dispatch to the settlement agreement, saying neither party admitted any wrongdoing. He declined to comment further and said Bauer would have no comment.
Bauer was first hired by the mayor's office in 2017. According to her personnel file, city staff reported Bauer for inappropriate behavior near the end of her time at city hall. Two male employees in the mayor's office alleged Bauer sat in their laps at work uninvited on June 29, 2023, and a female employee who witnessed this corroborated the story.
In a July 2023 memo to Bauer, Ken Paul, the mayor's then chief of staff, raised concerns about the June incident, unprofessional verbal altercations with several city staff members and "emotional and unprofessional" text messages Bauer sent to Paul, Ginther and other senior staff.
The memo included a behavior improvement plan, which Bauer signed on July 14, 2023.
jlaird@dispatch.com
@LairdWrites
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Mayor's assistant who won OT settlement alleges she was forced to work on Ginther campaign
Local News