Ted Wendling
Plain Dealer (Cleveland)
Copyright 2006 Plain Dealer Publishing Co.
Columbus, Ohio — Kevin Evans, an emergency medical technician assigned full time to the Ohio Statehouse, had one of the cushiest jobs in state government.
Paid $33,446 a year, he held down three other jobs, seldom punched a time clock and, with the permission of his supervisors, taught emergency medicine classes and took college courses while being paid by the state.
On those days when he was at the Statehouse, investigators found, he spent an average of five hours a day trolling the Internet on his state computer, talking in chat rooms and setting up online dates.
During their review of Evans’ computer activity, investigators for Ohio Inspector General Tom Charles found that the 39-year-old EMS technician had expertise not only in shallow breathing but in heavy breathing, too.
They found hundreds of hard-core pornographic images on his computer, as well as evidence that Evans used his office and other state resources to set up midday sexual liaisons near downtown with men he met online.
Those are just a few of the findings of an investigation, released Friday, into employee misconduct and lax management at the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board, an obscure agency that oversees maintenance, operations and security on Capitol Square.
The 13-member board is chaired by former Senate President Richard Finan. Its executive director is William Carleton, who is paid $100,000 a year to manage 72 employees and an annual budget that exceeds $6 million.
Reached Monday by phone, Evans would not comment, noting that he had resigned. Carleton and Finan also declined to comment.
“I just haven’t read the report enough to comment on it,” Finan said, adding that he was disturbed by the disclosures about Evans.
Records show that Evans was put on leave Aug. 11 and resigned Aug. 31. Charles said he referred the case to the Columbus city attorney’s office for possible prosecution.
Charles’ report notes that Evans’ supervisors rarely knew what he was doing. On one rare occasion when his services were needed - Nov. 3, when a female Statehouse employee was found unconscious in her office - he couldn’t be found.
The report also skewers Carleton, former Executive Director Ron Keller and two subordinates for allowing employees to frequently borrow speakers, microphones, fog machines, tents, water coolers, tools and other state equipment.
Records show that Deputy Director Dennis Trimble and three other employees borrowed many of those items for their gospel band, One Way.
The report also criticizes Trimble, who is paid $66,102 a year, for claiming 38 hours of compensatory time off while attending social events at out-of-town conferences, “including various dinners and a riverboat cruise and Louisiana night.”
“Trimble stated that he considered this time as work because he was serving as the sergeant at arms ... and he had to monitor the evening’s events,” the report says.