Ohio work. comp. council is run by a religious nut

[Sara Bradi]

Fired state workers accuse their boss of religious harassment
By Aaron Marshall, The Plain Dealer
March 03, 2010, 7:01PM

Updated at 3:30 p.m. Thursday

Virginia McInerney spoke to The Plain Dealer Thursday and denied the claims made against her by her former employees. "I certainly deny the wrongdoing they are alleging," she said.

She said the women told her on Feb. 10 that they couldn't work for her anymore, but asked for terms in a mutual separation agreement that she couldn't grant under state law, such as eight weeks severance pay and a confidentiality pact that McInerney said would have violated Ohio's open records law.

more...

http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2010/03/fired_state_workers_accuse_the.html

Rep. Bill Batchelder, a Medina Republican who chaired the council when McInerney was hired, said he knew her from when she worked for decades for the Legislative Service Commission doing research on workers' compensation-related issues. He said her work was "always top-shelf" and that the board was thrilled when she accepted the post paying $102,000 per year.

McInerney's Web site promotes a Christian relationship book she has written entitled "Single Not Separate." The site refers to her as a regular seminar teacher at a Columbus evangelical church and states that "she now turns her writing talent toward a passion God has placed in her heart to cast new vision for singles and the church."

Batchelder said that McInerney was upset when she called him Friday to tell him that she had fired her entire staff. "She said there was real tension in the office, and she had been having real problems with the staff," he said. "I have no idea what happened."

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I am curious as to what was in confidentiality pact that the three assistants wanted.

Sounds like she had a rough life, Batchelder got her a $102,000/year job so she could spend her time promoting her book and abuse her power to coerce others into her religion.

[Sara Bradi]

1. Ohio BWC wastes another 2 Million

(on edit, small additions)
I know the Ohio dems came to power in 2007 and this panel was instituted by the repubs, but the dems haven't been doing their job if Ohio's employers paid 2 million over three years for a silly report by a bunch of fighting sorority sisters.

Unemployed families are hungry & starving, the state can't afford this kind of waste. Democrats do your job and clean up this mess.

Someone please put a lien on Virginia McInerney's house and the money she receives from her book sales, after all she was promoting her book on the state's dime.

General Assembly should abolish its do-nothing Workers' Compensation Council: editorial
By The Plain Dealer Editorial Board
March 13, 2010, 3:59AM

The Ohio employers -- job creators -- who foot the bill for the legislature's fledgling Workers' Compensation Council need the General Assembly to review the council's meager output and murky mission.

And another fair question: Why can't the Legislative Service Commission, the General Assembly's universally respected bill-drafting and research arm, do what the council is supposed to be doing?

Republican legislators created the Workers' Compensation Council in 2007. According to House Minority Leader William G. Batchelder, a Medina Republican, they wanted to provide legislators with the kind of data the long-standing Retirement Study Council provides them about Ohio's retirement systems.

http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/03/general_assembly_should_abolis.html

The council, however, isn't working as planned. The Plain Dealer's Columbus bureau quoted Newark-area Rep. Dan Dodd, a Democrat, wondering if it justifies its (employer-funded) $650,000 budget. The Columbus Dispatch reported the council has produced just one analysis of proposed workers' compensation legislation.

What brought the council to public attention was the firing last month of its three employees by council director Virginia McInerney. The employees allege the firings were retaliation for resisting purported attempts by McInerney to inject her religious convictions into their workplace.