Vanessa Niekamp
I'm not sure why she would play the race card.
Can you elaborate?
Posted on 12/05/2008 2:07:47 PM PST by Big_Monkey
The state worker who unwittingly ran an improper child-support check on the man known as Joe the Plumber told lawmakers yesterday that a deputy director later "dictated" how she was supposed to cover it up.
Vanessa Niekamp, an administrator for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services' Office of Child Support and a 15-year state employee, said that when Deputy Director Doug Thompson came into her office, "He appeared very upset, his neck was bright red, and he was shaking. He closed my door."
Thompson told her she must write an e-mail to the agency's information-security officer, and then "dictated word for word" what she wrote, Niekamp said. He also reminded her that she could be fired at any time, she said.
"Within an hour, I took the rest of the day off -- again using my vacation time -- and went directly to the office of the inspector general. I told them everything I knew about what happened."
Niekamp took another day of vacation yesterday to testify before the House State Government and Elections Committee about legislation that calls for the firing of any unclassified state employee who improperly accesses confidential personal information.
Rep. Shannon Jones, a Springboro Republican sponsoring House Bill 648, said she introduced the measure because she thinks that high-ranking officials such as Job and Family Services Director Helen Jones-Kelley weren't punished enough.
"The systematic misuse of government databases and the governor's woeful under-reaction to state government workers engaging in this outrageous behavior make House Bill 648 necessary," she told the committee.
Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, placed Jones-Kelley on a one-month unpaid suspension last month after Inspector General Thomas P. Charles found she authorized the check on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, for no legitimate government purpose.
Thompson also was suspended for a month after Charles found that he participated in directing the check and instructed Niekamp to send a deceptive e-mail about it. Three others received lesser punishment.
The checks came the day after Republican presidential nominee John McCain talked about Wurzelbacher in his final presidential debate Oct. 15 with Democrat Barack Obama.
The next day, Niekamp said, Assistant Deputy Director Carri Brown asked her to check the state child-support computer system for Wurzelbacher.
Brown "claimed that he had contacted our agency with a dispute about how much child support he owed," Niekamp said.
Niekamp, who did not recognize the name, said Brown took some notes, thanked her and left.
A week later, Thompson came to her office with a different explanation -- that he, Jones-Kelley and assistant director Fred Williams had requested the check.
"Doug told me that the person Carri had asked me to look up was Joe the Plumber -- the one who was talked about in the national news. He said he needed my help explaining something," Niekamp said.
"Doug then told me I must write an e-mail to our agency's information-security officer to explain why the file had been accessed. He turned my computer screen so he could see it and dictated word for word what he wanted me to write. ...
"He then told me that we needed to make sure that we answer questions about what happened the same way, so that our versions were not different from each other. Before he said that, he reminded me that I was an unclassified employee -- which, as you may know, is someone who can be fired without cause."
Niekamp said she knew the checks were improper because the staff undergoes training and must read and sign a form explaining when they can access confidential and personal information maintained by the department.
"Both Doug and Carri can access the (child-support) system and could have accessed a file without my involvement," Niekamp said. "To this day, I do not understand why they asked me to look at this information when they could have easily done this themselves."
I remember reading that at least one person with the Toledo Police department has been investigated and possibly indicted for leaking information to a local NBC affiliate in Toledo.
Beyond that, I’m not aware of anyone else being named as a news source.
She’ll be okay. The party will take care of her.
I’ve seen this woman’s picture and I personally feel she’s in this up to her neck and making obvious claims to throw the blame off on someone else not of the same color (e.g., ‘bright red neck’), myself. Play the race card lady.
So why is it going nowhere? Isn't there anyone / group on the right that would force it to be news? You know the answer. That's why we lost the country.
I’m not a mind reader, but I believe you’re confusing Vanessa Niekamp with Ohio Family Services Director Helen Jones-Kelley.
Ms. Niekamp was just a civil servant, minding her own business, when she got caught up in this “scheme” by Jones-Kelley and her boss, Deputy Director Doug Thompson.
The other possibility is that they wanted her gone. So they had the inappropriate access done by her, with her user ID, so that they could follow the law and fire her for breaking the law. And it covers their butts, saying they fired the inappropriate data accessor.
Well I hate to be negative but from my observations, good OL Joe is the wrong color and/or sex for there to be any meaningful federal investigation.
BUMP that! Joe has every reason to sue their freaking eyeballs out, slam dunk.
She’s also trying to save her own job ... the time is well spent, tho it should be allocated retroactively as ‘official business.’
My bad you’re right
Yes, and she’s not out of it yet. She was lucky the IG, for whatever reason, wasn’t a tool of management because they usually are. I think the direction came from a much higher level and they were afraid not to investigate. I hope the woman gets to keep her job. As far as management is concerned...they should be on the street right now...and heavily fined for betraying the trust required in their type jobs.
THIS IS A CRIME~!! WHY ARE CHARGES *NOT* BEING FILED? WHO SAYS A MONTH SUSPENSION IS ADEQUATE?????
Most government agencies in Ohio are corrupt.
Bravo for the Whistle blower!
Oh my gosh, I really am not looking forward to more of this Change. I’d rather have good, old fashioned freedom.
Yep. And he might be able to win some "no show" state plumbing contracts, too :-)
Note the elephant brooch in the photo of Niekamp.
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