Ed FitzGerald.JPG

Ed FitzGerald and the state's Republican party sparred on Sunday over the resignation of two members of Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor's staff.

(Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer)

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Cuyahoga County executive and Democrat gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald and the state's Republican party sparred on Sunday after FitzGerald called for answers to questions surrounding the resignation of Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor's chief of staff and her assistant.

Taylor's chief of staff, Laura Johnson, and Johnson's administrative assistant, Heather Brandt, both resigned on Friday after Taylor discovered irregularities between their time sheets and key card information that detailed in and out access in offices and a parking garage.

"Governor Kasich needs to demand some answers from his lieutenant governor," FitzGerald's campaign said in a statement.

FitzGerald's campaign press secretary, Lauren Hitt, also questioned how Taylor could be unaware Johnson was not at work, what made Brandt's work environment hostile and if Taylor "failed to exercise appropriate oversight" as the head of the state's Department of Insurance.

Taylor's spokesperson Chris Brock said Taylor has many duties as lieutenant governor and trusted Johnson to take care of the office.

"It's her chief of staff's job to manage the office on a day-to-day basis," Brock said. "Based on those irregularities, that didn't seem to be the case."

Ohio Republican Party spokesman Chris Schrimpf said FitzGerald is withholding the same information from the public that Taylor used to discover the discrepancies following a public records request from the political blog Plunderbund.

FitzGerald has refused to release his key-card records requested by the Northeast Ohio Media Group. Sheriff Frank Bova said in May eight people had made threats against FitzGerald but refused to provide any other details of the threats.

"FitzGerald is withholding the very information from the public and the Plain Dealer that is in question," Schrimpf said in a statement. "So the real question is what is Ed Fitzgerald hiding? Why is he hiding records that even Jimmy DiMora made available?"

Taylor, in her letter to the Inspector General, said she discovered the discrepancies between Johnson's and Brandt's time cards and key card information that detailed in and out access in offices and a parking garage when fulfilling a public record's request for the blog Plunderbund.

She then referred the case to the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Ohio Inspector General.

Brandt cited a "hostile work environment" in her resignation and Johnson listed no reason.

In her letter to the inspector general, Taylor said she had authorized some flexibility in work schedules for both women "due to certain personal issues each was experiencing."

But in looking over the information from the records request, "it appears that ... both Ms. Johnson and Ms. Brandt claimed more hours away from the Riffe Center than I anticipated," Taylor said in her letter.

"Mary Taylor has some explaining to do and the only one who can demand she explain the failure of her supervision is her boss, Governor John Kasich," FitzGerald said. "Ohioans will be waiting to see if the governor takes action or if he thinks his administration is exempt from accountability."