Pa. House Democrats fight efforts of ex-aides to collect unemployment

HARRISBURG - Legislative aides who lost their jobs in a November staff shake-up are seeking unemployment benefits, but the House Democratic caucus is fighting those efforts.

The shake-up was linked to a grand jury investigation into whether legislative staff bonuses were illegal rewards for political work.

Harry Fenton, a lawyer for one of the ousted aides, told the Patriot-News of Harrisburg that the caucus' attempt to bar the workers from collecting unemployment was part of a campaign by House Majority Leader Bill DeWeese (D., Greene) to use the aides as scapegoats.

Steve Keefer, the former director of Democratic information technologies, told a Labor and Industry Department official on Monday that he was not given a reason for his dismissal.

Bill Sloane, the House Democrats' chief counsel, said Keefer approved a contract in June 2005 - without legal review - with a computer firm that employed Keefer's predecessor in the information technology department.

Sloane said that deal resulted in a waste of public money and indicated Keefer had managerial shortcomings. Keefer said he believed the contract had been in the works before he was appointed and was not told it required legal review.

Keefer initially qualified for $539 in weekly unemployment benefits; his salary was $96,000, and he received a bonus of nearly $18,000 in 2006.

A hearing for another unemployment compensation appeal, concerning former House Democratic administrative specialist Lauren McClure, is scheduled for tomorrow.

DeWeese spokesman Tom Andrews declined to comment, and Fenton did not return a phone message seeking comment left by the Associated Press yesterday.

In November, DeWeese pushed out Keefer, McClure, and five other top aides in the midst of an investigation by state prosecutors and a grand jury into nearly $4 million in bonuses that Democratic and Republican leaders paid to hundreds of their employees over the previous two years.