LJWorld.com / Legislators want more details on punishment of lottery workers

Archive for Tuesday, January 23, 2001

The Associated Press

January 23, 2001

Topeka — Some legislators are frustrated that the Kansas Lottery's top administrator won't give them details about employees disciplined for putting pornography and other inappropriate material on agency computers.

Lottery Executive Director Ed Van Petten told the House Federal and State Affairs Committee Monday that all the employees responsible were disciplined. All still work for the lottery.

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Some committee members expressed displeasure about not getting more information. Van Petten would not disclose details of the disciplinary actions, describing them as internal personnel matters.

"They keep saying they handled it, but they don't say how they've handled it," said Rep. Rick Rehorn, D-Kansas City.

Rehorn and Rep. Tony Powell, R-Wichita, said they couldn't judge if the lottery handled the incidents appropriately without knowing exactly what disciplinary steps were taken.

But committee chairman Doug Mays, R-Topeka, defended Van Petten, saying that while state law may not prevent Van Petten from speaking about personnel matters, he and the lottery would risk lawsuits for violating employee privacy.

At the end of the meeting, Mays praised Van Petten, who became lottery director in October, for being forthright and candid.

Van Petten ended three days of testimony before the House committee and is scheduled to testify today before the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Much of the House committee's meeting Monday centered on the discovery of inappropriate material on four lottery computers.

One computer, no longer in use, contained a pornographic video file and three audio files, one of which Van Petten described as obscene. The lottery discovered the files last August, but they were dated from 1996.

Two other computers also had pornographic material on them, discovered during an examination of agency equipment in November.

A fourth computer had a mock Internet site titled, "Girls of the Lottery," featuring material about female lottery employees. It was several years old, Van Petten said.