4 in hot water over 'Joe the Plumber' searches

updated 5:24 a.m. ET Nov. 22, 2008

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Two more senior managers at the Ohio agency where computers were used to dig up information about "Joe the Plumber" have been suspended without pay for their roles in the searches, an official at the agency said Friday.

Fred Williams, the Department of Job and Family Services' assistant director, will be placed on two weeks unpaid suspension beginning Monday, spokeswoman Scarlett Bouder said in a statement. Doug Thompson, the department's deputy director of child support, is facing a four-week unpaid suspension, also starting on Monday,

Two other agency employees are facing disciplinary action based on conclusions reached Thursday by Ohio's government watchdog, she said.

The department's director, Helen Jones-Kelley, improperly ordered staff to look up records on Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, the Toledo-area man who became a household name in the final weeks of the presidential campaign, Ohio Inspector General Thomas Charles said in a report.

Gov. Ted Strickland immediately ordered Jones-Kelley be placed on a one-month unpaid suspension after reviewing the report's findings.

Charles' report also outlines roles played by Williams and Thompson in the searches, as well as Paul Fraunholtz, the deputy director of family stability, and Judi Cicatiello, the deputy director of unemployment compensation.

Fraunholtz and Cicatiello will receive written reprimands, and all four employees must undergo ethics training on handling confidential data, Bouder said.

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