By Paul Hammel
WORLD-HERALD BUREAU
LINCOLN — The Nebraska Foster Care Review Board agreed this afternoon that its long-time director should serve a 60-day suspension without pay for violating a federal act barring political campaigning.
The board voted 9-0 in a hastily called meeting in Lincoln to agreed to the suspension of Carol Stitt, who has headed the agency for 26 years. The vote heads off a long legal proceeding that could have led to a recommendation that Stitt be terminated.
Last month, the federal Office of Special Counsel alleged that Stitt had violated the Hatch Act by urging employees and foster families to attend a fund-raiser for then-gubernatorial candidate Tom Osborne in 2006.
The special counsel had recommended that Stitt lose her job if the allegation was upheld by the federal Merit Systems Protection Board.
But Stitt’s attorney, Steve Grasz of Omaha, reached a plea deal with the counsel’s office — a deal that needed the blessing of the state foster care review board.
Stitt, who is paid nearly $93,000-a-year, will begin serving the suspension when she returns from vacation on Jan. 12.
