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Indiana's homeland security CFO fired for nepotism; she claims gender bias

Tony Cook
The Indianapolis Star

INDIANAPOLIS — The chief financial officer at the Indiana Department of Homeland Security has been fired after her family members were hired to work at the agency.

Indiana Department of Homeland Security logo

The state is disclosing few details about the Aug. 9 termination of Leann Walton, 47, of Danville, who had been the agency's CFO since 2012.

A Homeland Security department spokesman referred IndyStar to the state personnel department, which provided a one-sentence explanation of the firing.

"Leann Walton was dismissed from the Department of Homeland Security on 8/9/16 for poor (judgment) and lack of candor related to her involvement in the agency engaging the services of her relatives," the description said.

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Neither the Homeland Security nor personnel departments would provide further details.

Walton's sister, Lisa Hunt, worked at the agency from April 29 to Aug. 5. Her aunt, Patricia Burdine, also worked at the agency from April 8 to July 22. Both were hired through a temporary agency.

State law prohibits nepotism, or the hiring of relatives. It also says employees may not be placed in a relative's direct line of supervision.

Walton and her attorney, Steven Fulk, told IndyStar that she did not play a role in the decision to hire Hunt and Burdine and did not directly supervise them. The state personnel department was aware of the relationships among the three women and signed off on the hirings, they said.

Hunt and Fulk suggested there were other motives behind the firing.

During that same period of time, Walton had been questioning "why she was the lowest paid CFO in the state, and why it appeared she was being paid less on basis of her gender," Fulk said.

When Walton was passed over for a raise in May despite three years of exceeding or meeting expectations on her annual performance reviews, she wrote a letter to the state personnel department explaining why she felt she deserved a raise, Fulk said.

A short time later, Department of Homeland Security Executive Director David Kane expressed concerns about the employment of her relatives, even though the personnel department had cleared the hirings, Walton said.

"He told me he didn’t think I understood the nepotism rule," she said.

She ended up getting approved for a raise, but was then fired, she said. Her termination letter cites "poor (judgment) and lack of candor," but does not mention her relatives, she said.

The personnel department listed her salary as $89,683.

Walton plans to appeal the termination through the State Employees' Appeals Commission, Fulk said.

Follow Tony Cook on Twitter: @indystartony

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