Wednesday, August 09, 2000
Butler Co. candidate calls for drug tests
By Steve Kemme
The Cincinnati Enquirer
HAMILTON — Robin Piper, the Republican candidate for Butler County prosecutor who admitted using illegal drugs in his youth, is advocating random testing for prosecutor's office employees.
Robin Piper
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He said Tuesday he thinks the public deserves assurances that all public employees are drug-free.
“You see a guy in a trench hooking up gas lines, you want to know he is a safe person to be doing that,” Mr. Piper said.
The same is true for white-collar public employees such as prosecutors, he said.
“It just gives the taxpayers a little more confidence in what we're doing and what we're about,” he said. “I would be willing to be the first in line for drug tests to let my employees know they have a leader who's willing to do what he's asking them to do.”
He called on Prosecutor Dan Gattermeyer, a Democrat, to immediately adopt a drug-testing program for his employees.
Mr. Gattermeyer blasted the idea and said instituting such a program would be extremely insulting to his staff.
“Piper's campaign has been one of vicious personal attacks, and for him to affront my employees in this way is a continuation of that policy,” he said.
Mr. Gattermeyer was appointed prosecutor last week. He replaced John F. Holcomb, who was running for re-election when he died of a heart attack July 22. Mr. Gattermeyer will take Mr. Holcomb's place on the Nov. 7 ballot in the prosecutor's race.
He said he has an excellent staff that has stood strong while grieving Mr. Holcomb's death.
“To have him say we need drug tests is not fair to my employees,” Mr. Gattermeyer said. “My staff doesn't deserve that, and I'm not going to stand for that.”
Mr. Piper said his position on drug testing for prosecutor's office employees has no connection to the criticism he received from his political opponents for his past drug use.
Earlier this year, Mr. Holcomb revealed that Mr. Piper had been convicted of a minor misdemeanor offense in 1981 for possession of marijuana. Mr. Piper then publicly admitted he had used drugs extensively in his youth.
“Those who know me and who have watched me in court know that I earned my redemption a long, long time ago,” he said.
Mr. Piper criticized Mr. Gattermeyer's recent drug-education radio ads that are funded with money seized from drug offenders.
Mr. Piper said the ads mention Mr. Gattermeyer's name and are thinly disguised political campaign promotions. “I really think it's playing politics with public money,” Mr. Piper said.
Mr. Gattermeyer said there's nothing political about the ads.
The ads promote a pamphlet issued by the prosecutor's office that instructs parents how to communicate with their children about the dangers of drugs.
Mr. Holcomb, who paid for the ads with the drug-seizure money, had spoken in the ads. After his death, the ads were redone with Mr. Gattermeyer's voice.
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