By Madison Kwiecinski

On Thursday, Oct. 5, Gov. Josh Shapiro was announcing a Lehigh valley conservation project when he finally spoke out publicly about his former high-ranking aide who resigned due to sexual harassment allegations. Mike Vereb, the aide in question, was also the Secretary of Legislative Affairs, and the allegations apparently occurred months before he resigned.

Although Shapiro avoided mentioning Vereb directly by name and diverted questions to focus on how his administration has made the women there feel comfortable rather than addressing the questions directly, he did make several statements clearly intended to address the situation.

Shapiro stated that during his time as Attorney General in Pennsylvania, he learned that when addressing allegations, “you owe it to a witness, you owe it to a complaint, you owe it to a victim to make sure that you have a confidential process. You have a rigorous process that;s grounded in integrity to ensure that their voice can be heard and do ensure that appropriate outcomes are brought about and we are committed to doing that and do it in our Administration.”

The question then becomes whether or not this situation was handled appropriately within the administration, as it seems to have taken several months for the allegations to have resulted in any results or repercussions.

The complaint that was filed against Mike Vereb with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission on May 26 was obtained by Spotlight PA, and they have stated the complaint alleges harassment from February, soon after the Shaprio administration took office up until the time the complaint was filed in May.

A Spokesperson for the Shapiro Administration, Manuel Bonder, said that the “administration does not comment on specific personal matters, it takes allegations of discrimination and harassment seriously.”

He also stated that he recognizes employees might report allegations to entities like the HUman Relations Commission, and that “reports made to those entities are addressed in accordance with the law.”

Essentially, when a complaint is filed the first step is for a “fact finding conference” to be held and then both the respondent and complainant can present their cases and evidence. However, if all the parties involved are not willing to cooperate at this stage it could bring this to a halt.

At this point mentioned above, or at any point during the investigation both parties can opt to settle the case or come to a form of resolution, and if it does not then it can proceed to public trial.

In fact, Amanda Brothman, a spokesperson for the commission, told Spotlight PA in an email that, “As part of the PHRC’s complaint and investigation process, parties may choose to settle privately at any point.”

The staffer who filed the complaint apparently vacated their position in the administration in March, shortly after sharing their concerns about Verbs behavior with H.R. Representatives within the Shapiro administration.

Almost immediately following Vereb’s resignation, Shapiro’s office put out a statement confirming he would be leaving the administration and stating they would have his replacement appointed in early October, though this has not yet occurred.

While Shapiro has continued to decline to comment on specifics regarding the allegations, citing that it is a personnel matter, he did say, “Our administration is led by two women…my Chief of Staff and our General Counsel,” he stated referring to Dana Fritza and Jennifer Selber respectively. “And we work every day to make sure that we have a healthy, safe, professional working environment for all of our employees.”