Top Pa. Senate leader attacks Gov. Josh Shapiro over his handling of the sexual harassment allegations involving a top aide

HARRISBURG — The top Republican in the Pennsylvania Senate denounced Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration Monday for keeping a top aide in his influential role for months after another governor’s office employee accused him of sexual harassment.

Mike Vereb, Shapiro’s secretary of legislative affairs, resigned abruptly last week. He had been accused of sexually harassing an aide earlier this year, according to documents reviewed by The Inquirer and sources familiar with the matter.

“It really makes me so angry that I have to stop talking because I’ll say things I shouldn’t,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Kim Ward (R., Westmoreland) in an interview Monday with The Inquirer. “It’s so infuriating that [Vereb] stayed in that position for months, one of the highest positions in the administration.”

Vereb’s accuser, who worked for him for less than two months until she resigned from her position in March, said he made sexual advances toward her and lewd remarks about other staff members, according to a statement she gave in March to the state office of Equal Employment Opportunity and a separate complaint filed to the state Human Relations Commission, both of which were obtained by The Inquirer last week.

It is not clear what came of the complaint or EEO investigation. The accuser has declined to comment and Vereb has not responded to requests for comment since his resignation. Shapiro’s office has said the issue is a private personnel matter but noted that it takes complaints of harassment seriously and has “robust procedures” to investigate them.

A spokesperson for Shapiro declined to comment in response to Ward’s criticism.

Ward, who has often criticized and clashed with the Democratic governor, said the accusations raised concerns about his administration’s workplace environment. She told The Inquirer that if a settlement was reached with the accuser and payments were made using tax dollars, the administration should release the details.

Chuck Pascal, an attorney for the accuser, said in a statement last week that he “cannot at this time confirm the existence of any settlement, agreement, or other resolution of this matter.”

House Democratic Leader Matt Bradford (D., Montgomery) said Monday that the allegations were “sad and troubling,” but did not comment further.

Vereb, 56, is a Republican and longtime ally of Shapiro’s. They both hail from Montgomery County and served together as state representatives. When Shapiro was elected attorney general in 2016, he named Vereb as director of government affairs for his office — one of his first appointments in the job.

Since Shapiro’s inauguration as governor in January, Vereb has continued his close relationship with the governor and was credited for his role negotiating Shapiro’s first budget deal with the General Assembly.

The Inquirer is withholding the name of Vereb’s accuser because of her sexual harassment allegations. She alleged that within weeks of taking her job as an aide to Vereb that other staffers in the Shapiro administration were warning her that he’d faced earlier misconduct accusations from women, according to documents detailing the allegations.

The woman said that when she warned Vereb about the office gossip in February, he turned on her and demanded to know who had been discussing his past. He then made sexual advances toward her, according to complaint to the Human Relations Commission, insisting that if they decided to have a sexual relationship “it would be our business.”

Ward, the first woman to lead the state Senate, called the allegations “appalling” and “unacceptable” in a statement Monday. She further questioned whether the accusations had distracted from Vereb’s work helping the governor negotiate the state budget — since the complaint was filed in late June when the state budget was due and as those negotiations fell apart.

Vereb continued to play a prominent role in the administration until his resignation, and Shapiro’s chief of staff Dana Fritz praised his work in a news release announcing his resignation last week.

Ward, meanwhile, questioned why Vereb remained in his role until last week.

“One of our greatest responsibilities as elected officials is to ensure the people of Pennsylvania are safe and secure, that includes the talented people who work for us,” Ward said in a statement issued Monday. “The onus is on us as leaders to create a safe workplace culture.”