Trustees rescind pay raise

The trustees are continuing their analysis of the number of township cars taken home by employees.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF Writer
BOARDMAN -- The township administrator's 2006 salary will return to what he earned in 2005 after trustees rescinded an earlier 4 percent raise.
At her first regular meeting, Trustee Robyn Gallitto, who was elected chairwoman, moved to rescind the 4 percent pay boost that took Curt Seditz's 2006 salary to $81,336.
The raise was approved last month when the former trustees' panel approved 4 percent increases for department heads and other nonunion administrative personnel.
"Usually raises are given, in my opinion, as a reward," Gallitto said. "You don't get a raise for doing your job, you get a paycheck."
Bad publicity
She said that publicity surrounding Seditz's August DUI arrest tainted the whole community.
Seditz was charged with the offense in his personal vehicle, not on township time while driving in Poland village. But Gallitto said she believes a township administrator fills that job all the time.
Kathy Miller, who voted against Seditz's raise last month, also voted to rescind it.
Trustee Elaine Mancini was opposed.
"Mr. Seditz never failed this community professionally," she said.
He went through several difficult personal issues including the illness of both parents, visiting them at a Steubenville nursing home and tending to their affairs and his father's death leading up to the August DUI, Mancini said.
Seditz later completed an Employee Assistance Program and signed a last-chance agreement with the township, stipulating that he will be terminated if involved with any other alcohol-related incidents while a township employee.
Trustees vote Monday takes his annual pay for 2006 to about $78,100, the same as what he earned last year.
Cost-benefit analysis
In other business at the more than three-hour meeting, trustees asked William Leicht, township clerk, to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the number of township-owned cars taken home by employees.
They took away one take-home car for the police department and the vehicle used by Tammi Rush, information-technology coordinator. Gallitto said those employees could use a pool vehicle that stays at the township.
Darren Crivelli, zoning inspector, said he would surrender the two take-home cars -- one for himself and one for the assistant inspector -- in the zoning department.