HUBBARD Assistant engineer cleared of allegations

The was no dereliction of duty, the hearing officer said.
By TIM YOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
HUBBARD -- The assistant city engineer has been cleared of allegations he wasn't doing his job.
The charge was leveled at Robert Toth during the Dec. 15 council meeting by Councilman Richard Keenan, D-4th, among other lawmakers.
Keenan's call for an investigation of Toth was based on a letter lawmakers received from Robert Senvisky, deputy auditor/appraiser.
Senvisky said Toth had not sent copies of city-issued zoning permits to the county from Dec. 1, 2002, to Nov. 28 of this year.
The permits are used as part of the process to determine the value of property, thus the real estate taxes owed.
Kenneth Graben, city superintendent of water and wastewater and hearing officer in the Toth case, said he found no dereliction of duty by Toth, and no disciplinary action would be taken.
In report
In his report, Graben wrote that the investigation found that the county has consistently received the permits from the city.
Also, he reported that the permits in question deal with 2004 property valuations and neither the city nor school district has lost any tax revenue as a result of the lack of permit records from the city.
Toth is a member of the Hubbard Board of Education.
Toth said after Keenan called for the probe that he hadn't had time to file the permits with the county because of the workload in the one-person office.
"That's one of the things that slipped by," Toth said of the permits.
Toth said today that he has sent to the auditor's office the permits issued through June and expected to have the balance completed by today.
County Auditor David Hines and his chief deputy appraiser, William Nicholas, said in a letter to the city that Senvisky's letter was not intended to be critical of the city engineering department.
yovich@vindy.com