BOARDMAN ZONING Condition of hiring keeps post open

Trustees are giving their pick time to sell his business.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Township trustees have hired an assistant zoning inspector, but no one has actually filled the position since the date of hire more than six weeks ago.
In a 2-1 vote, trustees hired Mark Cichanski Sr. of Yakata Doro Drive at an annual salary of $34,000. Trustee Kathy Miller voted against hiring Cichanski, who has served as chairman of the township's site plan review committee for five years. The township launched a statewide search to fill the position.
The problem, township officials say, is that Cichanski owns and operates a business that they feel will pose a conflict with his duties in the zoning department. They want him to sell his business before he comes to work for the township.
Cichanski is owner of Pro Masters Lawn Tree and Shrub Care on McClurg Road. At a recent meeting, Trustee Tom Costello said it would not be wise for Cichanski to review plans in the zoning office on property that he may bid on through his private business.
Miller said a requirement to sell the lawn-care business should have been made clear before Cichanski agreed to accept the position. She said the business was merely mentioned in closed interviews with township officials and Cichanski. Miller had voted against the hiring because she thought another candidate was better suited for the job, though Cichanski was her next choice.
Different opinion
Administrator Curt Seditz, however, said the requirement to sell the business was made clear to Cichanski. He said if Cichanski had not agreed to sell the business, trustees would have selected a different candidate for the job.
"There is a difference of opinion amongst the board [on what was agreed to during the interview]. Mr. Costello addressed that issue during the interview before Mark Cichanski was hired," Seditz said.
Seditz said trustees are willing to give Cichanski until the June 9 trustees' meeting to sell the business or they will take a second look at the list of candidates who applied for the job. He added the position needs to be filled as soon as possible.
He said zoning inspector Darren Crivelli has been working 12-hour days and some weekends to pick up slack in the department. Township department heads, such as Crivelli, do not receive overtime pay.
"We definitely need that position filled," he said. "We are making it with an excellent zoning inspector who is willing to put in the overtime. That is the only way we are getting by."
jgoodwin@vindy.com