TRUMBULL COUNTY Prosecutor finds fault in hiring for emergency plan

Prosecutors say officials were stopped before a crime was committed.
By STEPHEN SIFF
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
VIENNA -- The Trumbull County Emergency Management Agency Board was wrong to hire consultants to write an emergency plan without first seeking competitive bids, the county prosecutor's office has ruled.
The board also erred when it allowed the subcommittee in charge of the project to hire one of its own members, Don Waldron, director of the Local Emergency Planning Commission.
Not keeping minutes at that meeting was also a mistake, as was not having the action approved by the full board.
The board also should have written a contract for Waldron and the consultants or at least specified exactly how much they were to be paid, said Jason Earnhart, an assistant county prosecutor.
"We feel that by stopping payment from ever going through, we stopped a crime from being committed," Earnhart told EMA board members Wednesday.
Last month, county Auditor David Hines questioned paying $3,000 from a $45,000 federal grant to Waldron after a clerk noted that he worked for the LEPC. The money was supposed to be spent to update the county's emergency plan and add a section on terrorism.
"We were under a misconception of what we could do and how we could do it," said EMA board chairman Clyde McKenzie.
Serious violations avoided
In a letter to the board, Earnhart pointed out a number of laws that could have been violated if the transaction were allowed to go through. For several, violation could be a fourth-degree felony.
"It is important to note in the course of the inquiry that was conducted that at no time did any evidence come to light that would lead this office to believe that this arrangement [although never officially authorized] was not contemplated in good faith," Earnhart wrote to the board.
Work on the emergency plan was carried out by consultants Frank Longley, Gerald Mollis and Gary Cunningham and supervised by Waldron.
Mollis has been paid $5,000. Longley has been paid $2,000 and has submitted an invoice for an additional $1,000. Cunningham has submitted invoices for $2,000.
Waldron's reaction
Waldron did not say how much he was to be paid, except that as supervisor he expected to make more than the others. He said he worked "a lot" of hours on the plan.
"They are not getting their plan," he said, before leaving the meeting. "No money, no plan."
Earnhart said the federal grant would allow Waldron to be paid for the work at the same hourly and overtime rate he gets from the Local Emergency Planning Commission.
Waldron makes about $8.50 an hour.
"You're going to have to talk to my attorney," Waldron told Earnhart as he left the room.
"In retrospect, I'm glad everything turned out the way it did," said Ernie Cook, chief deputy in the sheriff's department, who sits on the EMA board. "It was the intention of the board all along to it the right way."
siff@vindy.com