Probe shows a department, workers with no direction

Sections of the report did not become public until a few days ago.
By STEPHEN SIFF
and PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Excessive purchases. Outrageous prices. Unneeded items.
The escalating bill for supplies and services for the Trumbull County Maintenance Department was for a department that was "very disorganized," where subordinates were uncertain about job responsibilities and disinclined to ask questions, says a report by two county employees tapped by Prosecutor Dennis Watkins to investigate the situation.
Although the report was completed last year, sections of it did not become public until this week.
Shortly after Watkins began investigating, Delmont was relieved of his duties and the county began ordering from the state purchasing program.
Since switching to the state program last year, the county's bill for cleaning supplies has dropped from about $400,000 a year to $45,000 in the first nine months of this year.
Like the public section of the report, the secret pages detail stories of governmental excess: An unopened case of lemon disinfectant has sat on a shelf since 1995, while the county continued to buy more; 15 boxes of empty, never-used bottles collect dust in one county building because the product to fill them was never bought; insecticide was bought in every shape, form and variety.
'Lack of direction'
The recently released section of the report also talks about attitudes of employees in the department, which had more than 24 workers before being decimated by layoffs earlier this year.
"There seems to be a lack of direction and responsibility in this department," said the report, by Robert Stanton and Kathy Thompson. "There doesn't appear that the department head, Tony Delmont, is aware of policy within his own department. Although he agreed to meet with us, he couldn't answer any of our questions."
The interviewers were concerned with discovering who collected money from sanitary product dispensers installed in women's restrooms in most county buildings. The three top department employees couldn't agree on who had the responsibility for emptying the machines or where the keys were kept.
"One would think the collection of monies would have been overseen by the department head," the report says. "It shouldn't take the department head years to notice that monies are not being collected and deposited correctly; it even takes his secretary/assistant to bring it to his attention."
Uninformed
Delmont's secretary couldn't provide company catalogs, even though her signature was on many purchase orders. And the second-in-command, Gary Box, had nothing bad to say about anyone and very little to say about ordering, the report says.
"It appears that Gary Box maintains the status quo because of a lack for better direction," the report continues.
The report also contains an unusual comment on hiring practices, culled from information provided by Julie Titchnell, who said she has been on the job six years.
She said she was the last person to be hired directly by Delmont.
According to the report, she said that others who came in after her were hired "by a higher authority, and that 'Tony wouldn't know until they just showed up.'"
Box and Titchnell could not be reached to comment late last week.
The report also noted that when Stanton and Thompson were doing an inventory at the vehicle maintenance department, Dave DeJacimo, an employee, started a conversation with them about vendors, politicians and other issues.
The two stated in the report that DeJacimo also said that the small guy is usually the one that gets hurt.
The two also noticed that most county buildings appeared clean except the Family Court Building.
"The break room sink was clogged. One of the janitorial closets had yellow slime on the floor. We were told there are 2-3 custodians that care for this building," they wrote.
siff@vindy.com
sinkovich@vindy.com