Probe targets panel's hours

The chairman of the commission was implicated in wrongdoing.
WARREN -- Fred Alberini, former chairman of the Trumbull County Democratic Party, and other members of the Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission were subjects of a state investigation earlier this year after their part-time jobs reached nearly 80 hours biweekly.
The Office of the Inspector General launched an investigation in July after receiving an anonymous tip alleging that commissioners of the RSC were fraudulently receiving full-time pay. Investigators found no evidence of fraud but did find a sharp increase in the work hours commissioners claimed.
Alberini, of Howland, could not be reached Saturday. His wife, who answered the phone at their home, said he was going out of town and would not be available to comment.
He served as Trumbull County Democratic Party chairman in the early 1990s and is a former Howland Township trustee.
Inspector general investigators, in a report issued Friday, determined RSC commissioners, including Alberini, committed acts of omission. Only the RSC chairman, Douglas Huntt of Columbus, was implicated in wrongdoing.
The inspector general's findings were turned over to the Franklin County Prosecutor's Office.
The RSC was created in 1970 to provide employment services to disabled citizens in Ohio. The seven RSC commissioners are appointed to staggered seven-year terms and meet for two days each month. Six of the commissioners are paid on a fixed-term per diem basis, and one is paid a fixed-term salary.
Nearly 80 hours
The investigators' report says five of the six per-diem commissioners claimed an average of 76.6 hours per two-week payroll period in 2003.
In 2003, Alberini averaged 69.9 hours biweekly (1,817 total) and was paid $43,278. His total compensation, with fringe benefits, travel and administrative reimbursements, was $54,840.
In 2002, Alberini's total compensation was $39,748.
His term expires Sept. 8, 2006.
Three of the five commissioners claiming nearly full-time hours from RSC also worked other full-time jobs, the report said. "Added to the hours they claimed at RSC, these three commissioners would have averaged nearly 80 hours of work per week in 2003," investigators said.
Alberini was not named as one of the three RSC commissioners earning an additional salary working a full-time job.
Commissioners' average hours increased 33 percent after October 2002, when they changed an administrative rule that establishes guidelines for claiming pay, the inspector general's report shows. The average monthly hours claimed before October 2002 was 108.2; the average monthly hours jumped to 144.5 during the 14 months after the rule change.
Investigators said they the rule change "appears suspect" when the result was a significant increase in the number of hours commissioners claimed for pay.
After the rule change, the cost to the RSC for commissioners jumped 22 percent between 2002 and 2003, totaling nearly $700,000 for the two-year period.
Investigators said they found "reasonable cause" to believe an act of omission occurred when commissioners became involved in day-to-day administrative functions and failed to delegate task to staff. Alberini, for example, was directly involved in settling employee grievances.
Recommendations
Investigators offered three recommendations to the RSC and requested that commissioners respond within 60 days with a plan of action to implement the recommendations:
UCommissioners should better delegate administrative tasks to staff.
URSC should institute daily payroll documentation for commissioners that clearly shows when and where they work and also describes the work performed.
URSC should review the processing and approval of travel reimbursements to ensure that they are in compliance with the Ohio Administrative Code, Office of Budget and Management policies, and Ohio Ethics Commission opinions.
Inspector general investigators, as part of their review, randomly selected 2003 payroll records of six diverse boards and compared the hours with RSC hours. Members of the diverse boards averaged 321 hours for the year, while five of the six per diem RSC commissioners averaged 1,904 hours, or 493 percent more than the other boards.
Investigators, meanwhile, allege, among other things, that RSC chairman Huntt inappropriately claimed $1,026 for out-of-state travel expenses between June 2003 and July 2004 from both Ohio State University and RSC for the same trips. He earns $88,164 annually as executive director of Assistive Technology of Ohio, which is affiliated with Ohio State University.