SPRINGFIELD TWP. Employees' phone use scrutinized

Trustees would not identify the two employees.
NEW SPRINGFIELD -- Springfield Township trustees voted Wednesday to subpoena the last six months' worth of cell phone records of two township employees.
Trustee Reed Metzka, who made the motion, was joined by Chairman Jim Holleran in voting for it. Metzka said, "I'd like to see who phone calls were made to that we paid the bill for."
Trustee Shirley Heck abstained from the motion. She said after the meeting she had not seen a copy of the letter from the Mahoning County prosecutor's office that Metzka referred to in making the motion. Metzka said he received a letter stating such a motion needed to be passed to get a detailed list of phone calls from the phone company.
Clerk Patti Gibson explained after the meeting that though the township pays for the cell phones, it does not get a detailed list of calls each month. She said the prosecutor's letter stated a list of past calls can be obtained only with a subpoena.
Metzka would not say who the two employees are.
However, Road Superintendent Richard Kennedy stated that when Fire Chief Brian Hughes was hired, trustees agreed to let him make personal calls on his cell phone, something Kennedy claimed is illegal.
"There's no difference if I took a backhoe home," he said.
Heck interjected, however, that because of the hours the fire department works, they sometimes need to make personal calls.
Hughes was at the meeting, but left before the matter came up.
Gibson noted that the township has no written policy on cell phone use.
After the meeting, Metzka said the motion to subpoena the records would go to the prosecutor's office and the matter will proceed from there.
None of the trustees would comment further on the matter because of legalities involved.
Other matters
Also Wednesday:
UTrustees accepted the low of three bids for radios for the fire department. Clemente Communications bid $42,885. Other bidders were Youngstown Radio Service, $44,617, and Vasu Communications, $46,186.
URecycling Coordinator Dorothy Keish announced the recycling center at New Middletown will now be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday in addition to being open 1 to 4 p.m. Wednesday and Saturday and 1 to 5 p.m. Friday.
UTrustees appointed fire Lt. Roy Kohler to 2nd captain to replace Capt. Dave Ohlin, who wanted to be moved back to firefighter.