Sweet briefs official on Habat case

A labor-management review panel said the vice president should go.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The chairman of Youngstown State University's Academic Senate said negotiations to end John L. Habat's relationship with the university may be completed within the next week or so.
Dr. Thomas Shipka told the Senate on Wednesday that he was briefed on the status of the negotiations Tuesday by Dr. David C. Sweet, YSU president, and Atty. Tim Jacob, who was hired by YSU to handle the matter.
Habat, vice president for administration and finance, was targeted by a YSU Labor-Management Review Panel (appointed by Sweet) as being responsible for much of the labor unrest that resulted in strikes by both the faculty and classified employee unions just before the start of classes last August.
The panel placed the blame primarily on both Habat and Hugh Chatman, executive director of human resources and labor relations at the time, saying the two could no longer serve the university in any capacity.
Shipka served as a member of that panel and the Academic Senate has endorsed its report.
Chatman, whose contract runs until August 2008, was reassigned to a new post of executive director of regulatory compliance in February, but Habat's title and duties haven't changed.
Working from his home
At Sweet's direction, however, Habat has been working out of his Cleveland-area home for the past month, and Sweet has said that discussions are under way on Habat's contract, which runs through June 2007.
Shipka told the Senate that he wasn't at liberty to divulge the details of negotiations with Habat but that he thinks the settlement being worked out is in the best interest of the university.
Rumors of a $400,000 settlement are "mythical," he assured the group.
Shipka said he thinks he got the briefing because Sweet and the board of trustees want to show they are working to implement the recommendations of the Labor-Management Review Panel.
Shipka said he recalls no earlier case of a YSU administrator working from home for an extended period, but he defended Sweet's action.
"My own sense is that it was a wise decision by the president ... until these negotiations can be concluded," Shipka said.
He said he's learned that it's not legally possible for the university to instantly sever relationships with the two administrators.
They have certain due process and contractual protections under Ohio law which extend the process, he said.
gwin@vindy.com