Foreman's drive raises questions

The police chief doesn't have a problem with one worker's long commute.
By PATRICIA MEADE
VINDICATOR CRIME REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Youngstown Police Department garage foreman drives a city pickup truck back and forth to work, including 100 miles round-trip to his lake cabin in Pennsylvania.
Joe Mattern, who has spare keys, is sometimes needed to move cruisers when officers inadvertently take keys home, said city police Capt. Dave Williams, services division commander. Williams estimated such emergencies happen six times a year.
On the YPD roster, Mattern lists an address on the South Side.
Records obtained by The Vindicator show he also has a residence in Jamestown, Pa., near Pymatuning Lake.
For call-out purposes, Mattern supplied the city with a cell phone number, a pager number and the land-line phone number for his place in Pennsylvania.
Round-trip to Mattern's Pennsylvania home is 100 miles. The Vindicator found Mattern's city truck parked on the lake property in Jamestown at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 16. He had worked that day.
Mattern's classification in the city ordinance states he is permitted personal use of the city vehicle "during the periods he is on 24-hour call," as defined as being accessible by cell phone, radio, beeper or other electronic device and being within a 50-mile radius of city hall.
Williams said the garage foreman is not paid the daily on-call rate but is still considered on-call and paid overtime on the occasions he returns to work.
Homicide detectives, for example, generally rotate on-call status weekly and are paid 11 a day for those days to carry a pager, Williams said.
Permitted to do so
Mattern said he has a city address but lives 90 percent of the time in Jamestown and, because of his on-call classification, is permitted to do so.
He said the round-trip is about 90 miles so he's within a 50-mile radius.
The garage foreman said he gets called back to work four or five times a year.
If the emergency involves something that can be fixed in 15 minutes, he said he'll call another garage worker to handle it, and not make the trip to town.
When asked about Mattern's travels to Pennsylvania, Williams said previous administrations allowed Mattern to drive his city truck back and forth to Jamestown and the practice has continued under this administration.
Williams said that, in his opinion, the round-trip commuting distance to Jamestown in a city vehicle "goes beyond the realm of being reasonable."
Williams said the whole YPD take-home car program, which he considers practical and cost-efficient with a lot of plusses, could be justified, if not for Mattern. The captain said the matter would have to be addressed by Police Chief Jimmy Hughes.
Hughes said he doesn't have a problem with Mattern's commute to Pennsylvania.
"We do call him out," the chief said. "I don't see it as an issue to concern me about where he lives," the chief said.
Hughes said Mattern is paid overtime when called out but not paid for any commuting time in those situations.
One possibility?
Williams said having another garage mechanic who lives in the city available for call-outs would be something to look into.
"No, I don't see it that way," Hughes said when asked if another garage mechanic could handle call-outs.
Mayor Jay Williams said that, "at first blush," Mattern's 100-mile round-trip commute seems to push the boundaries and gives him great concern. The mayor said he tends to be conservative with city assets.
He said he supports the city's take-home car program but wants to ensure that common sense and professionalism are being used to avoid abuse and fraud. The take-home program is on the radar screen for review, he said.
The mayor said he will discuss the garage foreman's situation with the police chief and give the chief an opportunity to state his case.
The mayor said some readers of The Vindicator will be outraged to learn a city truck is going to Pennsylvania, other readers will wonder if the newspaper doesn't have better things to do -- while the rest will ask "what's the rationalization." He said he may or may not agree with the police chief's rationalization.
meade@vindy.com