Prison guard unlikely to return to job at TCI

The agreement says the retired employee won't seek reinstatement at the prison.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
LEAVITTSBURG -- Though neither the union nor management will say for sure, the settlement agreement for Trumbull Correctional Institution sergeant George Adamrovich appears to make it unlikely he will return to work.
"I don't anticipate that," Pamela Keresztesy, a public information officer at the prison, said Wednesday when asked whether the agreement would allow him to return to work. Peter Wray, a spokesman for the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, Local 11, which represents prison employees, said he doesn't know for sure that the agreement ends Adamrovich's prison career.
The agreement, signed at the central offices of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction in Columbus on April 12, says Adamrovich, 58, of Hubbard, will "take no action to initiate reinstatement to employment" with the state prison system.
Adamrovich was approved Feb. 21 to retire on a disability through the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System. A calculation of benefits based on OPERS information puts his payments at around 400 per week.
In exchange for Adamrovich's signing the agreement, the ODRC agreed to hold Adamrovich's October firing in abeyance.
What's included
The agreement says the ODRC will "do nothing to interfere with [Adamrovich's] disability retirement benefit," nor will it initiate a re-evaluation of Adamrovich's disability retirement status.
The agreement also says Adamrovich will enter into a two-year last-chance agreement that will go into effect "if and when [Adamrovich] is reinstated to employment."
Keresztesy said such an agreement guarantees that the employee would be removed from his job for his next disciplinary offense. She said such an agreement states that the employer would need only to prove that such an offense occurred, not defend the punishment for the offense.
Adamrovich was fired by the prison Oct. 10 for two offenses that occurred in June 2006. One was taking possession of a loaded firearm while being legally prohibited from doing so because of a felony conviction and the other was making inappropriate remarks about a fellow prison staff member.
Adamrovich had gone on a disability retirement a previous time after being fired in 2000 and received back pay of 10,000. He was fired that time because prison officials said he lied on his 1992 job application about ever having been convicted of a felony and for the improper restraint of an inmate.
Keresztesy said Adamrovich did not receive back pay in this settlement.