Double dipping costs Alli his job with Dann

No resignation letter is in the former sergeant's personnel file.
By PATRICIA MEADE
and DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS
YOUNGSTOWN -- Rick Alli made a major career jump when Attorney General Marc Dann tapped the former Youngstown police detective sergeant to be the state's top cop.
Alli apparently had trouble letting go of his old job on the Youngstown police force.
On Friday, he was fired and is now the subject of a state investigation into charges he may have improperly collected two salaries.
Alli's Youngstown paychecks kept coming after he left in January to be Dann's chief of law enforcement operations.
Youngstown Chief Jimmy Hughes kept authorizing that the checks be sent to Alli.
In January, Dann hired Alli, 52, a YPD officer for 31 years, as his chief of law enforcement operations. Dann fired Alli on Friday after confirming that he was double dipping. The attorney general said he was brokenhearted by Alli's actions.
The state job paid 118,000 annually. As a Youngstown police detective sergeant, Alli was set to earn 56,412.
City Prosecutor Jay Macejko said there are two options when someone resigns or retires -- stay on the payroll until vacation and accumulated time is exhausted or take a lump sum.
Here's the rule
But an Ohio Ethics Commission opinion states that public employees aren't permitted to hold a second job on public time or with public equipment or other public resources.
Records show Alli did not take a lump sum and instead received biweekly 2,170 paychecks since January for vacation and accumulated time.
Two holidays are also included in the pay, which would not be part of a lump sum. Alli received 434 for New Year's Day and Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
With the holiday money included, the city paid 15,188 to Alli to date, including a check that went to him a few days ago.
Additionally, because Alli didn't receive the lump-sum payment, the city paid about 2,500 for three months of health insurance coverage for his family as well as money, the amount not determined Friday, toward his pension.
Also, because Alli was on the active employee payroll, he earned close to 2,700 this year in accumulated sick and vacation time. City Deputy Finance Director Kyle L. Miasek didn't know if the city is obligated to pay that money to Alli.
However, Hughes said the way Alli was paid over the past three-plus months isn't out of the ordinary.
"It's all normal, standard procedure," Hughes said. "He took all of what he earned."
Alli wasn't treated in a "special way," said Hughes, adding the same procedure is used for other officers.
Alli's payroll time sheets are signed by Hughes under this note: "Certification -- the above were employed under my direction for the time and manner specified."
Investigation under way
The matter is now under investigation by the ethics commission at Dann's request.
Law Director Iris Torres Guglucello said no resignation letter was found in Alli's personnel file and no one at YPD, including Hughes, remembers Alli's submitting such a letter.
Guglucello said city department heads, such as Hughes, sign off on time sheets for employees to be paid.
"We have been unable to determine if Chief Hughes did anything illegal or unethical, but again, we're still looking into the matter," Guglucello said. "We are investigating all of the circumstances surrounding Mr. Alli's departure from the city."
Hughes said he hasn't been told he's being investigated, but if mistakes were made, the investigation would uncover them.
Guglucello said if Alli expects to reclaim his YPD job, he would be put on administrative leave pending a review of whether the city has grounds to terminate him. The possibility of a criminal charge is part of the investigation, she said.
A good solution, she said, would be for Alli to send a resignation letter now or let YPD know that he submitted one in January and to whom. The law director said the duration of the investigation depends on whether Alli still considers himself a YPD employee.
A finance department employee recently discovered that Alli's name was still on the police payroll about a week ago, Miasek said. That information was turned over to the city administration and then to the Ohio attorney general's office.
Alli stood to receive one more check, and that would have used all of his accumulated and vacation time.
When someone leaves city employment, he is entitled to receive 35 percent of his unused sick time. The city hasn't paid that money, more than 25,000, to Alli.
Mayor's statement
Mayor Jay Williams said city policies and procedures are being reviewed as part of the Alli investigation. He said the city has checks and balances that are in place or should be in place.
"We don't know all the details," he said. "Before we point fingers, we want to determine what happened, how and why it happened and make decisions on" what to do in the future.
The mayor was asked if Hughes could be disciplined or fired.
"That's all part of the investigation -- all the issues about city practices, who had knowledge about this," he said. "We have to get the correct data before any decision can be made about anything."
Dann, meanwhile, said he doesn't know if Alli's conduct is criminal. That's something for the ethics commission to decide, said Dann, adding that it wouldn't be appropriate for his agency to investigate itself.
"We found out about [the double dipping], and the minute we verified it, we terminated him," Dann said.
Alli didn't offer an explanation for the double dipping, Dann said.
"He was disappointed, but it went smoothly," Dann said of the termination. The attorney general declined to say what Alli told him during their conversation, citing the confidential ethics investigation.
"My reaction? I was disappointed and heartbroken. I had a lot of confidence and enthusiasm for what Rick was going to do with the law enforcement community in the state, and I'm sorry that this happened," Dann said.
What happened
He said he presumed Alli had taken a lump sum payment from the city when he joined the AG staff.
"He definitively and affirmatively, before we hired him, told us that he had resigned," Dann said. "The fact is what he did was not what he told us he did, and that's an issue of trust. If I can't trust the person I have in charge of law enforcement operations, then I'm not going to have that person."
Dann's office noted problems with Alli's job performance more than a month ago. Alli was ordered to do a better job of retrieving and returning phone messages and told to work out problems interacting with agency officials, according to a March 9 letter to Alli from Ed Simpson, Dann's policy and administration chief.
In one instance, Simpson noted an allegation that Alli had told the director of the agency's organized crime unit not to cooperate with the unit's chief counsel.
Simpson noted such problems in the dismissal letter he sent Alli on Friday. "There have been other issues of trust and lack of leadership ability which have led us to this decision," the letter said.
Dann said he didn't know Alli's whereabouts. Alli turned in his state car, cell phone and other equipment Thursday.
Dann isn't sure what will become of Alli's former position.
When Dann hired Alli on Jan. 2, it raised some eyebrows.
In the position, Alli oversaw the law enforcement functions performed by the office. He acted as Dann's liaison to local police departments, sheriffs' offices and other first responders and served as Dann's primary adviser and legal counselor on law enforcement issues.
The concern was Alli had spent 31 years with the YPD, including 28 years in a full-time capacity, but rose only to the rank of sergeant, one step above patrolman.
Alli failed to tell Hughes that he was taking the new job until after it was publicly announced by Dann and Alli. Williams found out about the move after his chief of staff read it on Vindy.com.
Also, Alli acknowledged at the time of his hire that he was a "midlevel manager," yet Dann selected him to oversee hundreds of employees and serve as his conduit to law enforcement agencies.
While Alli went through various police training programs, he placed Youngstown State University and Denison University in Granville under "education" on his r & eacute;sum & eacute;. When asked if he graduated from either university, Alli said no because he "never had a desire to finish. There are a lot of requirements. I found no need [to take the required courses] at this time."
meade@vindy.com skolnick@vindy.com
CONTRIBUTOR: The Associated Press