State panel: Probe is high priority

The ethics commission investigation should take about three to four months.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- An investigation into whether Rick Alli may have improperly received two public-sector salaries is among "the highest of our priorities," the executive director of the Ohio Ethics Commission said.
A violation of the state's ethics law is considered a first-degree misdemeanor and, if convicted, the person faces punishment of up to six months in jail and a 1,000 fine, said David E. Freel, the ethics commission's executive director. In some cases, those found guilty also could be forbidden from holding a public-sector job for seven years.
Attorney General Marc Dann fired Alli on Friday, about 3 1/2 months after hiring the former Youngstown police detective sergeant as his chief of law enforcement operations.
While Alli stopped working for the city police department after 31 years in early January, no one can find a resignation letter from him.
Dann fired Alli for what the attorney general said is double dipping.
Dann made the decision after confirming that Alli was still being paid by the Youngstown Police Department. Nearly all of the money paid to Alli was for his unused vacation and accumulated time.
City practice
When city employees resign or retire, they are kept on the payroll until their vacation and accumulated time is exhausted or they take a lump sum. Alli chose the former.
The city also paid about 2,500 for three months of health insurance coverage for Alli and his family as well as an undetermined amount toward his pension.
While most outgoing city employees have a choice on payment of vacation and accumulated time, an ethics commission opinion, based on state law, doesn't permit public employees to hold a second job on public time or with public equipment or other public resources. That language would forbid a person from receiving paychecks from two public-sector jobs at the same time.
Also, the 1996 opinion reads: "A public employee is prohibited from having a private business relationship with a party that is interested in matters before, regulated by, or doing or seeking to do business with his own public employer."
Freel said "private business" and "a second public-sector job" are interchangeable phrases in the state ethics law.
"It doesn't make a difference," he said. "The same analysis is true for either."
The Youngstown Police Department has a relationship with the attorney general's office. For example, Dann, a Liberty Democrat, has provided the services of the Ohio State Highway Patrol as part of Youngstown police's zero-tolerance program.
Requests for probe
The ethics commission received requests late last week from the Ohio Attorney General's Office and the city of Youngstown to investigate Alli, Freel said. Because the matter is under investigation, he declined to discuss specifics Monday.
But Freel, originally from Niles, said he expects his agency to take about three to four months to investigate Alli. An average investigation takes about six to nine months, he said.
After conducting an investigation, the commission issues a confidential report to the case's appointing authority -- the attorney general for this matter -- and if prosecution is recommended, Freel said the county prosecutor handling this would also get a copy of the report.
Jurisdiction over potential prosecution needs to determined. If charges are to be filed, the matter could end up in Mahoning or Franklin counties.
Also, Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams says the city is conducting an internal investigation to determine how and why Alli was paid and not given a lump sum.
Youngstown Police Chief Jimmy Hughes has said the way Alli was paid is "normal, standard procedure."
No issue for elected officials
Drawing two public-sector salaries at the same time isn't an issue for others who've left or are leaving their Mahoning Valley for jobs in state government. That's because they are or were elected to office.
Elected county officials do not accumulate vacation and sick time and can't cash out that unused time when they leave, said John Goempel and Carol McFall, the Columbiana and Mahoning counties' chief deputy auditors, respectively.
Ex-Mahoning County Treasurer John Reardon, who now serves as the state superintendent of financial institutions, and former Columbiana County Commissioner Sean Logan, now the head of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, received no money from their respective counties when they went to work for the state, McFall and Goempel said.
State Rep. Kenneth A. Carano is leaving the Ohio House at the end of the month to be Gov. Ted Strickland's Mahoning Valley regional director. Like Reardon and Logan, Carano doesn't accumulate vacation and sick time.
In light of Alli's issue, Carano said he's "sure that every department in the state is now checking every person who went from one public-sector job to another" to see if anyone is collecting two public-sector checks.
skolnick@vindy.com