Mayor: Appoint retiring official

A councilman calls the request ‘double dipping.’

By DAVID SKOLNICK

CITY HALL REPORTER

YOUNGSTOWN — If the mayor has his way, the retiring head of the city’s public works department will be working again for the city before too long.

Mayor Jay Williams is requesting the city’s civil service commission to appoint Carmen S. Conglose Jr. as the city’s traffic coordinator without holding a written test or seeking other applicants for the part-time job, which would pay as much as $41,538.48 annually.

Conglose, the deputy director of public works since 1997, took an early retirement buyout from the city, effective Dec. 31, and would collect his pension even if appointed traffic coordinator. Under state law, Conglose would have to wait at least 60 days after his retirement to start working for the city again.

Outgoing Councilman Paul Pancoe, D-6th, objects to Williams’ request to rehire the retiring Conglose.

“I look at it as double dipping and I’m against that,” said Pancoe, who was the only council member to vote against legislation that essentially revived the coordinator position, vacant for a decade.

Williams said some people will view his request as a “sweetheart deal,” and “the system being ‘worked.’”

But, he said, the traffic coordinator position is a “highly specialized.” Conglose is the most qualified person for the job so a test and search isn’t necessary, Williams said.

“It’s probable that Carmen is the only one [in Youngstown] with this specialized knowledge,” Williams said.

Conglose held the coordinator job for eight years before his appointment as deputy director. During the past decade, Conglose continued to take care of the traffic coordinator duties while serving as deputy director providing “significant cost savings to the city,” Williams said.

Without Conglose agreeing to stay, the city would have to hire someone on a full-time basis to be traffic coordinator, Williams said. That would cost the city about $65,000 to $70,000 annually in salary alone, Conglose estimates.

When asked about double dipping, Conglose said: “[The practice] is not objectionable if it’s to the city’s benefit. It’s a cost savings to the city.”

Conglose’s 2007 salary is $93,132.26. He is taking the early retirement incentive, with the city buying two years of state Public Employees Retirement System time for Conglose for about $50,000 to $60,000. His pension has not been calculated, but could be around $60,000 a year.

While Conglose receives his pension, he’ll earn up to $41,538.48 a year at $34.6154 an hour as traffic coordinator. Council recently approved making the job part-time with no medical benefits.

Conglose said he has job offers from the private sector, but he wouldn’t say where. Because of a “sense of loyalty” to the mayor, Conglose said he’d take the traffic coordinator position only if the civil service commission appoints him without a test and without considering other applicants for the classified post.

The job’s primary responsibility is to maintain and operate the city’s traffic devices, particularly at more than 200 intersections, Conglose said.

Williams hasn’t named Conglose’s replacement. Chuck Shasho, the city’s assistant commissioner of engineering, is considered the most likely candidate to succeed Conglose.

The city earlier this year appointed Shasho, a city construction engineer, as assistant commissioner of engineering, which pays $65,711.88 a year. This was done after the civil service commission used an evaluation system based on qualifications, education and experience for the first time rather than a written test.

If an internal employee is hired to succeed Conglose, Williams said it’s possible that person’s current position could remain unfilled.

The civil service commission will meet at 4 p.m. Wednesday to discuss the mayor’s request.

The commission has appointed someone to a classified civil service position in the past without a test or a selection process, but it is very rare, said Jennifer Lewis, its administrator.

State law permits such action when “peculiar and exceptional qualifications of a scientific, managerial, professional or educational character are required.”

skolnick@vindy.com