Board works on changing OT policy

Three polling locations will change for the May 8 primary.
By ED RUNYAN
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- The Trumbull County Board of Elections will try to quickly make changes to its policy on overtime and compensatory time for employees that doesn't meet state law.
James Saker, an assistant county prosecutor, told board members Wednesday that state law says the board must pay its employees for any comp time within six months of the time it was earned.
Adding up the amount of comp time more than six months old that the board of elections' 12 employees now have comes to 12,724, said Kelly Pallante, elections board director.
She said she hopes the board can determine how to handle the issue before its April 3 meeting. Officials will meet before then with James Keating, the county's personnel director, to seek guidance on the best policy, Pallante said.
Board member Ron Knight, meanwhile, said he believes the board needs to write employee policies for a number of areas because so few policies have ever been formally approved.
For example, Pallante and deputy director Rokey Suleman decided last fall to give employees the option of taking their compensatory time as pay instead of banking the time. The decision was made to meet state law, but such policies should be made by the board, Knight noted.
Knight, a Republican, has been attempting to cut what he considers wasteful spending since being elected to the board last year.
Other research
Also Wednesday, Ron Massullo, regional liaison to the Ohio Secretary of State, reported on research he did at Knight's request. He looked at ways other elections boards were saving money by reducing the number of poll workers used at some polling locations in the February special election.
Massullo said the Mahoning County Board of Elections tried to use four poll workers in polling locations in Boardman in locations where eight or 12 might have been used normally. It was done at locations where more than one precinct is at the same polling location.
The result was that voters had to wait in longer-than-normal lines, primarily because it took longer for poll workers to find the correct polling book to have them sign, Massullo said.
In other business, the board approved three polling location changes for the May 8 primary: Girard 3-A from First Christian Church on East Broadway Street to the Girard Library on East Prospect Street; Girard 4-A from First Christian Church on East Broadway to the Girard Multi-Generational Center on Trumbull Avenue; Champion E from the Township Administration Building on East Center Street to St. John Lutheran Church on Mahoning Avenue.
In all, 84 of the county's 274 precincts will be open for the May 8 primary.
runyan@vindy.com