Canfield waits for job flak to abate

By Denise Dick

One trustee maintains Moracco was the best applicant for the new post.

CANFIELD — Township Trustee Randy Brashen hopes controversy surrounding hiring a former trustee to fill a job he helped create is over.

“We made a mistake,” Brashen said.

Paul Moracco, who was elected to his fourth trustee term in November, resigned at a June 9 trustees meeting. Earlier at that same meeting, he, Brashen and Trustee Bill Reese had met in executive session, after which they unanimously passed a motion to ask their attorney to help them in advertising for the roads superintendent and construction projects manager job.

Moracco then tendered his resignation as trustee. He was one of 11 people who applied for the new job and Brashen and Reese selected Moracco for the post from among the four people they interviewed.

A Vindicator editorial said it would be an ethics violation for Moracco to serve in a job he voted to create. Moracco and the two trustees then learned from attorneys that that was the case.

Moracco sent a letter to Brashen, dated Monday, saying he would decline the $60,000-per-year job.

“I did not know of the potential ethical violation,” the letter said.

Brashen said he didn’t know of the potential violation either — even though there’s been publicity surrounding possible ethics violations when other public entities have taken similar action.

Both Brashen and Reese have said that they didn’t know that Moracco would resign when they voted to create the job. There’s been talk of the need for such a position for years, the two trustees have said.

Brashen said he’s been reading message boards and receiving phone calls from people charging that the creation of the job and hiring Moracco was back-door, dirty politics. That isn’t true, he said.

“There was no intention to do anything illegal or unethical,” Brashen said.

He isn’t sure what the next step will be in filling the roads superintendent and construction projects manager job.

“Right now, I’m gun shy,” Brashen said.

The topic will likely be discussed at the trustees’ July 14 meeting.

At a meeting Wednesday night, trustees declined to comment on the situation and went into executive session with their attorney, Al Schrader, to discuss personnel matters, including labor negotiations.

He said he doesn’t plan to create a different name for the position by a vote of trustees and then hire Moracco again.

If Moracco applies for any township position, trustees will consult with the Mahoning County Prosecutor’s office before deciding whether to hire him, Brashen said.

He says that Moracco was the best applicant for the job. “The best man has been denied the job,” Brashen said. “I don’t know if I want to accept second best at this time.”

“He was a trustee for 14 years,” Brashen said. “It would have been like having four trustees, but only three would get to vote.”