YPD reaches settlement with cop fired by Dann

The retired officer hoped for a ‘fair shake’ for the attorney general.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — A severance settlement has been reached between the city and the “top cop” fired by Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann.

Rick Alli, 53, remained on the Youngstown Police Department payroll as a detective sergeant after he left to work for Dann in early January 2007 as chief of law enforcement operations in Columbus, making $118,000 annually. Alli stayed on the YPD payroll to string out his vacation and accumulated time.

Dann, the minute he confirmed Alli was drawing two paychecks in April 2007, fired him and asked the Ohio Ethics Commission to investigate. The commission has issued no decision.

Because Alli remained on the city payroll, he earned sick and vacation time, uniform allowance, hazard duty and longevity pay. The total was $3,858.

Alli filed two grievances when the city withheld payment, one for uniform allowance and one for the other earnings. He and the city reached a settlement of $2,453 that was paid last month, records show.

Alli, former YPD public information officer, had 31 years with the department. His overall severance package, minus the disputed amounts, was $26,312 and paid in June 2007, records show.

Alli said Tuesday that what he did — using up vacation and accumulated time — was standard procedure and it was just a matter of time before the city conceded that. He said he’s been “tying up some loose ends” and will be looking for a job shortly.

When asked about Dann’s troubles — a move to impeach him in the wake of an aide’s sexual harassment scandal, among other things — Alli said he hopes the attorney general “gets a fair shake.”

Law Director Iris Torres Guglucello could not be reached to comment.

Capt. Kenneth Centorame, Youngstown Police Ranking Officers president, said Tuesday that Alli felt it best to resolve the grievances with a settlement rather than “eat up money in attorney fees.”

What Alli did — running out vacation and accumulated time — has been common practice, Centorame said.

It was easy for Dann to fire Alli, who worked as a nonclassified employee for the attorney general. For the city, though, because Alli remained on the YPD payroll, his union dues were deducted and he remained a union member.

Alli didn’t resign from YPD until after he was fired by Dann. His resignation letter states, in part: “This letter is to reaffirm my resignation from my position as an officer of the Youngstown Police Department effective April 24, 2007, contrary to May 1, 2007, as previously noted. My resignation is being submitted to pursue my retirement as announced Jan. 2, 2007.”

Dann has said he presumed Alli had taken a lump sum payment from YPD when he joined the attorney general staff.

“He definitively and affirmatively, before we hired him, told us that he had resigned,” Dann said in April 2007. “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.”