Mandopoulos’ fate under wraps — for now

By Ed Runyan

The safety-service director said he wants to wait until the police chief returns to work before he announces his decision.

WARREN — Saying he wants to make a “quick turnaround,” the city’s safety-service director says he will deliver his verdict on the punishment to be given to Police Chief John Mandopoulos as soon as the chief returns to work.

Safety-Service Director Doug Franklin said the chief notified him Thursday afternoon that he wouldn’t be reporting to work Friday because of illness.

Franklin said he doesn’t believe it would be respectful to announce Mandopoulos’ punishment in the media before delivering it to him in person.

The chief has been in law enforcement for more than three decades.

Franklin asked Mandopoulos recently whether he would prefer to resign rather than face punishment, causing speculation that Mandopoulos might be fired.

“I’ve made my final decision,” Franklin said Friday.

On the streets of Warren, most people who were asked how they felt about the chief’s facing possible termination said they were unaware of the issue.

One who was aware, however, was city resident Darlene Drokin.

“I like him,” she said of Mandopoulos. Drokin said she doesn’t know what took place with Gary Cicero, the city’s human resources director, but she thinks the chief has “good intentions.”

Mandopoulos was brought before Franklin last month to answer to a complaint filed by Cicero that accused the chief of acting maliciously and in violation of departmental regulations.

The one thing she thinks the chief failed to handle properly, however, is that he didn’t work harder to get rid of one of his officers, Patrolman Richard Kovach, after Kovach used a stun gun on former Howland woman Heidi Gill in the parking lot of the Up A Creek tavern on East Market Street.

A Champion man leaving the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library said Mandopoulos’ explanation that Cicero needed to be treated like anyone else when he came through metal detectors at the police station made sense to him.

“The rules are there for everyone,” Walter Shaffer said.

Franklin eventually charged Mandopoulos administratively with a variety of offenses because of the incident involving Cicero. Mandopoulos ordered Patrolman Patrick Hoolihan to search Cicero when the human resources director entered the police department for a planned meeting Nov. 14 with police Capt. Tim Bowers.

Mandopoulos also prevented Cicero from getting to Bowers’ office for the meeting, thereby preventing him from doing his job, Franklin said.

At the time, rumors were circulating around the city that the Mayor Michael O’Brien administration would be eliminating jobs in the police department and elsewhere to cope with budget problems.

Cicero’s meeting with Bowers was about bumping rights for an employee who was going to be affected by the pending layoffs.

Franklin also reprimanded Mandopoulos in October for remarks he had made in August to Councilman Dan Crouse regarding new overtime restrictions that were placed on the police department.

runyan@vindy.com