Appellate court upholds decision not to increase pay for Niles police chief

WARREN — The 11th District Court of Appeals has affirmed the decision of Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court, who said Bruce Simeone, Niles police chief, didn’t have legal standing to ask the court to increase his pay.

Simeone filed the suit after Niles City Council approved two ordinances in 2007 that reduced the chief’s pay: one eliminating longevity pay and the other decreasing a wage differential between the ranks of chief and captain.

Simeone filed the suit as a taxpayer complaint, saying he brought the suit for himself as a taxpayer of Niles and for all other city taxpayers.

The suit says council’s actions reduced his pay by $31,957 over three years from 2006 through 2008, ending in a salary of $80,863 in 2008 instead of the $89,204 he should have received.

The appellate court, however, ruled that Simeone failed to show how the public would be adversely affected by the chief being paid less.