Bickley resigns position at YSU

By Harold Gwin

A computer was reportedly stolen from Bickley’s office before he quit his job.

YOUNGS-TOWN — The embattled chief human resources officer/chief negotiator for Youngstown State University has resigned.

Craig S. Bickley, who was placed on administrative leave by President David C. Sweet during the first week of December, sent Sweet a letter of resignation Dec. 23. Sweet immediately accepted it, effective that date.

Bickley’s letter said only that he made the decision to resign for “personal reasons” after “much heartfelt thought.”

The YSU Board of Trustees announced Dec. 4 that Bickley had been put on administrative leave after an investigation into concerns raised about the new three-year Association of Classified Employees contract for which Bickley had served as the chief university negotiator. The union represents about 380 nonfaculty employees.

The trustees ratified the contract in July, but questions about the agreement arose later when administrators learned that one employee, Ivan Maldonado, the ACE union president, had a job reclassification done that raised his salary by $21,000 a year.

The trustees had said that one goal in the contract was to give the university a new job classification system that was in line with a state job classification plan, and that’s what they thought they had approved.

It turned out that some of the pay grades in the new YSU system had been raised beyond those found in the state classification system.

Maldonado, now classified as a payroll specialist 2, was one of those who benefited from the elevated pay grades. Sweet, in a memo to the trustees, said Maldonado had “incorrectly received” a pay raise that boosted his salary to more than $81,000 annually and that the university would take steps to recover that money.

The university asked the Ohio attorney general’s office to investigate the modifications of classifications and pay ranges in the contract to determine, among other things, whether Bickley fulfilled his obligations as chief negotiator for the university.

Bickley was placed on leave after the investigation.

An issue now raised by at least some members of the board is whether they were given all of the financial information they should have received before ratifying the contract.

A computer-generated e-mail purportedly written by Bickley to Sweet and other top university administrators five days before the contract vote said that there was a consensus of the president’s Cabinet to limit the level of detail to be presented to the board, although that detail would be available if the trustees asked.

Scott Schulick, board chairman, said the financial-information issue is something the trustees are continuing to review. No addendums to the contract (which would have included the job classification schedule) were presented to the board before it voted, he said.

The board hasn’t asked for a specific meeting with the president or his top administrators on the matter but is expected to bring it up when it meets on other pressing issues this month, including a $40 million bond issue to finance some capital improvement projects, Schulick said. No specific meeting dates have been set, he said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, YSU police are investigating the apparent theft of Bickley’s university-issued laptop computer from his office Dec. 19.

The office had been kept locked during Bickley’s administrative leave, but Eugene Grilli, vice president for finance and administration, told university police that he had conducted a staff meeting in that office in Jones Hall from 8 to 10 a.m. that day.

He told police he believes the computer was still in the room when the meeting adjourned and that he left the office unlocked so an administrative assistant in the Human Resources office could have access to files.

Another administrator saw the office door ajar around 1:35 p.m. and noticed the computer was missing from its cradle on Bickley’s desk, according to the police report.

Employees in the area didn’t notice anyone entering the office, police said.

gwin@vindy.com