Fingerhut will not probe YSU contract

By Harold Gwin

The chancellor had received an anonymous letter asking for an investigation.

YOUNGSTOWN — Ohio’s chancellor of higher education won’t be launching his own investigation into Youngstown State University’s handling of its employee contracts.

A spokesman for Eric Fingerhut said the chancellor has no authority in the matter.

Fingerhut is aware of the issues regarding YSU’s Association of Classified Employees contract, but investigating the university administration’s communications and actions regarding employee contract negotiations is beyond his purview, said spokesman Michael Chaney.

Fingerhut hopes the issues will be resolved quickly, Chaney said.

The chancellor did receive an anonymous letter from someone claiming to be a YSU employee with 29 years of public service, asking that he convene an immediate investigation by “a truly independent investigator” with no ties to the university, Chaney said.

The letter writer questioned what information was provided to the trustees by the administration before they voted on the contract last July. The letter cited an e-mail purportedly written by Craig Bickley, then YSU’s chief human resources officer and chief negotiator on the contract, that indicated there was a consensus of the YSU president’s Cabinet to limit the level of detail to be presented to the board, although that detail would be available should it be requested.

Chaney said the chancellor was unable to respond directly to the letter writer because the letter was sent anonymously.

The contract, affecting about 380 nonfaculty employees, was supposed to contain a new job classification system that was in line with a state job classification plan, the trustees said, adding that they thought that is what they approved.

As it turned out, YSU’s version of the classification system differed from the state’s in terms of some pay grades that are higher under the YSU plan.

The difference didn’t come to light until administrators learned that a job reclassification done on the payroll position held by the ACE union president Ivan Maldonado resulted in a $21,000 pay increase.

The university asked the Ohio attorney general’s office to appoint special counsel (paid by the university) to investigate the modifications of classifications and pay ranges found in the contract, and Bickley was placed on administrative leave in early December after that investigation. He later resigned.

Questions have arisen about the trustees’ fiduciary responsibility and whether they did the proper due diligence before approving the contract.

Scott Schulick, chairman of the board, said the trustees acted in good faith based on the information provided to them by the management team. The board was told it had all the relevant information, he said.

Whether that information was truly sufficient is an issue the trustees are continuing to review, he has said.

Just how detailed the trustees must be in such matters appears to be somewhat subjective.

A check with the Ohio attorney general’s office, the Ohio Ethics Commission and the Ohio Board of Regents provided some generalities when it comes to fiduciary responsibility for trustees but focused largely on issues such as conflict of interest.

Chaney said a May 1989 opinion issued by the Ohio office of the attorney general discussed the fiduciary responsibilities of trustees in general and is essentially the guideline that public university trustees follow.

The opinion said that the generally accepted rule is that one who acts in a fiduciary capacity for the benefit of another must exercise that degree of care, skill and judgment as would be exercised by a reasonable, prudent person in the same or similar circumstances.

Whether the trustee is prudent in the doing of an act depends upon the circumstances as they reasonably appear to him at the time when he does the act, and not at some subsequent time when his conduct is called in question, the opinion said.

gwin@vindy.com