Lawsuit alleging bias at JFS warrants a review of agency

As a reverse-discrimination law- suit filed by three current and one former employee of the Mahoning County Department of Job and Family Service winds its way through the court system, there’s an over arching question that should be answered: Is there is a problem with the way the JFS agency is being managed?

We ask it because of a statement made by the director, Atty. Robert E. Bush Jr., during a staff meeting called to address the racial tensions in the office.

A copy of the written statement was sent to The Vindicator by Bush and the tone suggests to us that he will not sit idly by while the agency’s dirty laundry is being aired.

Here’s what he said with regard to the meeting: “If I receive a call from the commissioners concerning this meeting and it isn’t agency related but person related, I will consider it an act of insubordination, and if the caller is identified to me I will discharge that person.”

Against the backdrop of the reverse-discrimination suit filed by the four white women, we wonder if Bush was simply blowing off stream because of tensions in the workplace, or whether he truly intends to put a lid on any complaints about the goings-on at JFS.

The agency has nearly 300 employees and a $24 million annual budget. It is the largest county department and is housed at Oakhill Renaissance Place, the former South Side Medical Center. JFS has an income maintenance section and the Child Support Enforcement Agency.

Bush was appointed director in December 2010 even though he did not have hands-on experience in that field of work. He was serving as chief of the criminal division in the prosecutor’s office when commissioners David Ludt, Anthony Traficanti and John A. McNally IV selected him from a group of 45 applicants.

Prior to joining the prosecutor’s office, Bush was the law director for the city of Youngstown and before that was police chief. He also has been a city patrolman, a detective, a postal inspector, safety coordinator for the Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority and an adjunct instructor in criminal justice at Youngstown State University.

Given that 18 months have passed since he was appointed director, commissioners Traficanti, McNally and Carol Rimedio-Righetti (she defeated Ludt in the 2010 election) should conducted an evaluation of his performance. The work environment must be a part of any review because it speaks to the management of the government agency.

The four plaintiffs in the lawsuit are Judee L. Genetin of Canton, who resigned in November 2010 to become Portage County JFS director; Lisa Moore of Lowellville, who joined the county in 1995; Sharon M. Sabatka of Youngstown, who joined the county in 1997; and Rosemary Colucci of Youngstown, who joined the county in 2004.

Moore and Sabatka are child-support data-entry specialists. Colucci is a child-support clerk.

Plaintiffs’ claims

The plaintiffs say they have suffered discrimination, retaliation and emotional distress because of the behavior of some black JFS employees.

Genetin said she was forced to quit her job because of intolerable conditions that amounted to a wrongful termination.

The lawsuit will be played out in a court of law, but the operation of the JFS agency is the responsibility of the county commissioners.

If there are issues that are affecting the performance of employees, they must be addressed quickly.

Bush has been involved in government long enough to know that requiring his workers to march in silent lockstep is not only unreasonable, it’s unacceptable.

The taxpayers who finance government have a right to know what’s going on within the departments and agencies. Trying to gag workers simply feeds the negative view the public has of government.