Fired Mahoning JFS worker reinstated

YOUNGSTOWN

An arbiter has ordered Helen Youngblood, president of American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Local 2001, reinstated to her $53,000 a year job as a trainer at the Mahoning County Department of Job and Family Services.

Robert E. Bush Jr., JFS director, said she would be returning to work “as soon as practical, probably within the next week.”

The county commissioners fired her on Nov. 9 for asking a supervisor in an e-mail if the supervisor had a lynching rope ready for a disciplinary hearing for Youngblood’s co-worker.

The arbiter ruled that Youngblood should be suspended without pay for six months.

Having already served that time off the job, the arbiter, E. William Lewis, ruled Monday that she is to be paid at her regular rate from April 10 until her reinstatement.