Trumbull engineer’s employee placed on leave after fuel spill

Staff report

WARREN

An employee of the Trumbull County Engineer’s Office was placed on paid administrative leave Wednesday and had a disciplinary hearing Thursday in relation to an Oct. 3 diesel spill at the engineer’s office.

The same employee is accused of staging and videotaping the dumping of water into a storm-sewer drain on the county engineer’s property in May and sending the video to investigative agencies, including the Ohio Environmental protection agency and Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

According to an incident report compiled by Crash Tech Reconstruction Services of Massillon, the employee, Anthony Johnson, violated a rule requiring an employee to remain at the gas pump while fueling a vehicle. The spill was contained to a cement pad under the fueling station, Crash Tech reported.

Results of Thursday’s disciplinary hearing were not available.

Matt Blair, legal counsel to county Engineer Randy Smith, said a deputy with the county sheriff’s office was called to accompany the worker from the engineer’s office at the time he was placed on leave Wednesday.

Blair said the May incident involved a training exercise in which workers were shown how to use a vacuum truck.

After using the vacuum part of the truck to remove water from a storm sewer at the engineer’s office, a couple of employees emptied the contents back into the storm sewer while an employee videotaped it on his cellphone, Blair said.

The dumping of the water was a “nonevent,” but the suggestion in the video that something improper occurred resulted in many hours worth of investigation and expense to state agencies and the county engineer’s office, Blair said.

“The clear intent in our view is this was staged for purpose of putting the engineer’s office in a very negative light,” Blair said.

The May incident still is under investigation, and no disciplinary action has been taken, Blair said.

Johnson could not be reached to comment.