Mahoning leaders vent to justify worker bonuses revealed in Thursday Vindy

YOUNGSTOWN

A Mahoning County commissioner defended bonuses the county bestowed recently upon some of its higher-paid employees.

Commissioner David Ditzler observed that paying Randall Muth, the Children Services board director, who doubles as a lawyer for the child welfare agency, a $5,000 annual bonus in addition to his $95,000 annual salary is much cheaper than hiring an outside lawyer.

Muth’s bonus is part of his three-year employment contract with CSB.

“We’re so honored to have him as a director of Children Services,” Ditzler said of Muth, whose $5,000 bonus

in 2014 was the highest on a list of more than 250

bonuses the county paid over the past five years to 181 employees.

The bonuses, which totaled $165,400, were labeled as such on a payroll spreadsheet the county supplied in response to a Vindicator public-records request.

“Here’s a guy that every county in the state probably would have gone after” to be its Children Services director, Ditzler said.

The commissioners devoted half of their hourlong meeting Thursday to responses by themselves and other county officials to the “Bonus Bonanza” story published in Thursday morning’s Vindicator.

Ditzler also defended the bonuses approved by the commissioners and paid this year to three key employees in the county recycling division.

“I’ll defend that to the hilt,” Ditzler said, noting that the division has combined and eliminated two jobs to achieve $100,000 in savings.

“We’re lucky to keep them. ... They could make more in other counties,” Ditzler said.

The bonuses were: $1,447 for Lou Vega, the $72,352-a-year recycling director; $1,172 for James Jerek, the $58,596 recycling business manager; and $940 for Mary Gresh, the $47,012 recycling division coordinator.

Commissioners did not address the other part of the recycling division picture: revenues that fell from $2.9 million in 2011 to a budget of just $2.3 million in 2014 as a result of the closing of the Central Waste Landfill in Smith Township. That led to a reduction of services in the office and even deferred payment of its Oakhill rent last year.

“The employees down here are mission-oriented. They’re concerned about your children and your families,” said Judge Theresa Dellick of juvenile court, noting that many of her employees are not well-paid.

The starting wage for corrections officers in the juvenile detention center here is $12.17 an hour, she said.

Judge Dellick gave all 112 of her employees this year a lump sum of 1 percent of their salaries.

Read more of the reaction in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.