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Mahoning Auditor Meacham ends 4-day work weeks
YOUNGSTOWN
Mahoning County Auditor Ralph T. Meacham has canceled the option for his employees to work four 10-hour shifts a week, effective May 4.
That option was contained in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2533 labor contract for auditor’s office employees, which was ratified by union members Jan. 9, but it was contingent on the elected auditor’s approval.
Meacham became county auditor March 3, after his predecessor, Michael V. Sciortino, was suspended Feb. 23 by a three-judge panel based on allegations against Sciortino in the Oakhill Renaissance Place criminal-conspiracy case.
Meacham had unseated Sciortino in last November’s election to win a four-year term that began in March.
“I didn’t feel we could adequately serve the taxpayers” using the four-day option, Meacham said this week.
“I didn’t need people there at 7 in the morning and 5 in the afternoon,” he explained.
He said the staff is needed, however, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, when the office is open to the public.
“I need people to be there and to cover each other during the normal hours of operation,” he added.
“I wanted to find people, and some people weren’t there Friday. Some people weren’t there Monday” under the four-day system, he said.
“I’m here to manage the office. I have to have my people there” every business day, unless they are ill or on vacation, he said in an interview in the county courthouse, where his office is located.
Meacham said he gave his staff more than a month’s notice of the change.
Janet Szenborn, union local president, said when Meacham took office that she favored the four-day option because she said some of the auditor’s office’s required work “is best done before and after public hours.”
However, she said she wouldn’t support the four-day option if it would negatively affect the public.
Szenborn declined to comment further this week.