Niles mayor says disciplinary action against worker who stole from church should proceed soon

Staff report

NILES

Niles Mayor Ralph Infante said he should be able to proceed soon with disciplinary action against Michael Marrara, a city employee who pleaded guilty last month to stealing $97,000 from Mount Carmel Catholic Church between 2007 and 2014 while working there as maintenance supervisor.

Infante said he doesn’t know what disciplinary action he will take.

Marrara pleaded guilty to grand theft in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court and will be sentenced after the county’s Adult Probation Department conducts a pre-sentence investigation.

Infante said the first step will be to schedule a hearing in which information will be presented to a hearing officer. That person will be selected from among city department heads who are not in Marrara’s chain of command.

The hearing officer will decide on the punishment Marrara will receive.

Infante; Neil Buccino, the Niles service director; and J. Terrance Dull, Niles law director, will present the matter to the hearing officer, Infante said.

Marrara, 59, of Sayers Avenue in Niles, remained in his job last week as a sewer- maintenance worker.

Among the thefts Marrara committed using a church credit card were $2,838 for campground sites in Portage County; $9,974 for tuition at Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio, for his daughter; $9,783 at Sears; $10,702 at a gas station; $15,103 in charges to Sprint; and $7,541 for Time-Warner cable services.