By Peter H. Milliken

milliken@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Someone has blown the whistle on Mahoning County’s traffic engineer, alleging he improperly used a county-owned computer.

The county’s traffic engineer, Robert W. Donham II, has received a written reprimand from his boss for doing work on the computer for the village of Windham, where Donham is mayor, and for using that computer for personal business.

Besides Windham-related materials, Donham’s county computer contained fantasy football-related emails from September 2013 and a May 2014 letter rescinding his application to be Bedford city manager.

Donham, who does not punch a time clock at the engineer’s office, said he used his county computer for noncounty purposes, typically to check his email, during his breaks from work and not on county work time.

“I’m not going to tolerate that kind of activity on a county computer, whether it was accepted in the past or not,” said Donham’s boss, county Engineer Patrick Ginnetti, who added that a tipster alerted him to the matter.

Ginnetti said Donham told him he wasn’t aware that he wasn’t allowed to use a county-owned computer for noncounty purposes.

Donham told a Vindicator reporter the same thing and said Ginnetti’s predecessor, Richard Marsico, tolerated “incidental” use of county computers during work breaks. Marsico left office in January 2013 and died earlier this month.

cease-and-desist order

“I ordered him to cease and desist,” Ginnetti said of Donham.

The May 29, 2015, reprimand letter warns Donham he’ll face discipline up to and including dismissal if he repeats his unauthorized activity on the county computer.

Donham said he apologized to Ginnetti.

“This is really much more of a misunderstanding than anything else,” Donham said.

Donham called attention to a section of Ginnetti’s departmental policy that says: “The county will permit personal use of the Internet with reasonable restrictions as to the amount of time devoted to personal usage.”

Donham, who joined the county in June 2008, had no prior discipline, Ginnetti said.

A licensed professional engineer, Donham earns $87,797 annually in his county job here.

internal complaint

When he received “an internal complaint” that alerted him to Donham’s activities, Ginnetti said he spoke to county Prosecutor Paul J. Gains, who advised him to have the county’s information-technology department obtain “a snapshot” of Donham’s county computer.

Donham’s noncounty activities on his county computer violated the engineer’s department policy, which Donham signed Jan. 30, 2013, and the county commissioners’ personnel policy, Ginnetti said.

The commissioners’ policy says in part: “The electronic mail system is reserved solely for the conduct of business at the county. It may not be used for personal business.”

Although Ginnetti said Donham violated county rules, Ginnetti said Gains told him the Ohio Attorney General’s Office did not find anything criminal in Donham’s computer use.

“It looks like he violated county policy. I don’t believe that it was criminal,” Gains said of Donham’s behavior. Enforcement of county policy and punishing policy violators is up to individual elected officials, Gains said.

“It’s really difficult to ensure compliance” with county policy, said county Auditor Ralph Meacham, who noted there likely are about 1,500 county-owned desktop computers.

“Unless you specifically go out and look for that, you’re not going to find it,” Meacham said of unauthorized computer use.

“They’re not trolling out there,” Meacham said of the county information-technology workers he supervises.

Meacham said his office, however, will cooperate with any investigation requested by county elected officials or department heads or by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

‘a higher standard’

“A higher standard of ethics is expected as an employee of this office, as well as an individual holding a professional license,” Ginnetti wrote in his reprimand.

Among the 2014 Windham-related items found on Donham’s county computer were an ordinance, an invoice for mowing grass on nuisance properties, a work order, and correspondence on village of Windham letterhead stationery.

Also included were minutes of a February 2014 Portage County Land Reutilization Corp. meeting and an agenda for a March 2014 meeting of that group.

The part-time $11,318-a-year mayoral post in the Portage County village of Windham is an elected position, but elections for it are nonpartisan.

Donham, who has been mayor there for 71/2 years, said he’s not running for re-election this year because of his time constraints and family responsibilities.

sciortino case

The disclosure concerning Donham follows the indictment of former Mahoning County Auditor Michael V. Sciortino on 21 counts of unauthorized use of property – computer or telecommunications – and four counts of theft in office.

The felony charges allege Sciortino used government-owned computers and software for his political campaigns and for his private law practice.

Sciortino’s alleged criminal conduct began Oct. 6, 2005, three weeks after he became auditor, and ended Aug. 29, 2012.

Running a political campaign or business on a county computer is a crime, Gains said.

Not all personal use of a county computer is a crime, however, even if it violates county policy, he explained.