Complaint against Trumbull engineer dismissed

WARREN

A visiting judge has dismissed a complaint filed in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court that alleged county Engineer Randy Smith should be removed from office for purported illegal conduct.

Retired Stark County Judge Richard Reinbold issued an order today that dismissed the complaint filed by Kendall L. Stauffer Jr. of Girard, an employee at the engineer’s office, that said Smith violated state ethics laws by hiring Donald Barzak as his director of governmental affairs and grants coordinator in September 2011. This was just after Smith was appointed engineer in August 2011; Smith and Barzak were business partners.

Barzak resigned from the position in April 2013.

Judge Reinbold said Smith cannot be removed from office now for ethics misconduct alleged to have occurred during his previous term, which ended in December 2012. Stauffer and his attorney, David Engler, filed the complaint in March 2014.

Likewise, Stauffer’s complaint that Smith violated ethics laws by providing private engineering services to the Trumbull County Board of Health in 2011 with payment received in 2012 occurred in a previous term and is therefore “moot.”

Read more about the case in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.