Judge dismisses complaint against Trumbull engineer

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

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 Friday 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.

Judge Reinbold said the Ohio law Stauffer cited in his removal action “must be strictly construed as applying only to the ‘single term in which the offense occurred.’”

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.”

Furthermore, there is not sufficient evidence that either allegation is sufficient to substantiate a claim that Smith committed misconduct in office, Judge Reinbold’s order says.

Evidence was submitted indicating that Smith and Barzak are business partners in that they hold joint property, but “joint property ownership ‘does not by itself establish a partnership, even if the co-owners share profits made by the use of the property,’” the order says.

Stauffer’s complaint that Smith falsified his 2011 financial-disclosure statement by stating that his private engineering business was no longer in business fails to allege that Smith knew he committed a violation, which would be required for the complaint to be upheld, Judge Reinbold said.

Stauffer’s complaint that Smith’s private engineering work for the health department while working as the county engineer was unlawful is not supported because Ohio law allows a county engineer six months after taking office to finish up private engineering work, the judge indicated.

Engler responded to the dismissal saying he still believes Smith violated Ohio law, and a decision will be made later whether the complaint may be refiled or the judge’s decision appealed.

Smith’s attorney, Subodh Chandra, called Reinbold’s order an indication that Stauffer’s complaint was “a frivolous waste of time all along.”