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Chief union steward terminated at Trumbull engineer’s office
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
The chief union steward at the Trumbull County Engineer’s Office has been terminated for making a threatening statement and other matters.
County Engineer Randy Smith sent a letter April 14 firing Kendell L. Stauffer Jr. of Girard. The letter says his termination was effective April 14.
According to an internal investigation conducted by an attorney for the engineer’s office, Stauffer remarked early March 16 at the engineer’s Cortland garage that “there’ll be a pile of people behind me, and I’ll be standing on top of the bodies when it all comes down.”
The employee who said he heard the remark, Stephen Moss, said it followed a discussion about a union protest in front of the county engineer’s office on North River Road that Stauffer helped organize the previous Saturday.
The remark also followed some discussion between Stauffer and Moss about a lawsuit Stauffer had filed against Smith earlier that had attempted to have Smith removed from office. A judge ruled against Stauffer in March 2015, dismissing the complaint.
That lawsuit was among about a dozen types of harassment Smith spoke about during a March 10 presentation at the county commissioners meeting. Smith and Atty. Matt Blair detailed about a dozen instances in which union leaders have attacked Smith in the past three years. Smith said he refuses to be intimidated.
Smith and Blair said the allegations have cost $250,000 in taxpayer money to defend and have been consistently found to be baseless.
Union members and other union leaders spoke in support of Smith at the meeting.
Stauffer did not respond Friday to an emailed request for comment.
So far, Stauffer has not appealed his termination, according to an official at the engineer’s office.
A pre-disciplinary hearing took place April 4. A letter to Stauffer said the reason for the hearing was dishonesty, threatening harm to a superviser, insubordination, abusive language to a fellow employee and creating a hostile work environment. Other documents show that Stauffer has been disciplined several times in recent years, including this year, when he was accused of not properly plowing and treating roads on his route, leaving roads in an unsafe condition.