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Bertrando argued with co-workers
STRUTHERS
James Bertrando, the Struthers tax commissioner, who is challenging Mahoning County Recorder Noralynn Palermo in the March 15 Democratic primary, has had problems related to his temperament and job attendance, according to city records.
However, Bertrando denied having an anger-management problem, maintained that he properly accounts for his work time, and noted the improvement in tax collections since he took office.
Mayor Terry P. Stocker suspended Bertrando for three days without pay last March and ordered him to undergo an anger-management assessment.
The suspension stemmed from a March 11 dispute between Bertrando and a clerk, in the presence of others, which concerned Bertrando’s assertion that he didn’t receive a complete council agenda packet.
“Your conduct as a supervisor was unbecoming as a member of my administration,” the mayor wrote in a disciplinary letter to Bertrando.
“The way in which you addressed the clerk ... was inappropriate, rude and reflects poorly on this administration,” the mayor wrote.
The March 11 dispute was “merely the latest in a series of incidents that have occurred between you and other city personnel,” the mayor wrote.
“Council and I expect you to conduct yourself in a respectful manner while in a public forum,” Council President Henry D. Franceschelli Sr. wrote to Bertrando, urging him to apologize.
Bertrando said in an interview that he apologized to everyone involved.
“We were standing in front of the door to city council, and it got a little loud” in front of council members just before the council meeting, Bertrando recalled. “It wasn’t a big deal.”
Asked if he has an anger-management problem, Bertrando replied: “No, not at all.”
The mayor ordered City Auditor Christina Bohl not to pay Bertrando for the two hours he was in city hall March 17, when “he was officially on suspension and not supposed to be here.”
Bertrando earns $41,324 annually and serves at the pleasure of the mayor.
A year earlier, a city police report by Detective Jeff Lewis documented a Feb. 4 argument between Bertrando and a tax clerk over what Bertrando said were missing records.
Bertrando admitted to the detective that he had lost his temper and told the detective “he was in a bad mood due to a toothache.”
The clerk told the detective Bertrando had accused her of stealing $100, only to find out the discrepancy was due to a bank’s error.
The clerk told police “James has created a hostile work environment, and she is afraid to come to work,” Lewis wrote in his report.
Bertrando was not charged with any crime.
Bertrando said he was not disciplined in connection with that dispute.
On another issue, Stocker wrote to Bertrando on March 26, 2014, that he was concerned about Bertrando’s “availability, oversight and documentation of time” on the job.
“You are expected to keep regular business hours at city hall,” the mayor wrote.
“I expect you to better account for your time and be available for work, particularly during our most hectic time of the year. As such, I will not be approving time off between now and April 15,” the mayor wrote.
On the same day, Bertrando replied to the mayor that he had always kept accurate documentation of his work hours, compensatory time and leave and that his office has “an unblemished record, affirmed by state audits, and almost a perfect record in seven years of customer service,” with no tax-issue complaints filed against the office under his leadership.
The mayor later wrote to Bertrando that Safety Director Ed Wildes found Bertrando absent at 11:20 a.m. and the mayor found him absent at 12:30 and 1:15 p.m., March 31, 2014.
Bertrando said the proof of his office’s performance is in its tax collections, which went from $2,670,618 in 2008 to $3,151,975 last year, with five record city tax collection months last year.
Bertrando said his office produced enough revenue and cash flow, even in the depths of the Great Recession, to prevent any layoffs of municipal employees paid by the city’s general fund.
“If my performance wasn’t good, the mayor would get rid of me,” Bertrando said, adding that his office collects 68 percent of the city’s general-fund revenue.
Struthers has a 2 percent city tax on wage and business income.