Fuda provokes Polivka over county's weighted hiring practices

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Trumbull County Commissioner Frank Fuda again criticized hiring practices at the weekly commissioners’ workshop, provoking the ire of a fellow commissioner.

Three weeks ago, Fuda spoke out at the weekly commissioners’ meeting, telling three supervisors that hiring practices need to change – especially in building maintenance and the Department of Job and Family Services – because people who have been referred by a county commissioner get hired, and others are left out.

On Wednesday, he asked one of the same supervisors, Al DeVengencie, building and vehicle maintenance director, whether he had recently hired the daughter of Anna Loney, who is the Department of Job and Family Services hiring coordinator, to work for him. And he asked if Loney had recently hired DeVengencie’s daughter.

DeVengencie’s attempt to answer the question, however, was cut off by Commissioner Dan Polivka and Fuda, who had been arguing back and forth for several minutes.

“Anna Loney hired who? Your daughter. Is that the way our hiring should be?” Fuda asked DeVengencie.

Early in the discussion, Fuda said there are files at JFS with the names Fuda, Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa and Polivka on them that are related to hiring.

“I didn’t know we had files that were labeled Fuda, Cantalamessa and Polivka. We have files here at the county for jobs. Were you aware of that?” he asked the other commissioners.

Fuda’s comments and questions further agitated Polivka, who tried several times to get Fuda to stop by trying to adjourn the meeting.

“This is going on for three weeks,” Polivka said of the Fuda’s hiring complaints. “You [Fuda] get everything you want. You don’t get something, you want to be a big baby and be a bully and cry about it,” Polivka said. “What’s your point, Frank? What’s your point? What’s your problem?”

Fuda said Polivka doesn’t know much about a former county jobs data base because Polivka only shows up at the office for “an hour” per week for meetings.

“You come on Wednesdays for an hour, and you want to complain,” Fuda said, estimating that Polivka has only signed about one percent of the county-related documents the other commissioners have signed over the past decade.

“I’m on this phone with these guys every day,” Polivka said of county department heads. “I’ve got a different style. I’m a contractor. I’m out in the community with the people. I’m an action commissioner. You do your style.

“I don’t micromanage you. You don’t micromanage me. You do your style. I’ll do my style. Let Mauro do his style.”

Cantalamessa later discussed several measures the commissioners are taking to improve hiring practices, such as forming a committee to review applications for the controller’s job at the sanitary engineer’s office and another committee for hiring the next human-resources director. Longtime director James Keating is retiring this summer.

The county human-resources office also has restored a website that lists current job openings, Cantalamessa said. The website is http://humanresources.co.trumbull.oh.us/