MVSD pampers Vigorito

Question: What do you call time off from work with pay?

Answer: A vacation!

Question: What do you call an individual indicted on six felony counts who’s being paid while indefinitely suspended from work?

Answer: A public employee – with all the time in the world to hone his golfing skills.

The decision by the governing board of the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District to keep Anthony Vigorito on the payroll but not to let him report for duty while his criminal case works it way through the judicial system is blood curdling, to say the least.

While it’s true an indictment is not an indication of guilt, Vigorito should have been suspended without pay from his position as the MVSD’s plant operations manager. After all, this is an individual who has been with the district for 19 years and before getting his current assignment was the chief engineer. He had served for 18 months as the highest-ranking employee before the board was forced to find something else for him to do.

Why forced? For the simple reason that Vigorito did not have the credentials to hold on to the top job. He failed to earn certification as a professional engineer that’s mandated by the MVSD and was unable to secure his Class IV license that’s required by the Environmental Protection Agency for operation of a water purification facility.

Requirements

It is important to note that when he was named chief engineer in 2014, the board gave him 12 months to meet the requirement for certification and license. He failed to keep that deadline and was given another six months – but still came up short.

He was thus assigned to a lower position.

But even with the demotion, Vigorito still raked in $77,000 a year in wages. That amount is being reduced by $320 a month because he has lost his Class III license under the Ohio Administrative Code.

The code provides for the license suspension during criminal proceedings.

So, Vigorito doesn’t have a Class III license and failed to earn certification as a professional engineer and a Class IV license, yet he remains on the payroll.

Atty. Matt Blair, president of the MVSD board, is unwavering in his support of Vigorito.

“He’s a really competent guy,” Blair said in 2015 when the chief engineer’s position was taken away from him.

Well, the criminal charges against Vigorito suggest that Blair needs to stop being such a cheerleader.

A Mahoning County grand jury indicted Vigorito on two counts each of forgery, criminal noncompliance with the state’s safe drinking-water law and tampering with records.

He is accused of falsifying the training records of 25 Youngstown Water Department employees and a former employee in 2013 and 2014.

The veteran workers used their illegally obtained credentials to secure Class II licenses from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency that resulted in their wages being increased.

They pleaded guilty in Franklin County Municipal Court to an unclassified misdemeanor count of falsifying contact hours of required course work for the state certification. They were required to pay thousands of dollars in fines and restitution.

The water department employees could have received prison terms of four years and fines up to $10,000.

Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally, who is seeking re-election to a second four-year term, decided not to fire or suspend them. Instead, he reduced their salaries and issued fake suspensions. Letters of suspensions were placed in their files, but they haven’t lost a day of work.

“They’ve made a serious mistake in judgment,” McNally said when he announced the so-called punishment. “But they’ve been very good employees with extensive years of service.”

There’s that “they’re good employees” justification – again.

It’s noteworthy that while the Water Department workers benefited financially from the certification scam until they were caught, they are required to testify against Vigorito under the plea agreements with the state.

The case was investigated by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office because Vigorito was teaching the continuing-education courses on behalf of the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

Here’s a fact that members of the MVSD board and Youngstown Mayor McNally should consider: Not one of the veteran public employees had the moral instincts to say, “What we’re doing is wrong because the Class II certification means more money in our pockets.”

Instead, the mayor offered this excuse for his lenient treatment:

“They’ve accepted responsibility, they lack prior disciplinary issues, we seriously doubt future violations will occur. Discipline is to correct conduct. All of these folks learned a lesson.”

McNally also said the workers have paid “substantial penalties.”

But, seeing as how they retained their jobs and will be able to seek the Class II license in the not too distant future, the “substantial penalties” are temporary.

Indeed, there is always the prospect of the workers making up for lost income by working overtime.

Mayor McNally must know that residents of Youngstown will not take kindly to the city employees who are guilty of violating the public’s trust making a mockery of the so-called punishment they received.

The mayor has described them as very good employees who should have known better than to try to game the system.

Grabbing overtime pay while the case of the certification scam is still being played out – remember they have to testify in Vigorito’s criminal trial – would be the ultimate gaming of the system.

McNally will have a lot of explaining to do on the campaign trail if it turns out that the employees he supposedly punished are laughing all the way to the bank.