MVSD turns on Vigorito

A month after Anthony Vigorito received a juicy smooch from the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District to ease the pain of six criminal charges filed against him, the romance appears to have soured.

On March 29, the board placed Vigorito on paid administrative leave from his job as MVSD’s plant operations manager after he was indicted on two counts each of forgery, criminal noncompliance with the state’s safe drinking water law and tampering with records.

The charges stemmed from Vigorito allegedly falsifying training records of 25 Youngstown Water Department employees and a former employee in 2013 and 2014.

On April 2 in this space, the board was harshly criticized for giving the 19-year employee time off from work with pay. It was noted that the administrative leave amounted to a vacation since Vigorito continued to receive his $76,680 salary.

“While it is 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,” this writer argued. “After all, this is an individual who has been with the district for 19 years and before getting his current assignment he 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.”

But in a surprise move last week, the board of directors showed a willingness to cut him loose. Members voted unanimously to place Vigorito on unpaid administrative leave.

Innocent plea

On April 4, he pleaded innocent to the criminal charges at an arraignment before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

The case is being prosecuted by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, which secured guilty pleas from the 20-plus water department employees to falsifying their training hours. They have agreed to testify against Vigorito.

The employees were enrolled in two-day continuing-education courses Vigorito taught in Youngstown for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in May 2013 and September 2014.

Investigators from the Attorney General’s Office say the workers did not complete the courses.

So what brought about the MVSD board of director’s change of heart?

Atty. Matthew Blair, board president, said Wednesday after a lengthy executive session and public vote that he and his colleagues acted in accordance with Ohio statutes.

Blair then tossed out this nugget: Vigorito could be fired even before his criminal case is completed.

“We’re looking at the entire situation,” he said in response to a Vindicator reporter’s question about termination. “It would be possible.”

In an email to this writer shortly after the April 2 column was published – it carried the headline “MVSD pampers Vigorito” – Blair had this to say:

“I am currently acting President of the MVSD Board, but I am not on the Personnel Committee. The decision to place Anthony Vigorito on temporary paid administrative leave was based upon the advice of legal counsel. I concurred with legal counsel because I felt that to take any punitive action would be inappropriate given the presumption of innocence.

“As for Mr. Vigorito’s inability to pass tests, you should note that the Board did place Mr. Vigorito temporarily in the position of Chief Engineer with the understanding that he would have to acquire both his PE Certificate and Class IV Water License. He was not placed in the position with the understanding that his failure to pass the tests would result in his termination. Given the complexity of both tests, I’m sure he would have declined the position under those circumstances.

“The availability of Class IV operators in Ohio who also hold a PE Certificate is very minimal. Other than Tom Holloway and Dave Tabak, both of whom retired from Meander, I’m not aware of many individuals who hold these qualifications. We have always tried to develop a qualified individual in-house and we all believed that Anthony Vigorito should have been able to fill that slot.”

But the fact remains that Vigorito was removed from the position of chief engineer because he did not have the required certification and license.

It is also a fact that after he was indicted, the board chose to give him special dispensation.

But it wasn’t just Blair who reacted to the column.

There was an email from Vigorito’s former wife who took this writer to task: “Why do you report half the story? It’s because you are too lazy to do research! 1. Anthony holds a Bachelor of Science in both Chemistry and Electrical Engineering. He went to school for 8 years. And once again the Class 4 is a thesis not a test that he has submitted no less than 6 times … 4 (3) inch binders.”

She also took exception to this writer’s suggestion that Blair appeared to be pampering Vigorito.

It turns out she was right – given last week’s unanimous decision by the board to place him on unpaid administrative leave.

What happened in the relatively short period between the pampering and the repudiation?

There isn’t a public explanation other than what Blair told The Vindicator after last week’s executive session: The board acted in accordance with Ohio statutes.

So didn’t the board act in accordance with state statutes when it placed Vigoritto on paid leave?

The answer may be revealed as this case unfolds.

The state’s criminal case against Vigorito and the guilty pleas by the Youngstown Water Department employees may well be the tip of the iceberg with regard to the operation of the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District.

Indeed, if the email from Vigorito’s ex-wife to this writer has any basis of truth, state investigators may be spending a lot of time looking into the actions of the MVSD board and investigating the certifications of employees responsible for the purification of the drinking water for the district’s member cities, Youngstown and Niles, and the village of McDonald.

With more than 200,000 water users, the MVSD has an extraordinary responsibility to the public, which is why its actions deserve close scrutiny.

The Vigorito case could well be the beginning.