Twenty-six Youngstown water employees take a plea deal for falsifying their credentials

By David Skolnick | February 28, 2017 at 12:05a.m.

COLUMBUS

Twenty-six Youngstown Water Department employees pleaded guilty to charges for falsifying their credentials, with a deal that includes license suspensions and thousands of dollars in fines and restitution.

The unclassified misdemeanor counts of falsifying contact hours carried potential prison terms of four years and fines up to $10,000.

“These gentlemen were facing some very severe criminal penalties if we did not reach a resolution of this matter,” said Atty. Charles Dunlap, who represented most of the men involved.

Each agreed Monday to pay $2,000 in restitution to the city of Youngstown, plus a $1,000 fine to Franklin County Municipal Court, and a $250 court administrative fee. Some of the workers agreed to perform 50 hours of community service, while others decided to pay an additional $1,000 instead.

They’ll also have their Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Class 2 water certification suspended for a year.

The workers will have a year to meet the terms of the diversion agreements they signed Monday. After a year, the convictions will be dismissed if they abide by the deal.

The agreements also stipulate that they will tell the truth about the case if subpoenaed by a court in any related cases.

The agreements specifically state they “must cooperate with authorities in the prosecution of Anthony Vigorito.”

Vigorito, who taught the certification course on behalf of the EPA, let the workers leave early from the training, and they were not aware it was an issue, Dunlap said.

Dan Tierney, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said, “Our criminal investigation remains ongoing. ... Further charges remain possible.”

Vigorito, the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District’s plant operations manager, has trained water department employees in other parts of the Mahoning Valley.

Martin White, Vigorito’s attorney, declined late last week to comment to The Vindicator on behalf of himself and his client.

The employees were charged after the Ohio EPA determined that they had claimed completion of required coursework but had attended only part of training classes. The resulting certifications meant more than $1 per hour in pay under the employees’ union contract.

That amounts to $2,142 to $2,246 in additional annual salary per employee.

The Vindicator estimates the total amount to be between $150,000 and $175,000.

But the deal worked out with defense attorneys and prosecutors will see the city receive only $52,000.

“That was the negotiated restitution,” Tierney said.

All 26 appeared in Franklin County Municipal Court. Two other water department employees initially charged in September 2016 have since died.

Each of the charged employees stood before Judge Daniel R. Hawkins, acknowledging their understanding of the charges and the plea-deal documents they signed. The workers aren’t required to be licensed to keep their jobs at the city water department.

But Youngstown Law Director Martin Hume, who attended the hearings, said some employees could face demotion.

“Certain positions that some of them hold require the licensure as a job attribute,” Hume said. “If they don’t have the licensure, then they might be subject to demotion to a lower position.”

He added, “I’m disappointed that our city employees weren’t more alert to the concerns that come up in a situation like this. If you’re paying money and getting credit for something you didn’t do, maybe you should have recognized that that wasn’t appropriate. I’m disappointed that we’re here today, but I will say most of them have no prior discipline. [They’re] longtime, valued city employees, and so that will be taken into account as well.”

Mayor John A. McNally, who didn’t attend the hearings, said, “I’m happy that these guys owned up to the mistake in judgment they made. We’ll review each employee’s situation separately, and we’ll determine if and what type of discipline is appropriate.”

He added: “It’s an embarrassment. I know most, if not all, of the employees. They made a stupid mistake. They’ve all owned up to something they shouldn’t have done, and they know that.”

When asked if any of them will be fired, McNally said, “I can’t say that. I’ll rely on the law department for guidance.”

The employees, Dunlap said, completed courses with Vigorito, an approved instructor, and passed subsequent tests but were, in cases, dismissed early from actual classes.

“If it was a six-hour course, they may not have spent six hours of time in an actual classroom taking that course,” he said. “They may have spent two or three” but received credit for the full six hours.

Dunlap said state code requires the workers to complete 12 contact hours of coursework over a two-year period toward their certification, but the code is not definitive as to its definition of what constitutes contact hours.

“The way the present administration interprets those contact hours is actual time spent in the classroom,” he said, adding, “There are national educational institutes that offer these same type of credit hours online, and these men could have taken those hours, but, again, they don’t spent an actual six hours taking that time. They get credit for that course equaling a certain amount of time if they take the test and pass it.”

Dunlap said the men opted not to challenge the criminal charges because of related administrative actions that could have led to permanent revocation of their licenses.

Water Commissioner Harry Johnson III added after Monday’s proceedings, “These guys represent the top brass for the department. I would definitely go into a foxhole with these guys. I stand behind these guys. These guys are wonderful individuals. I just want to make sure that people know these are the guys I depend on and make things work in the department.”