25 water department workers disciplined with pay cuts for falsifying credentials

YOUNGSTOWN

The city disciplined 25 water employees found guilty of falsifying their credentials by reducing the salaries of 24 of them and putting suspension letters in all of their personnel files.

However, the suspensions are only on paper – to be put in their personnel files Monday – and not actual suspensions of five days. The suspensions are the first part of a process to punish them further if they violate any other city policies or work rules, including termination, said Mayor John A. McNally and Law Director Martin Hume.

“They made a serious mistake in judgment,” McNally said Friday. “But they’ve been very good employees with extensive years of service to the city.”

The 25 workers will be required to complete a course in business ethics.

If the city moved to fire any of the workers because of the falsification, “we don’t believe it would be held up in arbitration [for union employees] or by the civil service commission” for the three management employees, McNally said.

“We believe they’re paying substantial penalties,” McNally said. “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.”

The 25 workers, along with Steve Procick, a former employee who has since quit, were found guilty Feb. 27 in Franklin County Municipal Court of falsifying contact hours for claiming they completed coursework to receive Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Class 2 water certifications when they took only part of the training classes.

“It’s a lesson for other city employees that if you have classes you have to go to, you have to go to the classes,” McNally said.

Read more about the matter in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.