Friday, May 25, 2018
YOUNGSTOWN
A city employee filed legal action against the mayor to keep her current job.
Visiting Judge Thomas J. Pokorny granted Abigail Beniston a temporary restraining order allowing her to remain as the city’s wastewater-construction engineer. He set a June 25 hearing in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on her request for a preliminary injunction.
“The court finds that although [Beniston] may possibly have an adequate remedy at law, the issuance of a restraining order will prevent claimed irreparable harm to [Beniston] and cause no injury to the respondent city,” Judge Pokorny wrote.
Law Director Jeff Limbian declined to comment because the matter is pending litigation.
Mayor Jamael Tito Brown ordered Beniston to vacate the engineer’s job May 4 and become a code-enforcement inspector, a position Robert J. Rohrbaugh II, Beniston’s attorney, said is “substantially dissimilar” to her current job in terms of salary and responsibility.
When asked if the decision was politically motivated, Rohrbaugh said, “Until we can uncover another reason, we don’t know what to make of it. But we can’t find any other reason.”
Read more about the matter in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.