City employee files legal action against the mayor to keep her current job
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 and set a June 25 hearing on a preliminary injunction.
Mayor Jamael Tito Brown on May 4 ordered Beniston to vacate the engineer’s job 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 – Beniston supported [then-incumbent Mayor John A.] McNally – we don’t know what to make of it. But we can’t find any other reason.”
City Law Director Jeff Limbian declined to comment because the matter is “pending litigation.”
The Vindicator reported in November that during the final weeks of McNally’s administration, he promoted Beniston from code enforcement and blight remediation superintendent to wastewater construction engineer.
Beniston’s salary was increased by 15 percent from $52,811 annually to $60,757 a year.
For the complete story, read Saturday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com