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Mahoning employee alleges ‘cronyism’ in federal suit
YOUNGSTOWN
A Mahoning County Department of Job and Family Services employee alleges a climate of “cronyism” in the county government through unfair hiring and promotion practices.
Helen Youngblood of Youngstown filed a civil Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit Wednesday in Youngstown’s U.S. District Court. The suit individually names the county board of commissioners as well as the county JFS department and its director, Bob Bush, and program administrator, Melissa Wasko.
Youngblood filed the suit individually but also as a member of a protected class, claiming the county’s hiring and promotion practices are discriminatory toward blacks.
“Everything’s an inside job – to be blunt,” Youngblood’s attorney, Percy Squire of Columbus, said Thursday. “You have to know someone or be wired or affiliated in order to be treated the way you’re supposed to up there.”
Squire said Youngblood had repeatedly requested county administrators provide their policies for hiring and promotions and requirements for job posting procedures, but “none of that information has been provided.”
“When she brought these things to the administration, they retaliated against her,” Squire said.
County Prosecutor Paul Gains said Thursday his office will seek to dismiss the suit early next week.
Federal court filings show Youngblood filed a similar suit in August 2017, which she moved to dismiss in June 2018. The most recently filed complaint now includes a whistleblower claim and several specified claims for relief.
Youngblood also filed a civil-rights suit regarding deprivation of rights to promotion against the former county board of commissioners and Department of Human Services administrators in December 1987. That case was ruled in favor of the county, court records show.
In 2013, the current board of commissioners fired Youngblood from her American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees role as a training officer in the county JFS department for making racially charged comments that were “unacceptable in the workplace,” Bush said at the time.
She was reinstated months later after union arbitration proceedings.