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Warren law director wants to know if surveillance video shows misconduct by city employee
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Warren Law Director Greg Hicks has asked one of his assistant law directors to review surveillance video to see if allegations are true that a city employee regularly spends hours in a local restaurant on city time.
The investigation began after Cleveland TV station Fox 8 broadcast a story Monday, saying it videotaped as city employee Celestino DiVieste arrived at the Sorrento’s restaurant parking lot on Parkman Road Northwest at 10:45 a.m. May 3. Reporter Peggy Gallek reported that he left close to two hours later.
The broadcast showed a video of someone parking his city vehicle in the restaurant lot. Gallek told viewers it was DiVieste and that he moved the vehicle in the same lot 45 minutes later. The video showed DiVieste leaving in the truck at 12:30 p.m.
Gallek, a former Vindicator reporter, interviewed DiVieste later, and DiVieste denied he had been in the restaurant.
Hicks, who lost May 7 in the Democratic Party primary election for law director to Enzo Cantalamessa, Warren safety service director, told The Vindicator it’s been rumored that DiVieste has been spending hours at a time at the restaurant on city time for years.
He said he never asked DiVieste’s supervisors to look into it because two of the supervisors are DiVieste’s relatives, including Cantalamessa, who is DiVieste’s nephew.
Cantalamessa did not return messages and a text message Tuesday seeking comment.
Another relative of Cantalamessa’s is Nunzio DiVieste, who is Celestino DiVieste’s brother and his former supervisor in the operations department. Nunzio DiVieste retired April 17 after 25 years with the city.
Celestino DiVieste uses a mower and other tools to maintain downtown areas, including Courthouse Square. He has worked for the city since 2005, before Cantalamessa first went to work as safety service director under Mayor Doug Franklin in 2012.
Hicks said that with the “concrete” evidence provided by the television station, he can justify having Traci Sabau, asssistant law director, dig into video evidence to see whether it substantiates allegations regarding Celestino DiVieste’s time at the restaurant.
Franklin pointed out Tuesday that Celestino DiVieste started working for the city before Enzo Cantalamessa began his city employment.
He added that Celestino DiVieste’s personnel file shows that he has been disciplined for his policy violations during the seven years Cantalamessa has been safety service director.
Among the issues was an April 6, 2016, incident in which he mowed down 1,642 pinwheels on the front lawn of city hall from an event a day earlier. A 4-H group was scheduled to remove them, a letter in DiVieste’s file says. The city’s human resources department found DiVieste guilty of neglect of duty and gave him a three-day suspension.
On April 18, 2011, he entered the office of the water superintendent and “went into a fit of rage,” another letter in his file says. “You directed a profanity-laced tirade towards [his supervisor] and threatened him by your words and actions.” The Vindicator could not find a letter indicating what disciplinary action was taken.
The city also said he miscalculated the flow of wastewater at the city’s water plant by 7 million gallons when he worked there in 2010. He received a written reprimand.