2 county employees recommended for firing

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

A Trumbull County sanitary engineer’s office employee has been recommended for firing after her supervisors discovered she’d spent barely an hour working each of three consecutive days in the middle of September.

The rest of her time was spent at her home in Columbiana and a home in Leetonia.

On other days, the employee was found to have gone to places such as the Howland Plaza, Kohl’s Department Store, Kent State University Trumbull Campus, Mosquito Lake State Park and a pizza shop in Vienna without authorization.

A second employee also is being recommended for firing after a global- positioning tracking device detected that he had spent only 46 percent of his work hours over a 31/2-week period engaged in work, with the rest of his time spent at his home in Niles and at various other homes and locations in Niles and Warren.

Sanitary engineer’s office sewer and waterline inspector Lori Graham of Columbiana filled out a form the week of Sept. 13-18 indicating that she visited only one location the entire week inspecting sewer and water connections.

But her time card for that week indicated that she had spent seven hours each day — Sept. 15, Sept. 16 and Sept. 17 — doing that type of work.

The time card was signed by Bill Durst, her supervisor.

The sanitary engineer’s office was alerted of a possible problem with Graham’s being in the right place by an anonymous caller to the Trumbull County commissioners office, who said he saw Graham’s white office pickup truck pull into her driveway and enter her garage on three consecutive days in July.

The sanitary engineer’s office then installed GPS tracking devices on Graham’s work vehicle, as well as the vehicle of employee David Harper. The office then monitored Graham’s and Harper’s movements for the next 31/2 weeks.

Graham was found to be engaging in nonwork activities for 29.5 hours over that time span, or nearly 25 percent of the time.

Harper was found to be engaged in nonwork activities for 61 hours, or 54 percent of the time.

Graham was found to have traveled 348 miles for nonwork activities — much of it back and forth to her home — and Harper was found to have traveled 659 miles for nonwork activities.

County commissioners were prepared to fire Graham and Harper at Wednesday’s meeting but chose to hold off a week, Commissioner Frank Fuda said, to give the county prosecutor’s office time to review the matter.

Rex Fee, executive director of the sanitary engineer’s office, said inspectors know that if they have no sewers or waterlines to inspect, there is other work for them to do.

“In down time, they are supposed to get data — measurements. They know what is needed,” Fee said. “There’s enough work, and there were things they could do if they ran out of work.”

Graham, a 12-year employee, became an inspector about 18 months ago, and Harper has been an inspector about 16 years.