Audrey Tillis

YOUNGSTOWN — Mahoning County Administrator Audrey Tillis is on the agenda for today’s Mahoning County commissioners meeting to retire and rehire.

When Mahoning County Commissioner Anthony Traficanti was asked how the retire / rehire would work, he referred a reporter to Tillis.

“Audrey has all of the information. You are welcome to talk to her. She can explain it to you,” he said.

Traficanti said he does not know all the details of “what we did for Audrey.”

Traficanti said Tillis “has been talking about this for about the last four or five months.” He said she will continue to be county administrator under her rehire. “She’s going to stay on a little while longer,” Traficanti said.

At county budget hearings in November, the commissioners revealed that they had hired Jen Pangio as the county’s new director of the Office of Management and Budget, removing those duties from Tillis.

Trafiicanti said Tillis had multiple areas of responsibility at the time. She worked on the county budget and has had administrative duties on behalf of the commissioners.

Today’s agenda, which was released to the public on the commissioners web site Wednesday, states that the commissioners will be voting on a resolution “approving the appointment of County Administrator Audrey Tillis under the authority of R.C. 305.29.” That is the Ohio law that governs the appointment of county administrators.

According to the county commissioners personnel manual, “if the retiring employee is subject to hire through a board, then 60 days prior to rehire, in the same job from which the employee retired, the hiring board must give public notice of the employee’s intent to rehire.”

The hiring board must then hold a public hearing on the issue between 15 and 30 days prior to the retired employee’s rehire date.

At the time of the retirement, the employee must be paid all accrued vacation time and compensatory time, if applicable. When rehired, the employee will begin accruing vacation as a new employee. The employee will not receive credit for prior years of service in determining the vacation accrual rate.

“Employees are required to notify their employer of their retirement date,” according to the policy. “The county reserves the right to start a rehired employee at a newly negotiated rate of pay.”

Traficanti said the commissioners want her to remain with the county because “she has extensive knowledge.”

Also on the agenda today are a “resolution approving the memorandum of understanding to the collective bargaining agreements with the Fraternal Order of Police/Ohio Labor Council representing the Blue and Gold units” of the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office.

Traficanti said he did not know what that resolution entails.

Have an interesting story? Email reporter Ed Runyan at erunyan@vindy.com