YOUNGSTOWN — An attorney for the city is asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the former Community Development Agency director — fired in March 2018 — seeking to get his job back.

Jeffrey Moliterno, the city’s senior assistant law director, wrote in a court filing that Taron Cunningham’s objection to the Civil Service Commission upholding his termination “is merely attempting to undo this process because he is unhappy with the results.”

A decision from Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge John R. Durkin and Magistrate James A. Melone on the case won’t come until at least Feb. 24, according to court records.

Cunningham is seeking to be reinstated with back pay to his job, which paid $74,997.52 annually, or at minimum have Durkin order the Civil Service Commission conduct another hearing.

Cunningham was hired Nov. 27, 2017, by John A. McNally, who was mayor in his final weeks in office at the time. Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, who defeated McNally in the May 2017 Democratic primary and was elected that November, fired Cunningham.

Cunningham filed a March 15 appeal with the Civil Service Commission, which heard it May 9 and upheld the firing. Another appeal was heard July 1 by the commission, which again upheld the firing. The commission filed a final order on Cunningham’s firing July 22.

Cunningham was suspended twice in 2018 for insubordination before T. Sharon Woodberry, then the director of the city’s Community Planning and Economic Development Department, wrote Law Director Jeff Limbian Jan. 8, 2019, seeking an opinion on firing Cunningham.

She wrote Cunningham’s “inability to adhere to policy and rules that govern the workplace, incompetence, poor communication skills, misrepresentation of facts in his course of his work, general insubordination, temperamental and retaliatory behavior, and failure to sufficiently provide guidance to employees directly under his supervision are problematic for this department.”

In an appeal of the firing, S. David Worhatch, Cunningham’s attorney, wrote the commission’s decision “is unconstitutional, and / or is not supported by reliable, probative and substantial evidence, and / or is unreasonable, and / or is not in accordance with law and therefore should be reversed, vacated or modified.”

Moliterno responded that the argument “is an unrivaled example of results-oriented reasoning,” and “untimely filed.”

“Cunningham asks this court to review that evidence and based on that review of evidence, to determine that the commission was arbitrary, unreasonable or capricious in its decision to not allow it to be made a part of the record used for deciding the case,” Moliterno states.

“This is not something a court reviewing for an abuse of discretion should do. The court is not to review the evidence and decide that the evidence was ‘good enough’ to make a difference in the case. The court is to review the decision of the commission and decide if the commission abused its discretion in its decision to strike a request filed one month after the conclusion of the hearing,” he states in his filing.

Brown’s decision to fire Cunningham came after Limbian had a Jan. 16 predisciplinary hearing for Cunningham. Limbian gave Cunningham a letter five days prior to that hearing that is essentially identical to the one Woodberry wrote, but added that the CDA director was being placed on paid administrative leave pending a decision on his termination.

Brown fired Cunningham March 8 in a two-paragraph letter that didn’t state the reasons why.

Cunningham’s lawyer has said his client didn’t know why he lost his job.

“The commission erred, as a matter of law, in affirming the appointing authority’s removal order when such order failed to satisfy the mandatory minimum requirements of the commission’s rules and regulations requiring the appointing authority to ‘state the reasons’ for removal in the terms of such order,” Worhatch wrote.

Moliterno responded: “Cunningham was fully aware of each and every possible reason for his termination” to “even the most potentially minor reason.”

Brown appointed Beverly Hosey, the city’s compliance director, as interim CDA director Nov. 4. Her appointment is good for up to 120 days.