YOUNGSTOWN — An attorney for a former city official seeking to get his job back is asking a Mahoning County Common Pleas Court judge to allow verbal arguments in the case.

S. David Worhatch, an attorney for Taron Cunningham, the former Community Development Agency director, argued in a court document that the case “presents anything but routine issues of appellate review,” and “this court also should want to hear an oral argument.”

Worhatch “suggests that this court allow 30 minutes a side” for verbal arguments.

The appeal of Cunningham’s firing has been handled through written arguments with a nonoral hearing scheduled for Feb. 24.

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown fired Cunningham on March 8, 2019, after city Law Director Jeff Limbian had a Jan. 16 predisciplinary hearing recommending the director’s termination. After an appeal by Cunningham, the city’s Civil Service Commission upheld his firing May 9, 2019. Another appeal was heard July 1, 2019, by the commission, which again upheld the firing.

Cunningham then filed a separate appeal with common pleas court July 29, 2019.

Cunningham is seeking to be reinstated with back pay to his job, which paid $74,997.52 annually, or have the court order the Civil Service Commission conduct another hearing “with instructions to disaffirm tae mayor’s removal order and reinstate” him.

He was hired Nov. 27, 2017, by John A. McNally, during his final few weeks as mayor.

Judge John R. Durkin and Magistrate James A. Melone are overseeing the court proceedings.

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 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.”

That letter was used as the basis for Limbian’s hearing and Brown’s decision to fire Cunningham.

In a court filing, Worhatch argued Brown’s “notice included a wide array of arrest of possible deficiencies, each labeled as an ‘allegation,’ but very little by way of evidentiary support. Moreover, such notice states that the various listed allegations are ‘under review’ and that ‘further inquiry’ would be conducted ‘as appropriate’ after considering the information shared by Cunningham at the predisciplinary hearing before a ‘final decision on the action’ would be made.”

Worhatch added: “The mayor in Cunningham’s case merely listed a parade of possible grounds for disciplinary action,” and “the mayor himself was not sure which of the 26 possible grounds for termination might prove to be sufficient to pull the trigger!”

Worhatch wrote that left Cunningham “to speculate with respect to which of the 26 possible grounds for discharge were the ones on which the mayor would have him focus at the hearing on his civil service appeal in trying to meet his burdens of going forward and persuasion before the commission.”

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

Moliterno also argued that “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.