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Law director finds ex-city events coordinator’s work was ‘effective’

Law director finds ex-city events coordinator’s work was ‘effective’

YOUNGSTOWN — The city’s law director said the downtown events and citywide special projects coordinator — essentially fired by city council last month — showed himself “to be effective” in the job.

Law Director Jeff Limbian sent a letter Monday to Mayor Jamael Tito Brown at the latter’s request reviewing the work of Terrill Vidale, the former downtown events and citywide special projects coordinator.

At its Jan. 15 meeting, council voted 7-0 not to renew Vidale’s annual contract, with several members saying he breached his contract by not attending all events and failing to communicate with council.

Without the renewal, Vidale wasn’t retained even though he’s a mayoral hire. That’s because without the funding approval from council, Vidale wouldn’t be paid. Vidale’s annual salary was $42,436.56 with no benefits.

In Monday’s letter, obtained by The Vindicator, Limbian wrote: “A closer review of the ever-increasing attendance at city events speaks volumes about Mr. Vidale’s success. The number of events he coordinated and the positive feedback are all evidence of the fine work Mr. Vidale did for the city.”

Limbian added: “Despite the growth in successful city events, Mr. Vidale’s contract renewal met with resistance at the city council meeting. Council members inaccurately contended that Mr. Vidale had breached the current professional services contract and that there was a conflict of interest. In fact, the opposite is true. Mr. Vidale successfully completed his responsibilities and complied with all aspects of the contract. The city law department has not found a default nor failure to fulfill an obligation nor noncompliance with any aspect of the two years of contracts by Mr. Vidale.”

Council members said last month that they’ve had issues with Vidale since he was hired by Brown in May 2018.

One issue mentioned was Vidale’s business, 2Deep Entertainment, which promotes events.

“Mr. Vidale brought a new vitality and refreshing success to promoting the city’s downtown business district and events in the city’s neighborhoods,” Limbian wrote.

When asked to comment further, Limbian said, “This puts clarity on the statements by a few council members at the last meeting.”

Limbian added that Brown will find someone else for the job.

The mayor “won’t try to push (Vidale) through,” Limbian said. “Mr. Vidale has decided to move on.”

dskolnick@tribtoday.com

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