WARREN — At a time when the Trumbull County commissioners are advising department heads to cut spending by 10 percent and fill only essential positions, the sanitary engineer’s office seeks to fill two supervisory positions.

Eight people are being interviewed this week for a reorganized position. Among them is a former water treatment plant operator who was fired, convicted of misdemeanors and cannot obtain licenses from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency.

Under the new structure, the office will go from having a superintendent of collections for the packaging plant and a superintendent of treatment plants to having a superintendent of wastewater and an assistant superintendent of wastewater, said Bob Maiorano, personnel director for the office.

The salary range for the position is $43,000 to $56,000, according to information provided by Rich Jackson, head of Trumbull County’s Human Resources Department.

The move to hire an assistant wastewater superintendent comes at a time when commissioners put a hold on all non-essential hiring because of projected tax revenue deficiencies due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The job description calls for a background in engineering with an emphasis on sanitary engineering and knowledge of waste water treatment and collection processes, regulatory standards and safety practices. The new hire will be expected to work with the Ohio EPA, supervise employees, provide technical expertise in wastewater treatment and oversee safety practices. Maiorano said the person also will be training to take over as superintendent of wastewater.

Maiorano said the office has wanted to fill the newly created position for some time, since before the pandemic. He said because of the restructuring, the office will save about $23,000 per year because the pay grade for the assistant superintendent is lower than the rate set for eliminated superintendent positions.

And, the office is mostly funded by the utility bills customers pay, not the tax revenue generated by the county’s sales tax — which is expected to take a hit because of business closures.

The county received more than 40 applications, though many of them had no applicable background experience, the resume show.

The job description states the person hired has to “have, or be able to earn a State of Ohio Wastewater Operator I certification within one year of employment.” And, the person will be expected to receive a class II and class III license after several more years, Maiorano said.

COURT CASE

But one of the eight people being interviewed, Anthony Vigorito, is ineligible for certification through the Ohio EPA after being convicted in 2017 of forgery, noncompliance with Ohio’s Safe Drinking Water Act and tampering with records.

Vigorito was originally charged with two counts of each charge, all felonies, before taking a plea deal that changed them to misdemeanors. He was given a suspended 30-day jail sentence plus 100 hours of community service, a year of probation and a $3,000 fine.

Vigorito worked for the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District, which treats water sold to several Mahoning Valley communities, until he was fired. He has bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and engineering.

He was plant operations manager at the MVSD when water certification classes he privately gave to 26 Youngstown Water Department employees in 2013 and 2014 came under scrutiny by the Ohio EPA. The 26 employees pleaded guilty in Franklin County Municipal Court to falsifying their continuing education hours.

The MVSD position of plant operations manager had been created for Vigorito after he failed to obtain a class IV license from the Ohio EPA to stay in the position of operator of record, to which he was promoted after working there as an operator since 2004, according to court documents from when Vigorito later sued the MVSD seeking about $11,000 on top of about $26,000 the district had already paid him. He lost the suit.

Vigorito cannot receive a water or wastewater certification because his license was permanently revoked when he pleaded guilty.

“If a person receives a revocation of either an Ohio EPA drinking water or wastewater certification / license, the revocation is permanent. That individual then would be ineligible to receive a water certification / license of any type (drinking water or wastewater) from Ohio EPA,” Anthony Chenault, Ohio EPA public information officer, stated in an email.

Trumbull County Engineer Randy Smith, who also serves as county Sanitary Engineer, said Vigorito “paid his debt to society,” and if they believe he is right for the job, they will move forward with hiring him.

Smith said the Ohio EPA’s standards are a little “too stringent,” making it difficult to find people for the position, and that he has talked with the Ohio EPA about the requirements to see if there is any wiggle room.

Maiorano said it may be problematic to go with Vigorito, but noted he has a lot of experience.

INTERVIEWS

Smith, Maiorano, superintendent of wastewater Bill Durst and chief design engineer Scott Verner will be on the first panel of interviews, Maiorano said.

County commissioners and Jackson will participate in the second round of interviews and the three commissioners, Mauro Cantalamessa, Frank Fuda and Dan Polivka, must approve the selection.

The office also intends to hire a project engineer to replace an employee who left to be service director in Cortland. Maiorano said they may use the same pool of candidates to fill that position. That job requires a background in civil engineering, Maiorano said.

The other people being interviewed are Nicholas Karousis, a pharmacy technician with a background in biology; Ali Qutail, graduating this year with a master’s degree in structural and geotechnical engineering, has a bachelor’s in civil engineering; Thomas Frederick, graduating this year with a degree in civil engineering; Jerry Whalen, who has a degree in civil engineering and works as a stormwater, wastewater and drainage engineer with CT Consultants in Hermitage, Pa.; John Gresko, a laborer with Gresko Construction in Youngstown and a technician at Professional Electronics in Campbell with a degree in civil engineering; James Harrison, a project manager and estimator for JS Bova Excavating with a degree in civil engineering; and John Scherger, an engineer with Van Horn Hoover and Associates in Findlay with a degree in civil engineering.

Among the people with relevant experience who are not being interviewed are Lori Baker, a chemist already working for the office since 1991 conducting analysis at the Mosquito Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant and the eight smaller plants and who has a class I license; Robert Butcher, the interim wastewater superintendent for Ashtabula County Environmental Services who has a class I license; Arthur Heavner, the operator of record for a church’s small treatment plant and a water and wastewater operator with the Village of Roaming Shores; and Corey Allen, the plant supervisor for Lake County Department of Utilities with a class III license.

Other applicants didn’t have relevant experience, including a supervisor at a fast food restaurant, a tree trimmer, a mechanic, a customer service agent at a call center and a property manager.