WARREN — Trumbull County staff strongly refuted claims their complaints against county Commissioner Niki Frenchko were orchestrated for political reasons and outlined their problems with her behavior toward them at a public staff meeting Friday, asking the two other commissioners for help.

“The reason we are having this (meeting) is because we are being terrorized in the office. Enough is enough. I’m not putting up with it any more. I’ve been here 29 years. I am not going to have somebody, who is in a position of power, stand over me and film me, video me, put me on her Facebook page. I’m done with that,” Shara Taylor, the accounts payable clerk, said.

Frenchko has made disparaging comments about the office staff, in and out of the office, Taylor and the other staff said.

“We’re defending ourselves, essentially,” Taylor said.

Frenchko did not attend the meeting, which was called for the office staff to air their grievances against the commissioner. Frenchko later said she had requested that the meeting be moved back an hour to avoid a “schedule conflict,” but her request was denied.

Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa said he is willing to have more staff meetings in the future to allow grievances to be aired.

“Hopefully commissioner Frenchko can attend them. She ran on transparency … And she is not here,” he said.

It “speaks volumes” that she didn’t attend in an attempt to mend the dispute with the staff, he said.

Frenchko’s actions aren’t about county business, he said, but about “character assassination.” She tries to “pinpoint any little thing” she thinks is wrong and “use it politically” against the commissioners, staff and others she doesn’t get along with, Cantalamessa said.

Taylor and five other staff members, all of the commissioners’ office staff, signed a complaint against Frenchko earlier this month, naming her as the cause of a hostile work environment since she took office in January. Frenchko answered questions about the complaint by stating it had been orchestrated by Cantalamessa and Commissioner Frank Fuda for “political reasons.” She has repeated the statement numerous times after it was reported the staff members generated the complaints themselves, not the commissioners or the director of human resources.

“That is absolutely not true,” Taylor said following the meeting. “No one twists my arm for anything.”

Frenchko called the staff “spoiled swamp people,” Taylor said.

“We want to come to work and do our jobs. We don’t want to be harassed and intimidated. We haven’t had a good day since she got here,” Dawn Gedeon, administrative assistant, said.

Though Frenchko wasn’t at the meeting, she appeared on a local radio program the day before and said the public staff meeting shouldn’t be held at all. In the interview, she called an employee a “henchman” and “minion” and said employees may not like her because she “used an explanation point” or “didn’t compliment their shoes.”

She also indicated in the program that she intends to sue the staff members who have “made statements” about her in the complaints the six women signed.

“I have talked to four different attorneys,” she said. The suits will be filed in one “fell swoop” when the “timing” is right, she added.

She called Cantalamessa and Fuda “frick and frack” and said the two were “self-serving” and “obstructionists.” In past programs, she has disparaged the two, called Fuda “uncle Frankie” and compared the man, who has Italian heritage, to the mafia.

“She turns a professional disagreement into a personal attack,” Cantalamessa said.

She also said: “Everyone that’s thought, ‘What is wrong with Trumbull County; are they stupid or do they just not want progress?’ Well, they’re right. If you thought either one of those things, you’re absolutely right.”

Fuda said Frenchko “doesn’t understand” the job of commissioner and created rules she wanted everyone to follow, but wouldn’t follow them herself.

The staff members said she plays “got ya” by connecting dots that aren’t there, accusing people of wrongdoing because she doesn’t understand something or didn’t have all of the information first. She also records the conversations in the office.

“We’re tired of it,” Taylor said. “She twists everything anyone says.”

Cantalamessa told the staff never to have a conversation with Frenchko alone. The staff members asked if they could limit interactions with Frenchko to written requests. He said they have asked the prosecutor’s office and are waiting to hear back. Another suggestion was to require two commissioners to approve disciplinary action because the staff members have faced “frivolous” disciplinary notes from Frenchko. Director of human resources Richard Jackson said he is not adding the documents to the employees’ personnel files.

“These ‘writeups’ are not in their files because I’ve taken it upon my own authority to not put them in their files. I believe that I know more than commissioner Frenchko with my 40 years of human resources experience as to what is a disciplinary situation,” he said.

The environment in the office is having personal effects on the lives of the employees, the staff members and public commenters said, causing employees to seek counseling, to cry in the office and at home, and impacting their personal relationships at home.

But because Frenchko was elected, there is little fellow commissioners can do, Cantalamessa said.

“You go to the ballot box and voice your opinion,” Cantalamessa said.

People are exploring options to remove Frenchko from office based on “her ability to serve and her ability to serve effectively,” he said, adding that it is not him advocating for her removal.

“There could be a petition process the voters could put together,” he said.

Frenchko has said she is combating “corruption” in Trumbull County and that is responsible for the pushback, but has produced no evidence of the claim, Cantalamessa said.

Fuda supported Frenchko during the election, campaigning for her, but the two split when she got into office. Cantalamessa never made an endorsement in her race, but did appear with her in photos during the election.

Jackson defended himself against statements Frenchko made accusing him of being a political operative for her fellow commissioners.

“I don’t belong to any political parties in Trumbull County. I don’t vote in Trumbull County and, like the commissioner, I do not live in Trumbull County,” he said, citing suits against Frenchko that claimed she should be considered a resident of Mentor and not Warren because her daughter attended school there. Though her daughter did go to school there, she won those challenges. Other efforts by her predecessor Dan Polivka to remove her from office in continue in the Ohio Supreme Court.

Jackson, who has an outstanding complaint against her with the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, also said Frenchko’s mental health should be evaluated.

“I am not a psychologist, but with my 40 years of human resources experience, I’ve seen many, many personality types. I believe, in my opinion, that something is wrong with her mentally that needs to be evaluated. Nobody acts like that. In 40 years of experience … I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said.

Taylor said the staff just wants the “intimidation and harassment” to stop.

Christine Glenn, the scheduler for commissioners, said, “I fear her.”

rfox@tribtoday.com