Geauga County Commissioner Ralph Spidalieri drew a red line Tuesday and asked his fellow commissioners and residents to stand behind him.He demanded the immediate resignation…
Geauga County Commissioner Ralph Spidalieri drew a red line Tuesday and asked his fellow commissioners and residents to stand behind him.
He demanded the immediate resignation of Geauga County Board of Mental Health and Recovery Services CEO Jim Adams as well as the entire board of mental health over “absolutely ludicrous, absolutely irresponsible and ridiculous” raises doled out over the last year.
The entity that assists many of the county’s most at-risk residents cut services and programs following the defeat of an additional levy in 2012. However, records show Adams and his staff saw hefty pay raises in 2013.
According to payroll records from the Geauga County Auditor’s Office, Adams saw his annual salary jump from $111,741 in January to $112,859 in February. It then jumped from $117,998 in March to $129,788 in April and increased from $133,681 in August to a county-best $153,733 in December, after board members voted unanimously to approve a new three-year contract in March 2013.
Adams, who retired on Aug. 31, 2011, and was rehired on Sept. 1, 2011, already was one of the highest-paid county employee, earning $111,741 before his nearly 38 percent pay hike, according to records.
The new contract entitles Adams to another 15 percent bump this year — which would bring his total salary up to $176,792 — and another 15 percent in the third year of his contract, contingent upon the availability of funds, according to minutes from the March 20, 2013 meeting.
The board further agreed to provide an additional 10 percent for Adams’ Ohio Public Employees Retirement System reimbursement.
“In addition to the excessive pay increases that Mr. Adams received, he found it necessary in 2013, after the mental health levy failed in 2012 and cuts needed to be made, he reduced programs but gave his staff two pay raises,” Spidalieri said.
Those staff members — Associate Director Bethany Matthews, Infor-mation Coordinator Sandra Cohn, Finance Manager James Mausser and Secretary/Receptionist Teresa Slater — received pay increases ranging from 20 percent to 25 percent.
Adams authorized all of those pay raises, Spidalieri said.
“When most of our county employees, including our hiring authority, the sheriff’s hiring authority — everyone across the board — received almost 3 percent total, it is very difficult to understand that after all the fight that I put up to pursue an action plan to combat the heroin epidemic and all the sacrifices that all the departments have made, to unselfishly take away from themselves to give back and serve the great people of this county during such a crisis, that you, Mr. Adams, you the board of mental health, would go to this extreme to selfishly and unjustifiably give out pay raises as if this is the NFL looking to win a ring in a Super Bowl,” Spidalieri said. “I am appalled, disgusted and furious with this action, especially given that a levy failed in 2012 and is now on the ballot again.”
Geauga County’s 63,672 voters will see on the May 6 ballot a five-year, 0.7-mill renewal levy that would help pay for the operation of mental health programs. It would cost property owners $21.44 per $100,000 valuation, if passed, and raise $2,102,529 per year, according to the Geauga County Auditor’s Office.
The current levy, which expires at the end of this year, originally was passed in 1989. It’s annual revenue pays for 28 percent of the mental health board’s total budget, Adams told the commissioners in January.
“I was elected to oversee the best interests of the people of Geauga County and with the responsibility and honor, I knew that there were days that would come that would require me to make a stand and to take a stand, and position for the betterment of this county and the people that I serve,” said Spidalieri. “I ask my fellow commissioners and residents of Geauga County to stand behind me in support of demanding that Mr. Jim Adams, along with the members of the mental health board, who unanimously voted for the pay increase, to step down and resign your positions immediately, so that we can put a level of common sense and fiscal responsibility, and integrity back into this department.”
Spidalieri called the board’s action a major issue and an example of “absolutely irresponsible spending” and an “abuse of tax dollars.”
“It’s basically taking advantage of Geauga County residents and taking advantage of the public officials of this county, and I’m not going to stand for it,” he said.
Tuesday afternoon, Adams told the Geauga County Maple Leaf, “I?absolutely understand their concerns.”
Consequently, he said he will make three requests of the mental health board during its Wednesday night meeting.
“Number one, I’m taking a salary decrease,”?he said. “I’ve asked them to do a salary decrease back to at least 2009 and it’s up them what level they would like to take that to. The second thing is, the staff will be at a 6 percent raise for last year. That covers a six-year period of time because they didn’t get raises for the three years previous and they won’t get raises for the two years after, so that averages out to 2 percent per year.”
Adams said the third thing he is requesting the board do is eliminate a long-standing policy permitting employees to cash out vacation and sick time, which he said tends to skew salary numbers and confuse things.
“The staff would lose that benefit,” he said, adding he is “hopeful”?those three actions will help to alleviate some concerns.
“I would never do anything that would jeopardize the behavioral health system in this community,” he said. “It’s just important to us that people get the services, that they have the ability to get quality services here. That’s really where I’m at and what I’m dedicated to.”
Request for Money
In late March, Adams submitted a supplemental appropriation request to the Geauga County Commissioners seeking an additional $99,805 in funding — “for new position, rate changes, sick/vacation buy back.”
The request was made to the county commissioners as the budgeting authority, county Administrator Dave Lair said Tuesday, because Adams cannot change his department’s appropriations without the commissioners’ approval.
Adams said Tuesday the reason why the supplemental appropriation request was made in the first place was because the board of mental health was doing a research grant on the Chardon Schools Feb. 27, 2012 shooting.
“So we are bringing on a staff person to help with the research that we’re doing and publishing for other communities that go through these kinds of tragedies,”?he said.
But when Adams’ request was made, Commissioner Blake Rear became concerned.
“In reviewing the appropriations request and other financial information, I noted that you are the highest paid county employee with a salary of over $153,000 per year. I became concerned when I discovered that over the past year, your salary has increased more than 28 percent despite efforts by the county commissioners and other elected office holders to keep salary costs down during these tough economic times,” Rear wrote Adams on April 3.
He continued, “This salary increase is especially disturbing given that the mental health additional levy was defeated at the ballot in November 2012. Based on your levy campaign at the time and the fact that the effort failed, I would expect your organization to be cutting costs, not dramatically increasing salaries.”
In November 2012, voters rejected a five-year, 0.25-mill additional levy that would have raised approximately $745,000 and cost taxpayers an extra $7.66 per year per $100,000 property valuation. The vote was 21,475 for the tax increase, with 27,128 against it.
At the same time, voters did, however, approve a five-year, 0.5-mill renewal levy that raises about $1.4 million annually.
Lair said the mental health department has enough money in its appropriations to carry through most of 2014.
But if the current level of any compensation is in effect for the entire year, there would not be enough money in the salary account.
“In 2007 and 2008, our employees had no increases. They have gone with very little, they have hung with us, they have stayed with 85 percent of their budget,” Commissioner Mary Samide said. “For something like this to occur at this time, I’ve got to agree it’s appalling.”
Board of Mental Health
Ohio law requires the appointment of either an 18-member or 14-member board of mental health for each mental health service district. For boards operating as 14-member boards, such as the GCBMHRS, the Ohio Department of Health appoints six members and the county commissioners appoint eight members.
Each member serves a four-year term without compensation.
Any member of the board also may be removed from office by the appointing authority for neglect of duty, misconduct or malfeasance in office, according to Ohio Revised Code section 340.02(G).
In 2013, GCBMHRS members were Chris Adelman, Alberta Chokshi, Susan Fogarty, Carolee Lesyk, Yasmina Martin, Victor Matthews, Linda Miller, Georgeanne Mitchell, Mariel Rouru, Joe Schellentrager, Dan Schweid and Darlene Violetta.
Voting for Adams’ deal were Schellentrager (then board chairman), Chokshi (board treasurer), Lesyk, Matthews, Miller (then vice chairwoman and now board chairwoman), Rouru, Schwid and Violetta (board secretary).
Schellentrager, Fogarty and Matthews left the board at the end of 2013. They were replaced by Al Cisan, Nicole Randazzo and Jim Pontau.
Spidalieri said if board members fail to step down voluntarily, then he will address the issue with Geauga County Prosecutor Jim Flaiz.
“I feel that this is neglect of duty, when we have a duty to our taxpayers and to the residents of this county to have responsible spending,” he added. “And when you have a levy that fails and you turn around and increase this kind of ridiculousness of cost, with the heroin epidemic that we have in our county … and this agency is going to choose to basically dig into the cookie jar, it’s not going to be under my watch and I’m not going to put up with it.
“So, Mr. Adams, board, make the right decision and resign immediately.”
