Commissioners Seek Restraining Order Against Auditor, ADP Board
Geauga County Administrator Gerry Morgan said county commissioners had been “forced to file a complaint and a request for a temporary restraining order” against three members of the county’s Automatic Data Processing board in a press statement Sept. 13.
Geauga County Administrator Gerry Morgan said county commissioners had been “forced to file a complaint and a request for a temporary restraining order” against three members of the county’s Automatic Data Processing board in a press statement Sept. 13.
The motion, filed around noon the same day, individually named Geauga County Auditor Chuck Walder, who serves as ADP chief administrator, ADP Chief Deputy Administrator Frank Antenucci and ADP Chief Technology Officer Allen Keener.
A hearing was scheduled for 9 a.m. Sept. 14 in front of Geauga County Common Pleas Judge David Ondrey, but after a short conference, the hearing did not go forward. No restraining order was issued and a new hearing was set for 1 p.m. Sept. 28.
The ADP board manages technology for county departments, but in his statement, Morgan said ADP personnel denied county maintenance staff access to part of the new county administrative building on Ravenwood Drive in Claridon Township.
Keycard access to areas of that building has been in dispute for months, culminating in an Aug. 9 decision by the ADP board to take commissioners to mediation through the Ohio Supreme Court. The action was taken after a dispute over whether ADP or the county’s maintenance department, operating under the authority of county commissioners, has the power to assign and distribute electronic keycards.
According to the commissioners’ 15-page motion for temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, an incident occurred Sept. 7 during which Antenucci “abruptly refused” the county’s maintenance department access to the administration building’s keycard systems.
On that day, the maintenance department requested access to a room in which the keycard system is controlled to adjust the timing on some automatic door locks, Morgan said, adding the same said process happened numerous times before.
“ADP personnel’s response was to say ‘no’ they would no longer be allowing maintenance to access the room or the keycard system. This illegal action by ADP directly effects a department under the commissioners’ hiring authority ability to perform an essential function of their daily operations,” Morgan said.
Maintenance employees had to stay late to secure the building that day, he said, adding departments would incur extra costs due to needing staff to remain at the building to open doors and allow access for public meetings after hours.
Those present in the courthouse Sept. 14 included Geauga County Prosecutor Jim Flaiz, Antenucci, Geauga County Commissioner Tim Lennon and Morgan. A lawyer for commissioners, Stephen Funk, arrived late after a traffic snarl.
The commissioners retained Funk, a partner of Roetzel and Andress, on Aug. 16 after the ADP board issued a press release that it had authorized its legal counsel to sue commissioners, Lennon told the Geauga County Maple Leaf. The commissioners’ resolution authorized Roetzel to represent the commissioners in any litigation with the ADP board.
“They requested an emergency temporary order,” Flaiz said after emerging from the conference with Ondrey. “They did not get it.”
Antenucci said the situation was an odd one, especially considering he, Walder and Keener were named personally in the commissioners’ lawsuit, rather than it naming the entire ADP board.
“This totally blindsided us,” Antenucci said. “We have been working with county commissioners now for about two months — since early July — on getting (Ohio) Supreme Court mediation that was free. We were hoping to come to sort of a collaborative result with this, so we’re completely blindsided that we were sued yesterday.”
Antenucci said the motion was disappointing, adding the ADP board wished to go to mediation rather than waste taxpayer dollars on lawyers and court fees.
“But, apparently, that’s the direction the commissioners want to go and, at this point, we’re just responding right now,” he said.
Since the mediation process was centered around the keycard situation, which is at the root of the commissioners’ motion for a restraining order, Antenucci said the mediation was moot.
However, in a motion for a stay submitted late Sept. 14, Flaiz said the court should halt the matter of the restraining order until the conclusion of the Ohio Supreme Court mediation to which all parties already agreed.
In addition to Funk, public records show commissioners also engaged attorney Amily Imbrogno, of Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis, to represent them in an ongoing lawsuit filed against them in May by the Geauga County Board of Elections. The contract with the firm is set at an amount not to exceed $50,000.
“This representation became necessary when (Flaiz) decided he needed to recuse himself from being the commissioners’ legal counsel in this case because he was guiding the ADP board on which he sits to take legal action against the commissioners regarding the perceived issue with the commissioners controlling the keycard system in the new office building,” Morgan said.
The ADP board was set to address a policy on electronic door access at their meeting Sept. 20.
