Geauga County Commissioners unanimously pulled the plug on former Geauga County Department of Water Resources Network Administrator Mike Kurzinger during their meeting Sept. 12.
Geauga County Commissioners unanimously pulled the plug on former Geauga County Department of Water Resources Network Administrator Mike Kurzinger during their meeting Sept. 12.
Commissioners Ralph Spidalieri, Jim Dvorak and Tim Lennon accepted a recommendation to terminate Kurzinger from Marc Fishel, a Columbus-based attorney they hired in June to lead the disciplinary investigation after a county employee who was tapped to head the investigation resigned.
Kurzinger’s termination was based on violations of the Geauga County Personnel Policy and Procedure Manual, Fishel’s recommendation said.
The violations include accepting money from Joe Camino — an outside GCDWR contractor and owner of CSJ Technologies, Inc. — as well as Kurzinger’s failure to cooperate in the county’s investigation regarding those violations.
“He failed to show up for his hearing, which he was made aware and his attorney was made aware that it’s clear insubordination. That, alone, was enough to be able to say that they’re not even cooperating in our investigation,” Spidalieri said. “It just made no sense to go ahead (with his employment) with the criminal charges that have been placed on him.”
On July 18, Kurzinger was charged with three counts of having an unlawful interest in a public contract, a fourth-degree felony, and three first-degree misdemeanor counts of conflict of interest. He pleaded not guilty to the charges before Geauga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Carolyn Paschke on Aug. 2.
The indictment said Kurzinger, on multiple occasions, “did solicit or accept anything of value that is of such a character as to manifest a substantial and improper influence upon the public official or employee with respect to that person’s duties” — a violation of state law.
The range of time during which Kurzinger allegedly received gifts ranges from May 1, 2008, to April 12, 2022, “in a continuing course of criminal conduct,” the indictment said.
On May 3, a federal search warrant was executed at his office in the county administrative building, as well as in Camino’s office and home. Commissioners voted May 9 to place Kurzinger on paid administrative leave in the aftermath of the search, and on July 25, he was placed on unpaid administrative leave for a total of 60 days following the indictment.
“It’s just a shame,” Lennon said. “I’m sure they probably weren’t thinking it was malicious at the time, but it’s improper at the minimum. You can’t do that.”
Spidalieri said commissioners have worked to maintain the position of “innocent until proven guilty” and follow established procedures for finding the facts in the case.
“Our biggest thing that we did not want to do during this was to have any kind of a conflict with the criminal investigation that was in process during this time,” Spidalieri said. “We felt that would have been the best way to handle this.”
Commissioners have other work to continue and the situation has been a disruption in their process, he added.
“We know where we stand and now we’ll move forward from here,” Spidalieri said.
