Mental Health Board Director Resigns

February 2, 2023 by Amy Patterson

The Geauga County Board of Mental Health and Recovery Services continues its search for leadership, as Associate Director Amie Martin-D’Arienzo turned in her resignation Jan. 23.

“This email serves as my formal resignation. My last day will be Feb. 3, 2023. Thank you for the opportunity,” Martin-D’Arienzo wrote to Steve Oluic, board chairman.

Martin-D’Arienzo initially resigned from the interim executive director position last June and was re-hired to the associate director position last July.

The board has been in the process of finding a replacement for longtime Executive Director Jim Adams after his termination last July that led to a $212,000 settlement.

Under the terms of Adams’s settlement, he received $77,854 for claims of emotional harm and an identical amount as compensation for alleged lost future wages. Adams also received around $40,000 as a payout of accrued sick and vacation time.

The board has since been seeking a replacement for Adams and for Interim Executive Director Leila Vidmar. A December, 2022 public records request showed a majority of the applicants for the position currently serve executive roles in regional mental or behavioral health systems.

In a phone call Jan. 27, Oluic said the field was narrowed from about 20 applicants to three front-runners. Two had already been interviewed over the phone, he said, with the third scheduled for an interview in the first week of February.

Minutes from a Jan. 12 meeting of the board’s selection committee show several applications were “not serious,” Oluic said. He told the committee those applicants either did not attach the required documentation or did not meet basic qualifications for the role.

The minutes also show some debate over whether the top applicants should be discussed in front of the public or in private — with eventual discussion taking place in executive session. At that time, Oluic was hopeful a candidate could be presented to the full board at their regular meeting Feb. 15.

State Rep. Diane Grendell, who will not return to the General Assembly after opting to run instead for Geauga County auditor in the 2022 primary election — a race she lost to incumbent Auditor Chuck Walder — was one of the initial applicants.

In her cover letter, Grendell cited her experience as a nurse for mentally ill children and adults, as well as her time in the state house as chair of the Children and Youth Subcommittee.

Oluic did not disclose the names of the finalists for the positions, and a records request for the names of the final three choices was unsuccessful.