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YOUNGSTOWN – Seven current and former employees of the Trumbull County Engineer’s office filed a multi-million dollar civil lawsuit Tuesday, accusing Engineer Randy Smith and the Engineer’s Office of adverse workplace acts that were politically motivated.
The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division.
Each of the seven plaintiffs are asking the court to grant compensatory damages of $1.5 million and are seeking a jury trial.
The lawsuit, filed by the plaintiffs’ attorney David Engler just after noon Tuesday, accuses Smith – individually and in his official capacity – of “open animus toward persons who were involved in supporting Smith’s political opponents or who he believed were associated with his political opponents and / or persons who were engaged in union activities while employed by the Engineer’s Office.”
When contacted by the Tribune Chronicle Tuesday, Smith said the lawsuit is made up of “just allegations.”
“We will defend them accordingly,” Smith said in referring future comments to his attorney, Matthew Blair.
The plaintiffs are Robert Gatti of Hubbard, Christopher Charnas of Niles, Anthony Johnson of Warren, Kendall Lee Stauffer of Girard, Timothy Davis of Warren, Jason Loomis of Bristolville and Benjamin D. Hall of Cortland.
According to the lawsuit, Smith’s actions “had a chilling effect” on each plaintiff’s freedom of association and equal protection rights established by the First and 14th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The suit lists the actions as posting a list of purported union sympathizers in the workplace and taking adverse actions against each person named, as well as a general disparate job treatment.
The suit also lists acts against individuals, including denial of job opportunities (Hall); on-the-job harassment (Stauffer, Davis, Loomis, Hall, Gatti); termination (Stauffer, Charnas); unwarranted civil lawsuit (Gatti); threats relating to employment (Gatti, Stauffer); unwarranted disciplinary actions (Gatti, Johnson, Davis, Stauffer) and discriminatory job assignments (Gatti, Stauffer, Hall, Charnas).
Charnas and Stauffer were fired from their engineer jobs, while Gatti, a current employee who has worked there since 1999, has been sued by the engineer’s office. Other plaintiffs still working at the Engineer’s Office include Davis (hired 1993), Loomis (hired 1998) and Hall (hired 2013).
Records show Johnson resigned earlier this year. In 2014, Johnson was suspended for 30 days for causing a diesel fuel spill, records show. A subsequent probe by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration showed the Engineer’s Office acted fairly in suspending Johnson.
Gatti is currently defending a civil lawsuit filed by the Engineer’s office on Dec. 14, 2015, in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court that accuses Gatti of not paying $10,316 of medical insurance premiums that he was required to do under terms of the labor agreement. Gatti had been on sick leave for more than a year, after which the union contract stipulates the employee must pick up 100 percent of the health premiums while receiving workers’ compensation benefits.
Stauffer, who was fired in April and has appealed the action, was also part of a 2014 civil lawsuit that sought to remove Smith from office for an alleged unlawful interest in a public contract. The suit was dismissed by trial court, a decision that was later affirmed by the 11th District Court of Appeals.
Charnas was fired June 2014, after being charged with neglect of duty, failure of good behavior, nonfeasance and dishonesty, according to engineer personnel records.