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Niles mayor fires safety chief

NILES — Mayor Tom Scarnecchia on Tuesday fired his top aide and over the weekend fired a meter reader accused of stealing gas from the city by allowing his brother to fill up at a city pump.

Scarnecchia said Safety Service Director James DePasquale was too much of a “union guy” and not enough on the side of management.

“It’s been building up over the last year. He had a hard time believing he had a supervision role, a management role. He was all union, raised in the union,” Scarnecchia said. “He did a good job, he is a good man, but I need a management person with me.”

DePasquale did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Meter reader Matthew Marrara also was let go. Marrara, 53, was put on leave without pay after he was charged Feb. 6 with petty theft in Niles Municipal Court.

Marrara is accused of letting his brother, Mike Marrara — who was convicted in 2015 of stealing nearly $100,000 from Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church — use about $20 of his city gas allowance, according to police. Mike Marrara, 60, pleaded not guilty to a charge of receiving stolen property, and both are scheduled to appear April 7 for a pretrial hearing.

The two firings are not related, Scarnecchia said.

Legal advice helped him reach the decisions, Scarnecchia said, but did not release further details, except to say the decision to release DePasquale was in the best interest of the city.

“All I want to do is what is right for the city. I am going to have an awful lot on my shoulders, but I just want to do what is right for the city,” Scarnecchia said.

Scarnecchia said he hasn’t tapped anyone to replace DePasquale yet, and he himself will handle DePasquale’s responsibilities for now.

DePasquale, Scarnecchia’s campaign manager, was appointed to the $51,000-a-year position of service director shortly after Scarnecchia won the 2015 mayoral election. As part of the administration and because he served at the will of the mayor, DePasquale was not a member of the city’s labor unions.

DePasquale absorbed the role of safety director, with no additional pay, when Paul Hogan resigned from the $17,000-a-year-position in May.

It is unclear whether Matthew Marrara can appeal his firing. Scarnecchia said the matter is between Marrara and the union. A representative from the labor union did not immediately return a message seeking information about the appeals process.

Matthew Marrara began working for the city in 2005 and was paid $17.49 an hour.

Mike Marrara was fired from the city maintenance department in 2015 after pleading guilty to theft charges in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court. He was sentenced to a year behind bars.

rfox@tribtoday.com

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