A complaint alleging quid pro quo politics in Trumbull County appears to have triggered an Ohio Ethics Commission investigation of Trumbull County Engineer Randy L. Smith and subsequent raid of his office.

The complaint asks the Ethics Commission to unravel ”quite a web” of connections and calls for an end to the favor trading. ”It’s time for the cloud of secrecy to be lifted. It is time to let the sun shine through,” it states.

Some of what is contained in the complaint is similar to the affidavit used by the Ethics Commission and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, or BCI, to obtain the warrant used to search Smith’s office on North River Road and the Data Processing Department in the county administration building on April 3.

Information provided to the Ethics Commission in April 2013 details relationships between Smith and Donald Barzak, a former top aide, and questions private work Smith did for the Trumbull County Health Department.

In addition, the complaint provides copies of Smith’s campaign finance reports that show donations were made by Barzak, Trumbull County Health Commissioner James Enyeart and others.

Also, questions surfaced about who Smith hired since becoming engineer in August 2011, his office’s relationship with a company that violated the federal Clean Water Act, and how his employees disposed of street sweepings, an Ohio Environmental Protection Agency-regulated solid waste.

Smith’s attorney, Subodh Chandra, said when all the information in the investigation comes to light, he and Smith are confident the result will be that Smith did nothing wrong.

The Tribune Chronicle obtained copies of the complaint from a person with firsthand knowledge of the Ethics Commission probe but who released the records only under condition of anonymity because the records are not yet public.

Smith, private engineer

Smith, doing work as RLS Inc., has been paid at least $24,000 by the Health Department for engineering services to review license renewal applications for the LaFarge North America Lordstown Construction Recovery landfill. One of the reviews was done after Smith became engineer.

Smith receiving a taxpayer salary and getting paid for private work is ”cause for alarm,” according to the complaint.

The complaint also contains copies of an invoice paid to Smith’s RLS Inc. on Dec. 2, 2012, and an Ethics Commission financial disclosure statement, signed by Smith, saying the private company was no longer in business as of August 2011.

A legal opinion from CORSA (County Risk Sharing Authority), Trumbull County’s insurance provider, says Smith was allowed to perform engineering services for the Health Department in his private capacity during the first six months after he took office. CORSA cited a section of the Ohio Revised Code that indicates the work might be legal if no other conflicts of interest exist.

Board of elections records show that Smith received a campaign contribution from Tim Page, who was Lafarge’s general manager at the time. The ethics complaint includes records that Smith voted up to six times, against Health District Advisory Committee bylaws, in elections for Trumbull County Health Board members who oversee Enyeart.

The advisory committee is made up of one elected official from every community in the Trumbull Health District. Each elected official gets one vote in elections for the actual Health Board. During one election, Smith cast one vote for each of six elected officials who were absent.

The complaint suggested Enyeart donated to Smith and gave him the landfill review contract in exchange for the votes.

Enyeart called the claim ”false.” He said, ”People that would think that, I just don’t know what to say about that. They don’t live in the same world I live in.”

Enyeart was a big contributor to Smith, donating $1,750 – individual donations of $1,000 and $750 – for Smith’s 2008 campaign for engineer.

”I respect Mr. Smith. I came to know him when he was the deputy engineer. I think he is a fantastic engineer, professional as an engineer. I thought he would make a good county engineer, so I contributed to his campaign,” Enyeart said.

Enyeart said he has donated to other Democrats in Trumbull County.

Enyeart said Smith was willing to conduct the inspection for less than what the department had paid previously. When the ”political winds changed” and Smith became engineer, said Enyeart, a legal opinion on whether Smith could do the work was sought.

Joint property owners

The complaint questions Smith hiring Barzak as director of governmental affairs / grants and special projects coordinator while the two jointly owned four pieces of property in Trumbull County.

One of the buildings is in Cortland where Barzak runs his full-service financial firm.

Barzak, a former trustee in Johnston, was one of Smith’s first hires. He was paid $62,900 and then given a raise in 2012. Barzak left the office in April 2013, writing in his resignation that he wanted to concentrate on his private business and teach his son the profession.

Barzak is a large contributor to Smith’s campaign. He gave $2,100 in monetary and in-kind contributions, including $500 for sign rental, $199 for Cleveland Indians and Mahoning Valley Scrappers tickets and $561 for buttons.

Messages seeking comment were left with Barzak.

Chandra did not comment specifically on the complaint, saying he could not because he did not have a copy.

Instead, he said, ‘When the public becomes aware of all the facts, we’re confident that both the investigators and the public will understand there has been no violation of the public trust. What is clear is that there are political opponents of Randy Smith who are seeking to pile on and manufacture issues that are not really issues.”

Patronage

Randy Smith’s detractors say patronage in the Engineer’s Office has become common since Smith took over in August 2011. Smith hired at least 14 people who are connected in some way – either they held public office, worked previously in the public sector or are related to someone who is or was a government official.

Several also have given Smith campaign contributions prior to their hiring.

Smith said he stands by all of the employees who have been hired and says they have been doing ”a tremendous job for Trumbull County.”

Smith’s first two hires were Barzak and Director of Finance and Personnel Herb Laukhart Jr., son of former Warren Safety-Service Director Herb Laukhart Sr.

Smith said he hired Laukhart because of his experience that included 18 years in government with former Trumbull County Clerk of Court Margaret O’Brien and his experience in the private sector. Laukhart knows personnel, contracts and payroll, said Smith, who called one of his top aides ”solid.”

Another early hire was Gregg Alberini Sr., nephew of former Howland trustee and former Trumbull County Democratic Party Chairman Fred Alberini. Smith said he made Alberini Sr. highway superintendent because of his 23 years with the Ohio Department of Transportation.

Former Liberty Trustee Jack Simon was hired in March 2012 as road use maintenance agreement coordinator. Simon is responsible for monitoring road issues related to the oil and gas well drilling in Trumbull County.

Smith said he “completely removed” himself from the hiring process. A three-person committee of Laukhart, a municipality representative (Lordstown Street Commissioner / Parks, Buildings and Grounds Superintendent Dale Grimm) and a township representative (Southington Trustee and Trumbull County Township Association member Sam Plott) interviewed and recommended Simon.

Smith also hired Ken Kubala as safety and compliance manager. Kubala previously worked for Polivka International. Trumbull County Commissioner and Trumbull County Democratic Party Chair Dan Polivka is Polivka International’s executive vice president.

Smith said he went to Polivka to ask permission to hire Kubala. Smith said Polivka did not seek a county job for his friend and employee.

Smith hired Willie Holmes, son of McDonald Mayor Glenn Holmes. Smith said he reached out to the older Holmes to ask if he knew of anyone looking for work because, said Smith, he wanted to diversify his work force. Willie Holmes, who is black, called a couple weeks later.

Other hires include Dennis Kuchta, a laborer, son of Braceville trustee Dennis Kuchta, and Tracy Patrick, parts supervisor, the sister of Nicole Klingeman, who works in Smith’s fiscal office. Klingeman previously filed a wrongful dismissal lawsuit against former highway engineer and Smith rival David DeChristofaro.

Smith said Kuchta has a class A commercial driver’s license and previously worked for the Braceville Road Department and Patrick holds a class B commercial driver’s license.

”From my perspective, I stand by them all,” Smith said.

Smith said that the ”vast majority” of hires were given union positions. He said the openings were not advertised publicly because, per union contract, the openings were posted on bulletin boards at the office. When no employee is interested in the position, the postings usually generate interest outside the office, said Smith.

Smith added that the office has 61 employees, four less than what he considers ”optimum.” Under DeChristofaro, said Smith, the office had about 60 workers.

Dirt

Records from the Trumbull County Department of Health and the Engineer’s Office show the office delivered thousands of tons of topsoil to a landscaping and nursery business in Champion. Tranquil Acres Nursery then sold the topsoil for profit and may have used some of it when the company committed a federal Clean Water Act violation. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cited Tranquil Acres for filling a wetland, ordered the company to restore the protected groundwater and is supervising the company’s compliance.

The topsoil is from the Engineer’s Office’s ditch cleaning.

Local septic installer Berry Meadows said he has issues with the office’s practice of giving away the material. Meadows said that if it is clean fill, it has monetary value and should be sold. However, Meadows said, if the material is something he calls ”dirty dirt,” because it comes from ditches that catch drainage from failing septic tanks, it ”probably should” be taken to a landfill.

”Either it’s clean material and we assign a value to it, or look at the other aspect of it, we are putting human waste in a wetland or residents’ yards,” Meadows said.

Smith wrote that there have been past occasions when workers removed septic material from ditches and disposed of it in sanitary sewers before clearing the ditch.

Based on employee time sheets, Meadows estimates that 190 loads, or 3,420 tons of the dirt, were taken to Tranquil Acres between April 2012 and August 2013. Time sheets are the employees’ daily assignments.

Engineer’s Office attorney Matt Blair said the office has not given a value to the dirt at least since former Engineer Ed Ryser was there several decades ago. Blair said residents whose ditches were cleaned were given ”first dibs” on the dirt.

The office has followed the same procedure – no charge, no testing and delivery as nearby as practical – since at least 1973, according to Smith. Other nearby counties and the Ohio Department of Transportation, Smith wrote, follow similar guidelines.

Records show Tranquil Acres accepted slag and topsoil from ODOT and used the material to build a road.

The Army Corps did not determine whether or not any of the Engineer’s Office topsoil, dumped near the wetland, was used to fill in the wetland, according to Scott Hans, chief of the Regulatory Branch in Pittsburgh. The Army Corps determined that construction debris was used to fill the wetland.

Tranquil Acres has been in the process of purchasing the land from Toni Costianes. Attorney Todd Brainard, who represents Costianes, said debris from a demolished fast food restaurant in Girard was used to fill the wetland.

”The Trumbull County engineer did nothing wrong, he simply brought the dirt out,” Brainard said. Brainard added that Tranquil Acres then sold the dirt.

An Ohio Environmental Protection Agency regulatory review in May 2013 shows there is landscaping material like mulch and soil on site. Mulch is bought from commercial vendors and ”most of the soil is brought to the site by the county engineer,” according to the review.

Street sweepings

Meadows said he believes street sweepings – a regulated solid waste swept from roads after winter – was mixed with the dirt given to nursery and other locations.

If that’s the case, said Meadows, the dirt would be contaminated and subject to the same regulations as the street sweepings, which must be disposed of in a solid waste landfill. Meadows said he reported his suspicions to the Ohio EPA.

Blair said he’s looking into whether the materials were mixed and sent out. Ohio EPA spokeswoman Linda Oros confirmed that the agency is conducting an investigation of the Engineer’s Office, but would not confirm if it deals with the information presented to them by Meadows.

Invoices for Allied Waste Services show the company was paid thousands of dollars to remove and dispose of more than 140 tons of street sweepings since November 2013. Blair said there are no records of the material being tested or removed for 10 years prior to November.

A mound of the material still remains at the office.

Test results from Cardinal Environmental Laboratories in Youngstown that Blair provided, show testing for several substances in the mound of sweepings fell below detectable limits.

rselak@tribtoday.com