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WARREN -- The Trumbull County commissioners meeting Wednesday quickly spiraled to an abrupt adjournment after Commissioner Niki Frenchko brought up the $225,000 settlement paid to employee Dawn Gedeon.
"Just so you know," board President Denny Malloy said to Frenchko, "if you open this can of worms, we have the opportunity to speak also. … So I'm just letting you know, before you speak and you open this up, just know, there will be other sides to this story that will follow behind you. I would tread lightly if I were you."
Frenchko said the three ethnic discrimination lawsuits filed against her were brought by one attorney, Dennis Fogarty of the Davis & Young firm in Willoughby Hills. She said this attorney was the most recent private practice law partner of Enzo Cantalamessa, Commissioner Mauro Cantalamessa's brother.
"That is not true," Mauro Cantalamessa said.
Frenchko continued by bringing up how the three cases were triplicated for all three employees by Fogarty, and that two of the cases were dismissed. She said that the third case, which was settled with a $225,000 payout, had a "different course."
She blamed that course of action on the other commissioners.
"Back in January, when the new commissioner (Malloy) took office, they were having public meetings, their workshops, where they were allowing employees to talk for a long time about things that they weren't supposed to be talking about," Frenchko said.
Frenchko referred to a letter she said was sent by the commissioners' attorney, Kathleen Minahan, to Mauro Cantalamessa and Malloy.
She said the letter relayed to the other commissioners "their failure to cooperate with counsel" and their failure to comply with County Risk Sharing Authority (CORSA) requirements.
"I received no such letter telling me that I was failing to comply with anything," Malloy said. "Produce that letter. That's a lie."
CHANGE OF LAWYERS
"Due to that conflict of interest, the attorney who had been working on the case for two years, and who already successfully had adjudicated us relative to the Ohio Civil Rights Commission, had to withdraw as counsel," Frenchko said.
She said two new teams of attorneys had to be assigned by CORSA.
"They knew they had a problem," Frenchko said. "Because they had to get two new law firms and four new attorneys up to speed because the board didn't want to comply or cooperate with counsel."
Frenchko began to say she was set to be dismissed as a party in the lawsuit before being interrupted by Malloy.
"You went on Facebook and said you won -- and it was a lie," he said. "(Gedeon) was paid $225,000 because of your actions, and you're still trying to take a victory lap and say, 'Wait, don't look at that, I won, listen to me, don't believe the facts.' That's what you're doing. It isn't funny. This is real money."
INSURANCE CONCERN
Frenchko responded that the money paid to Gedeon as part of the settlement was paid by CORSA. She said because of this, previous statements from Mauro Cantalamessa regarding how the issue would be a cost to the taxpayers were false.
Malloy disagreed, saying that the issue did impact taxpayers
"We pay the premium," Malloy said. "$250,000 more already, before this last case. What's it going to be next year?"
Mauro Cantalamessa said there won't be an additional insurance premium next year, but suggested that CORSA could decide not to do business with Trumbull County in the future.
During the debate among commissioners, Frenchko received a call on her cellphone from her attorney, David Betras.
"There's your attorney on the phone right now, telling you to shut up, Niki," Malloy said. "I would take your attorney's advice."
Frenchko continued to say that the new counsel provided by CORSA was attorney Daniel Downey. Frenchko pointed out that Downey previously had represented Enzo Cantalamessa. Mauro Cantalamessa said that it had been decades since Downey represented his brother.
"(Downey) got all of his ethics and everything checked out before he took this case … ," Mauro Cantalamessa said. "There was nothing improper about what he did."
"You're implying that your attorney from CORSA, the CORSA-assigned attorney, did something unethical in this," Mauro Cantalamessa said to Frenchko. "You're opening yourself up to a lot of litigation."
STOP THE MEETING
During Frenchko's comments, Mauro Cantalamessa asked Malloy to adjourn the meeting so that the commissioners could avoid additional legal problems.
"Mr. Chairman, I'm not going to allow her to have the floor here and just spout off lies about the county," he said. "I move to adjourn. This is ridiculous. You can call your own press conference. This is off the rails. The county is only going to be exposed to further litigation if we don't stop."
Instead of ceasing, Frenchko turned her talk toward Gedeon again.
"The person who got that settlement got hired as a favor," Frenchko said. "And got promoted as a favor."
"Niki, I hope she sues the pants right off of you -- again," Malloy replied. "This is ridiculous."
During Frenchko's comments, Gedeon entered into the commissioners' meeting room and sat in the audience.
Speaking at the meeting's livestream, Malloy began calling for Frenchko's attorneys, Betras and Matthew Miller-Novak, to "yank the cord" on Frenchko's comments.
To end the meeting, Frenchko reiterated that, had the case continued, she believes that it would have been dismissed. She said Mauro Cantalamessa and Malloy's failure to comply with counsel is why the case was settled.
Malloy replied that he believes CORSA settled the case to minimize damage. He said CORSA represented Frenchko only because it had to.
"If we keep it up, we won't have them for long," Mauro Cantalamessa said. "In this county, God help us if CORSA drops us."
Mauro Cantalamessa said if CORSA dropped Trumbull County, the county would have to look for private insurance, which would likely lead to significant cost increases.
"You're driving this county right into a brick wall," Malloy said. "I wish we could have a motion to censure whatever she says. I don't want to be in this car ride with her as she drives it into traffic."