Trumbull County commissioners, from left, Denny Malloy, Niki Frenchko and Mauro Catalamessa.

WARREN — Two Trumbull County commissioners addressed the sizable monetary settlement in an employee’s harassment and retaliation lawsuit at a special meeting Monday.

A settlement of about $370,000 was reached last week in federal court in Youngstown and discussed in an executive session of commissioners Monday. The deal was approved 2-0 by Commissioners Mauro Cantalamessa and Denny Malloy.

The centerpiece of many of the claims, Commissioner Niki Frenchko, was absent.

The agreement closes a chapter for former clerk Paula Vivoda-Klotz, who filed her lawsuit in June 2022 detailing 2 1/2 years of alleged harassment and retaliatory tactics primarily by Frenchko. Vivoda-Klotz’s suit sought lost wages and monetary damages.

Vivoda-Klotz alleged the incidents took place from 2020 to 2021. Vivoda-Klotz said she was targeted before and after taking a leave of absence in November 2020 to tend to health complications. When she returned, Vivoda-Klotz said, she had her hours reduced, was demoted and lost an office she previously had been given after a promotion.

After taking office in January 2021, Frenchko is alleged by Vivoda-Klotz to have pursued efforts immediately to fire her or force her to resign.

‘ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING’

The lawsuit and settlement that followed sparked discussion about accountability and the office’s response to Vivoda-Klotz’s alleged treatment.

“Some of the stuff was absolutely disgusting,” Malloy said. “I don’t think any workplace should ever tolerate actions that occurred in this position and occurred to her (Vivoda-Klotz).”

The settlement amount will be paid partly through the county’s insurance fund, which will cover the bulk of the settlement of $250,000. About $50,000 will come from the commissioners fund.

The remainder will be about the amount of Vivoda-Klotz’s salary of $70,000 per year. She will be on paid leave until about July 5, 2024, which will allow her to receive her health insurance and credit / time in office while she undergoes treatment.

“The key element for Vivoda-Klotz was she wanted to be separate from Frenchko and the only way to do that was to transfer her to a different department, but that wouldn’t have given her time to heal,” Malloy said.

Malloy, the current board president, said the commissioners’ office has since been adopting policies to keep employees safe.

One of those, he highlighted, states that employees are not to visit Frenchko in her office alone.

“No one has ever dealt with a situation like this before where we have a commissioner that you can’t control,” Malloy said. “We can’t fire her; we can’t sanction; we can’t impeach her; the public can’t remove her. The only place that you do that is at the voting the polls and next March,” Malloy said.

Frenchko did not respond to requests from this newspaper for comments.

KIND WORDS

Cantalamessa, who said the work environment had been deemed hostile three times by different human resources directors, said settling this claim was about minimizing the county’s risk — given the evidence that would have been presented at a trial.

“This isn’t a win for the county by any means,” Cantalamessa said. “The commissioners have learned from this. I hope with all my heart that she [Frenchko] does and that we can move forward and raise our standards.”

Both commissioners expressed kind words toward Vivoda-Klotz, who has worked in the commissioners’ office since 2004. Cantalamessa and Malloy said her absence leaves big shoes to fill.

In a statement, Vivoda-Klotz’s attorneys, David Truman and Stuart Torch of the law firm Employment Law Partners LLC, said they were “confident that she would have prevailed had the case gone to trial, primarily because much of the harassment was livestreamed, posted online or documented in emails and texts.”

“Vivoda-Klotz thanks the majority of the board for recognizing the trauma inflicted on her and for engaging in extensive, good-faith negotiations that resulted in a compromise in the best interest of all parties,” the attorneys stated in an email.

ANOTHER PAYOUT

Just last month, Trumbull County commissioners reached a $225,000 settlement with office employee Dawn Guarino Gedeon, who in a 2022 lawsuit claimed Frenchko expressed “anti-Italian prejudice and bigotry” toward her and “others of Italian descent.”

The agreement in U.S. District Court, which was signed June 9 by Gedeon, states she releases and discharges Frenchko and the board from further liability regarding the claims.

“Allegations were made in a lawsuit filed by Dawn Gedeon that the workplace did not always meet the high standards that Trumbull County has maintained for many years. These allegations were taken seriously by the Trumbull County commissioners and its risk pool. After much reflection on the time and costs that go into handling litigation matters, the risk pool chose to resolve the case via settlement,” the commissioners office stated in a news release at the time.