WARREN — Trumbull County commissioners are expected to accept the resignation today of Chief Executive Dog Warden Michelle Goss and to conduct interviews in the coming weeks for that position and a position as the assistant dog warden.

Goss resigned effective Dec. 8, and applications to replace her already have started to come in, Commissioner Rick Hernandez said at Tuesday’s commissioners workshop in the county commissioners meeting room.

Commissioner Denny Malloy said it is necessary to get a replacement as soon as possible, but he suggested that it might be necessary to have an interim person oversee the dog pound until a replacement is found and begins working.

He said he and Trumbull County Human Resources Director Alex DeVengencie-Bush talked about whether an existing department head might oversee the dog pound “to stop in there once in a while and check it out” and serve as “acting supervisor.” Malloy noted that when he was president of the board of commissioners and the county lost its maintenance director, he assumed that role.

Malloy asked if Hernandez, as current president of the board, would do something similar on issues such as dog pound scheduling and vacations, call offs, “something breaks down, somebody gets bit.” He added that Hernandez has been “kind of the point guy for the dog pound thus far.”

Hernandez agreed to handle that, but Commissioner Tony Bernard said he would stop in on a regular basis as well. DeVengencie-Bush then asked if the commissioners are available Dec. 22 and possible other dates to interview candidates once the deadline for applying has passed. So far, there are three people who “meet the criteria” for the job to interview for executive and two for assistant.

In Goss’ resignation letter, she did not give a reason for leaving, other than stating “There are many things I could share about my time here, but I want to leave on a positive note. I am grateful for the opportunities I’ve had to serve the community, work with dedicated colleagues, and contribute to the mission of this department.” She stated that “I wish the team continued success moving forward.”

GRASS CUTTING FOR SENIORS

The workshop had been going on for about an hour and 45 minutes when Trumbull County Senior Levy Administrator Diane Siskowic-Jurkovic gave a presentation on issues that arose regarding grass cutting services provided through funds generated by the countywide senior services levy. Hernandez said he talked to the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office, which suggested having a meeting on it.

Siskowic-Jurkovic said her office received a complaint from a senior citizen who said she was supposed to get grass cutting services through the senior levy and said she was “not getting served.” She said she “continued to call and call and call. They wouldn’t return her call,” Siskowic Jurkovic said.

Siskowic-Jurkovic said she knows that there is not a “proper verification of service” for the grass cutting service.

“This is the only area where we do not get signatures for the services provided for various reasons I have been given over the years, such as ‘We need to get in there and leave. People are not home all the time. We can’t get their signatures,'” she said.

She said that in all other senior levy programs, the program does not pay the vendor for the service unless “we have a signature. However, this program has been allowed to proceed this way.”

So Siskowic Jurkovic decided to call the seniors in the program and ask about their service in September, after getting the September bill from Comfort Keepers. That company works with a subcontractor. Siskowic Jurkovic’s assistant took the phone calls.

The results indicated that 92 senior citizens were served for grass cutting for 180 “cuts,” which is two per month. Her office did not get to speak to all 92. “Of the people who were able to be reached, 59% complained that they were getting served either all year, or they hadn’t seen them for two years,” she said.

The senior levy was billed $17,000 for senior citizen grass cutting. They are people that Comfort Keepers told at the beginning of the year would get their grass cut. But the client told a senior levy employee they “never got their lawn cut, either not at all all year or maybe once and they didn’t return,” Siskowic Jurkovic said.

Right now, the senior levy owes Comfort Keepers $14,000, Siskowic-Jurkovic said. She called the Trumbull County Prosecutor’s Office and Hernandez to ask what she should do.

She said there is no mention in any contract with Comfort Keepers that the company can hire a subcontractor to do the lawn mowing.

“It appeared that it was to be done internally,” she said.

She said the “contract terms” of the agreement require the company to get approval from the county commissioners and the county prosecutor’s office before subcontracting the work.

She said she contacted Comfort Keepers and asked for “records, and I was absolutely refused,” she said. “I was told I had no right to look at the subcontractor’s invoices.” She contacted the subcontractor to ask them for the invoices, and Comfort Keeper President Dave Mirkin emailed her saying she was not allowed to do that, Siskowic-Jurkovic said.

She wanted to know how many yards the subcontractor said they were cutting compared to the yards that the senior levy was paying for, “to provide proof so I could release this invoice,” Siskowic-Jurkovic said. The contract gives her “right to any record I want to look at to prove my documentation.”

She told the commissioners she does not think the commissioners should pay the remaining invoice.

“I was hired to oversee the senior levy dollars. I am a CPA. I know what you need as far as documentation to provide proof to pay an invoice,” Siskowic-Jurkovic said.

COMFORT KEEPER RESPONSE

Mirkin attended the meeting and responded to the comments, saying that the lawns are being cut every two weeks rather than more often. He thinks after two weeks, it’s not so easy to remember when it was cut the last time. “They don’t know when we were there,” he said. “I’ve been doing this 20 years. This is the first time I have ever been questioned on this.”

In one particular instance, a woman was calling to say that the yard had not been cut, but one of his employees “went out there and looked, and the grass had been cut. There is a difference between a manicured lawn and cutting grass. And then doing it every two weeks. So they may say ‘We need our grass cut.’ It’s between the two weeks,” he said. “And in June, July and August, it’s growing fast.” He said, “I will assure you … that those grasses were cut.”

He said, “Twenty years I’ve built a company on honesty and integrity. That grass was cut. She’s calling seniors in the middle of October, saying ‘Did you have your grass cut in the beginning of September?’ How would they know?”

Mirkin acknowledged that he did hire a subcontractor to cut the grass. He said there were not signatures from all clients “because we can’t usually get them.” He said in the 20 years Comfort Keepers has been providing services, “I have always had a subcontractor.”

He said Siskowic-Jurkovic has never come to Comfort Keepers to check the company’s compliance, but Direction Home (of Eastern Ohio) and the Ohio Department of Aging “comes every year to check our compliance.”

As for Siskowic-Jurkovic asking for invoices from his subcontractor, he said “That is a HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) violation.” He said Comfort Keepers provides services for Mahoning County, Ohio Department of Aging and others. “You are not entitled to see those.”

As for calling his subcontractor, Mirkin said, “You have no right calling him because what you did was wrong, HIPPA violations. I would have been in hot water if I would have given you what you asked for.”

He said Siskowic-Jurkovic is a CPA, but “knows nothing about senior care.” He has a master’s degree in geriatrics, another master’s degree and is a CPA, he said.

MALLOY’S RESPONSE

Malloy told Mirkin he spoke with Siskowic-Jurkovic’s assistant, who called 33 or more clients who said they “did not get any service at all in September.” Malloy said there were 92 people on the list. Siskowic-Jurkovic’s assistant contacted 76, and 33 said they had no service.

“Is there a chance the subcontractor is screwing you and saying he’s mowing lawns and these people (are saying) the next door neighbor did it, their grandson did it? Why would 33 people, 300 times of lawns not being mowed, why would they not remember 300 times — 33 different people all forgot?”

Mirkin replied, “Sometimes it rains and we miss a week, whatever. But we never bill for anything we did not do.”

“These are just billed ones, people who were billed for September,” Malloy said.

Mirkin replied, “You know what? Take the program. I don’t want to do this. This is not fair. I have never had this problem before in 20 years.”

He said no one else has applied to provide the lawn cutting because it is a “tough, tough program.”

Siskowic-Jurkovic said she feels she was taken advantage of because she “trusted,” despite not enough paperwork, “like we have in all of the other areas” of the senior levy administration. She said the grass cutting is the smallest program she runs, and “I have not had time to give more oversight to it. Apparently someone took advantage of my trust.”

ASSISTANT PROSECUTOR

Bill Danso, an assistant county prosecutor, said this is a dispute over whether the terms of the contract and bid documents “have been enforced in the past and should be enforced now.” He said money from the senior citizens levy is “being billed for a particular program.”

Siskowic-Jurkovic “is saying she can’t verify the billing, but you’ve got the vendor saying it was done,” Danso said.

He said this discussion “opens that pathway where the commissioners really need to work with their department heads and work with Mr. Mirkin to figure out ‘Is this auditable in the form it is. Is this auditable with the paperwork that exists? Are you guys comfortable that the work was performed? That is what this comes down to, protecting that levy money.”