Grafton Village Administrator Joe Price suspended

Grafton Village Administrator Joe Price has been placed on leave pending multiple investigations into employee complaints, Mayor Charles Duke said. Duke said that he suspended Price with pay on Wednesday in response to a number of complaints against Price by current and former employees. "There's several investigations going on right now, if you want to call them investigations-slash-litigations, with the Ohio Ethics Commission and the Ohio Civil Rights Commission," Duke said Wednesday. The Ethics Commission does not confirm the existence of ongoing investigations, but The Chronicle-Telegram has requested public records from both organizations. Employees can file claims with the Civil Rights Commission for a variety of issues including race, color, gender, religion, disability, national origin, ancestry, age, military status or in retaliation for engaging in a protected activity. Duke did not disclose the nature of the claim made to the Civil Rights Commission. Price did not respond to requests for comment left on Wednesday. Price was present and participating as village administrator during the Grafton Village Council meeting on Tuesday night, the day before his suspension. Duke said he could not go into detail about the specific claims against Price "as of yet" because there was pending litigation. "I want to wait to see how it pans out and I don't want to impair the investigation at all," he said. However, Duke did say that the city was facing seven complaints or investigations across three city departments related to Price. Duke also said that one 46-year employee of the village filed a complaint over alleged discrimination and a hostile work environment. He said the Ethics Commission had already determined the employee faced a hostile work environment within the village administration. "I've got all these other (complaints) that are piggy-backed off that and the common denominator throughout all of that was Mr. Price," Duke said. "So I acted, and I did what I felt was responsible." Duke defeated former Mayor David DiVencenzo in the election last November, and said after taking office he inherited a number of complaints against Price he felt he had to act on. "Most of these suits were carried over from the former administration," he said. "… the guys were just, they were tired of it and they filed their complaints." DiVencenzo, who had originally appointed Price, said that he had been aware of complaints against Price, but did not feel that there was anything warranting his suspension or removal. "I don't think there's any validity to any complaints against Mr. Price that predates the administration," said DiVencenzo, who was mayor for eight years. "Everything that was going on was either in litigation that we couldn't comment on or never really amounted to anything that was actionable to Council or the administration." Duke said he had spoken with his recently appointed Law Director R.J. Budway and outside legal counsel about the complaints. "I was advised by two outside legal counsels, as well as my own legal counsel, that I need to be doing something, so that (suspension) was the course of action that I took," he said. "I had to do something. … The former administration did nothing, that's why we're in the pickle we're in." To remove Price, Duke would need to get the support of the Village Council to approve his firing. Duke said he would wait until all investigations were resolved before making a decision about Price's future with the village. "I don't want to condemn anybody," Duke said. "I want the investigations to legally play through, and it's only fair. That's why I suspended (Price) with pay, I'm not going to sit here and be the judge, jury and hangman." Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.