Grafton Village administrator: suspension 'needless and wrongful'

Recently suspended Grafton Village Administrator Joe Price has responded to his suspension by Mayor Charles Duke, alleging political motivations and false allegations. Price sent a letter late last week as a response to a story published in The Chronicle-Telegram on April 4 and claims made by Duke in that article. "Last week, I was surprised and disappointed to receive notice from (Duke) that he had decided to issue a suspension, with pay, of my employment as Grafton Village Administrator," Price said in the letter. "My surprise and disappointment was compounded when I saw that the Mayor had gone to the press to make a series of confusing and misleading statements about me under the guise of informing the public about the needless and wrongful suspension he had imposed." Duke said in that article that Price was suspended on April 2 due to five complaints against him being filed with either the Ohio Civil Rights Commission or the Ohio Ethics Commission by current and former employees. Reached again on Monday, Duke maintained that allowing those investigations to play out was the only reason Price was suspended and said the suspension was recommended by his Law Director R.J. Budway and additional outside legal counsel. Price said that the suspension was retaliatory and politically motivated, and additionally outlined the details of multiple complaints filed against him by current and former village employees that he called "baseless." One issue that Price said precipitated his suspension was when he took issue with Duke's handling of the village email system. Price alleged that in early January, shortly after Duke took office, the village's email system became inaccessible to the village clerk and treasurer. "Without issuance of a purchase order or the required consent of Council, (Duke) issued a verbal executive order to an outside contractor to essentially hack and seize control over the Village's public email system," Price said in his letter. According to Price, a meeting to discuss the email system was held later in January with himself, Duke, Police Chief Dan Clark and Village Councilman Patrick McCort. "The mayor stated that he had seized control of the email system because he did not want anyone to have the ability to read his emails," Price said. "This action is alarming and is offensive to the very concept of transparency that is ensured by the Sunshine Laws and Ohio's Public Records Act." Duke said that he did bring someone in to work on the email system, but that there had been confusion about how the email system worked and it has "since been straightened out." "It was a big miscommunication and a misunderstanding, that's all it was," he said. "Like I said it's been straightened out, it was easy to straighten out and is taken care of." Duke said that Price questioning him over the email system had nothing to do with his issuing the suspension. Later in his letter, Price argued that his suspension on April 2 directly followed a March 19 Village Council meeting when he had raised concerns over invoices for vehicle repairs and equipment made to ProTech, a business in downtown Elyria. In the March 19 meeting, Price and ProTech owner Rich Guyeska debated the prices that the village had paid to the company for vehicle repairs and that the village prepaid for some services. At the meeting, Guyeska argued that the invoices the city received had come from its own insurance company, which he said had also suggested the prepayment for services as it covered parts that needed to be ordered. He also accused Price of being "libelous." In his letter, Price said that Duke has close personal and political connections to Rich and Stephanie Guyeska. "It was not until I raised issues over these transactions… that the Mayor decided to issue his April 2 suspension against me and go public with his misleading accusations against me," Price said. "(Duke) spoke to the newspapers about his purported 'concern' over a series of baseless complaints filed by a handful of disgruntled current and former Village employees, who, as noted above, each had a history of poor performance issues that the Village had, prior to the Duke administration, properly addressed." Duke again countered that Price raising a concern about the administration had nothing to do with his suspension. "It had nothing to do with that," Duke said. "The suspension is totally on the legal aspects of the lawsuits and mitigations that the city is facing, and that is all that it's about." Duke said that he misspoke when he said "lawsuits" and that there are no active lawsuits against the village stemming from complaints against Price. He said he was referring to the active investigations by the Ethics Commission and Civil Rights Commission of which there were seven in total, Duke said on Monday. In response to the concerns over invoices from ProTech to the city, Duke said the village has been taking police vehicles there to be serviced for over 30 years and that there was no issue with the work done. Chief Clark had confirmed ProTech had been used by the department to service vehicles for decades at the March 19 meeting and he had said at that time there was no issue with the invoices. Duke referred to the disagreement between Price and Rich Guyeska at Council as a "clash of personalities." Also in his letter, Price went through four of the complaints against him, explaining each complaint, the events as he recalled them and the conclusion reached by the city in each case. The Chronicle is requesting copies of personnel files and complaints before it will report the names of individual employees involved or the details of their complaints. "The lack of validity to these complaints was apparent in the prior administration and is even more so today, regardless of Mayor Duke's misleading statements to the contrary," Price said. "As a result of those statements, I could no longer stay silent and allow the public to be misled." Duke said he could not comment on any ongoing investigations. "I just want the investigations to work themselves out before anybody is judged for anything," Duke said. For Price to be removed, a majority of the Village Council would need to vote to fire him. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.