Commissioners Seek Law Firm for Kurzinger Investigation

June 8, 2023 by Private: Brian Doering

Geauga County Commissioners moved June 1 to seek outside legal representation to handle an investigation into Department of Water Resources Network Administrator Mike Kurzinger.

During their regular meeting, commissioners authorized County Administrator Gerry Morgan to hire Columbus-based law firm Fishel, Downey, Albrect and Riepenhoff, LLP for a fee of $20,000.

Morgan said the decision came after a recommendation by the County Risk Sharing Authority.

“Their recommendation was, based on some of the stuff that’s happened, to actually go out and bring in an outside entity to do the work,” Morgan said. “We will push to get that done quickly and get through the process. This would require the board to approve hiring this outside counsel to come in and do the hearing for us.”

Commissioners voted May 9 to place Kurzinger on paid administrative leave until further notice after federal investigators executed a search warrant May 3 on his office in the county building on Ravenwood Drive. A search was also carried out at the home and business addresses of an outside IT contractor for GCDWR.

On May 10, Kurzinger returned to his office — shown on security camera footage being let in by a coworker in the water resources department — where he spent about four hours accessing workstations and files remotely, eventually locking other employees out of the department’s shared file server.

Morgan said he initially appointed Department of Economic Development Director Gina Hofstetter to lead Kurzinger’s disciplinary hearing process. However, Hofstetter “respectfully resigned” from the role, Morgan said.

“It was really because of the actions and reason — it was some pressure that she felt was being pushed on her by an elected official to, basically, find that Mr. Kurzinger needs to be fired,” Morgan said, adding Hofstetter said she received paperwork from Commissioner Jim Dvorak on law violation.

“There was some sort of push to find him guilty, which isn’t really what we do on a disciplinary process,” Morgan told commissioners.

The hearing officer has free range to ask questions in order to seek any information they wish to have, Morgan explained.

“Once I appoint the hearing officer, under the policy, I don’t have any more to do with the hearing officer or the hearing. They hold a hearing in front of the hearing officer, the employee has the right to waive that hearing, the hearing officer makes their decision and then they bring that information to the board,” Morgan said.

After the hearing is conducted, the officer presents the findings and a recommendation to commissioners in an executive session. Commissioners, ultimately, make the official announcement of their decision based on the officer’s information, he said.

Commissioner Ralph Spidalieri said the common practice is that commissioners never influence anyone involved in the hearing.

“I have heard upwards to 50 or more of these over the last 11 years. We allow them to conduct that investigation and then it’s up to us. In this case, that didn’t happen,” Spidalieri said, adding Kurzinger has not been charged with any crime.

“I think it’s a slippery slope to be making accusations and allegations that we don’t really have anything to substantiate that there’s been any crime or proof of anything,” he said.

Spidalieri said commissioners should not influence an administrative process and risk violating the integrity of their role to stay neutral in the situation.

“This is troubling and I’m just being totally honest,” Spidalieri said, adding he respects the process and supports it if there has been any wrongdoing found in a law enforcement investigation.

“I understand investigations don’t just happen within five minutes, there’s probably stuff that has to be looked into to be confirmed but at the end of the day, I have not been briefed other than hearing some little communication here and there, I know nothing and that’s the bottom line,” he said.

Dvorak said Morgan called him May 3 and explained Kurzinger had borrowed money from Joe Camino, the outside vendor whose home and office were searched by federal agents the same day.

“Mike Kurzinger borrowed money from a vendor four or seven years ago,” Dvorak said he was told by Morgan. “I don’t know how you got that information, Gerry, and if you communicated with Mike Kurzinger, maybe you interfered with the policies and procedures manual leading up to an internal investigation.”

Morgan did not respond to Dvorak’s comments.

Dvorak said all he did was share information about Ohio Revised Code Section 2941.42 with certain people, adding he is bothered by Kurzinger taking money from a vendor and the situation is serious.

“I was pretty upset and I’m still upset about the whole ‘employee accepting money,’ or ‘borrowing money,’ or anything else, but no matter who it is, that person accepted money from a vendor,” he said.

Dvorak said he hangs his hat on the ORC, having been a township trustee for 11 years.

“Whatever it says, you follow it. I think that we should be in favor of following the Ohio Revised Code,” he said.

In other business, commissioners tabled a request to increase the retainer fee for outside counsel in mediation and litigation filed by county Auditor Chuck Walder and the Geauga County Automatic Data Processing board. The agreement is with Roetzel and Andress, LLP for $45,000.

“Back in August of last year, the ADP board had passed a motion to seek legal action with regards to the keycard system and water resources in this building. We went through mediation that didn’t get anywhere. We went through that process,” Morgan said.

Commissioners are running up against the previously approved cost for outside legal advice, he said.

“I was initially asking for $5,000 so that if anything does come up, we have them on retainer. However, with everything that’s going on right now, there seems to be some willingness to work together between the boards,” he said. “My recommendation would be to table this motion here.”