A grand jury indicted former Geauga County Department of Water Resources Network Administrator Mike Kurzinger July 18 on three felony and three misdemeanor counts.
A grand jury indicted former Geauga County Department of Water Resources Network Administrator Mike Kurzinger July 18 on three felony and three misdemeanor counts.
Kurzinger was charged with three counts of having an unlawful interest in a public contract, a fourth-degree felony, and three first-degree misdemeanor counts of conflict of interest.
Geauga County Prosecutor Jim Flaiz said the indictment covers conduct that is far more wide-ranging than previously reported.
“I expect additional charges will be presented to the grand jury for their consideration,” he said.
Kurzinger came into public view in April after the Geauga County Automatic Data Processing board’s information technology staff discovered a GCDWR email server had been attacked by Russian hackers. Less than a month later, a federal search warrant was executed at his office in the county administrative building, as well as in the home and office of Joe Camino, an outside IT vendor for GCDWR.
The indictment said Kurzinger, on multiple occasions, “did solicit or accept anything of value that is of such a character as to manifest a substantial and improper influence upon the public official or employee with respect to that person’s duties” — a violation of state law.
The range of time during which Kurzinger allegedly received gifts ranges from May 1, 2008, to April 12, 2022, “in a continuing course of criminal conduct,” the indictment said.
While not named in the indictment, an investigation into Camino’s Mentor-based IT firm, CSJ Technologies Inc., is ongoing.
In an interview July 18, Flaiz said Camino’s company was paid $423,771 for IT services between 2008 and 2022, adding he could not comment further on specifics because the investigation into Camino and Kurzinger is ongoing.
Some county officials have targeted County Administrator Gerry Morgan, who headed GCDWR for 12 years, with criticism as the investigation into both men’s activities unfolded.
At a May 11 ADP board meeting, officials, including Flaiz, Commissioner Jim Dvorak and Geauga County Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand, questioned Morgan’s response to Kurzinger’s investigation and to a May 10 incident during which Kurzinger returned to GCDWR to assist with payroll.
After the regular Geauga County Commissioners July 18, Morgan said he had not yet heard about the indictment, which had been filed a little before 9 a.m. that morning.
Morgan said while he stood by comments made in April that both Camino and Kurzinger were extremely competent at their jobs, based on what he knew so far about the case, he did not know how anyone in the county would have known what was going on.
“(Camino) worked for the county for years prior to 2008. They worked for him for years … after. There was never any indication there was anything wrong,” he said.
Morgan said the internal investigation into Kurzinger’s activities has not yet moved forward much, but the county is scheduled to meet with outside counsel hired to oversee the process this Friday. The attorney will work with the county to make sure there are no issues with running the internal investigation at the same time as the legal process moves forward.
Morgan said he had no indication that more people were involved in the activities alleged in the indictment.
Dvorak, however, had a different view.
“I mean, the guy (Kurzinger), he was here for 36 years,” Dvorak said. “I think everybody, most everybody in the building that’s been here for a while is … just too close to the situation.”
Once again expressing disappointment with Morgan — whom he publicly called out at the May 16 commissioners’ meeting for lack of communication — Dvorak said he wants commissioners to receive weekly updates from Morgan on the progress of the internal investigation.
“I’m glad that our prosecutor and (Geauga County Auditor Chuck Walder) have been digging into all the details to find things that need to be corrected,” Dvorak said.
In June, Dvorak told the Geauga County Maple Leaf that Morgan told him Kurzinger had borrowed money from a vendor May 3, the day the federal search warrant was executed.
“That’s when I hit the ceiling,” Dvorak said, adding state law is clear on crimes like those alleged in the indictment.
“If you did the crime, then you have to suffer the consequences,” he said.
