Mental Health Board Settles with Ex-Executive Director for $212K
The Geauga County Board of Mental Health and Recovery Services agreed to pay its former executive director $212,523.86 to settle all claims regarding his employment.
The Geauga County Board of Mental Health and Recovery Services agreed to pay its former executive director $212,523.86 to settle all claims regarding his employment.
Under the terms of the Release of All Claims and Demands, a final version of which the Geauga County MapleLeaf received Aug. 3 in response to an ongoing public records request, Jim Adams, the mental health board’s longtime executive director, will receive $77,854 to settle claims of emotional harm. He will receive an identical amount as compensation for alleged lost future wages and $41,816 as payout of accrued and compensable sick and vacation time.
Adams’ lawyers, McCarthy, Lebit, Crystal & Liffman Co., will receive a lump sum of $15,000, representing attorneys’ fees and expenses.
As part of the settlement, both parties agreed not to make any disparaging statements regarding the business or character of the other.
On Tuesday, board Chairman Steve Oluic said he intends for the board to move forward and get beyond all the obstacles in the past.
“We did come to an agreement with Jim and it was amicable. Both sides, both parties were pleased with the results,” said Oluic, who was elected board chair July 1. He declined further comment on specific terms of the agreement.
Oluic also said while he was not part of the mediation, he was told it was amicable between the parties and board members unanimously approved the agreement.
“Jim and his team were pleased with it also,” he added.
In addition, Oluic noted the county’s insurance company will reimburse $20,000 of the total settlement.
“This matter has been resolved to both parties’ satisfaction,” Adams’ lawyer Jack Moran told the Maple Leaf. “Please see the board’s announcement regarding Mr. Adams’s retirement.”
In May, Moran warned GCBMHRS members the county could be facing a costly, risky and “completely unnecessary” legal battle if the board proceeded with terminating Adams. He claimed the board’s conduct constituted possible age discrimination and First Amendment retaliation.
Moran said the board’s decision to place Adams on administrative leave and offer him a three-month severance package already had caused damage.
The only written instance of disciplinary action on file in Adams’ employment record is one he received Nov. 17, 2021, when he was issued a formal reprimand from the board for authoring a book, published that same year, titled “Preventing, Intervening, and Recovering From School Shootings and Other Traumatic Events.”
As part of the settlement agreement, Adams was permitted to file a response to the board’s written reprimand relating to the writing and publishing of his book. In his response, Adams said the board did not have any authority “to make any limitations on what the members of the board staff could or could not do regarding their off-duty hours, including the writing of a book.” He added his position was based on inquiries to the Geauga County Prosecutor’s Office.
He also noted board members voted to remove the entire section of his employment contract regarding his book.
“The board took no action in the contract, or by resolution, that would instruct me that I was not allowed to write the manuscript,” Adams said in his response. “Just because a statement is made in the course of a board meeting or committee meeting by one or more board members, that does not constitute a majority of board opinion nor a call to specific action or inaction by myself or the board staff.”
Adams was recognized nationally for his work in responding to the Chardon High School shooting in 2012 and his development of a response model to trauma that could be used in any school district, according to a press release the mental health board issued announcing Adams’ retirement.
The board also acknowledged Adams was chosen as one of two Ohioans to sit on the national mental health outcomes development committee, through Harvard University, while at the same time developing mental health system of care in Geauga.
In his 34-year career, Adams also had grown the board’s budget from $800,000 to more than $7 million. He also increased the number of agencies served from four to nine, and the number of individuals receiving services from less than 500 to more than 12,000, with more than 100 different services.
After the mental health board placed Adams on paid administrative leave in May, it appointed Assistant Director Amie Martin-D’Arienzo as interim director. She later would resign her post only to return to her former position after successfully negotiating a salary of $70,000 with flexible time.
The board named Leila Vidmar as interim director until a search for Adams’ replacement can be completed. Oluic said he expects discussion of that search process to take place at the board’s September meeting.
