REVISITING KELLI YOUNG'S (THE REPOSITORY) "Vince Frustaci: Profile of a thief" Setting the record straight on Gary Zeigler's failure in leadership (hiring, policy and procedure) as treasurer of Stark County

Vince Frustaci, the former chief deputy treasurer of the Stark County treasury, sits in a federal prison serving out 10 years for his admitted theft of $2.46 million in Stark County taxpayer money.

While the treasurer (Gary D. Zeigler) was cleared (based on the information they were able to develop) by county and federal prosecutors of any involvement in the theft. many Stark Countians believe (in hindsight) that the treasurer did not exercise sagacious judgment in making Frustaci "the boy wonder" of the office and thereby putting him in a position to enable Frustaci to do what he did.

And that is not all.

While Zeigler is trying to pass the buck to others (witness his letter to Stark County Prosecutor John Ferrero asking him to sue the State of Ohio Auditor [SOA]), he himself in the opinion of the SCPR bears "the buck stops here" responsibility for not having:

• first, the quality of leadership people (Frustaci and "Public Official #l  re:  the federal information filed against Frustaci on June 25, 2010) in place who were trustworthy in the context of public employment, and
• second, in implementing failsafe policies and procedures to make what Frustaci did impossible.

On July 5, 2010, Kelly Young of The Repository did a piece (future reference:  "Young') that opened the Stark County public eye on some of the inner workings of the Stark County treasury under the leadership of Zeigler that shows how utterly unprepared for leadership that Zeigler himself was when the Stark County Democratic Party politicians and party loyalists coalesced to put him in office on June 5, 1999.

When the Frustaci theft and concomitant firing news broke (April 1, 2009), yours truly was at the Stark County office building and made a point to go to the Stark treasury for a word from Zeigler.

The question:  How is it that you came to hire Frustaci in the first place, was it because of some political connection?

Zeigler's nswer:  "All I knew was that he was some guy out on the golf course."

Really!  You hire and put a guy on an expedited course to leadership and that is all you knew of him. 

Moreover,"[H]e didn't need a resume, job application or prior finance experience.  As long as he didn't mess up in the interview, Vincent Frustaci had the job at the Stark County Treasurer's office before he walked through the door.  He already had a personal reference:  Treasurer Gary Zeigler." (Young)

Zeigler to his chief administrator Glenn Owens:  "There's a guy [not even named to Owens] coming in this afternoon, and I want you to talk to him.  If you don't see anything wrong, then hire him." (Young)


A mere five days after taking office himself, Zeigler through Owens makes the hire.  Vincent Frustaci in less than a 30 minute interview convinces Owens that nothing is wrong with him and that having held various odd jobs (non-accounting related) in working his way through Walsh University for a degree in accounting and finance (Young).


So began the Stark County treasury career of Vincent Frustaci.  Undoubtedly, Zeigler rues the day that he zeroed in on Frustaci to the exclusion of other possiblities as THE person to hire and not only hire but to put on a fast track to one of three top leadership positions within the Stark Treasurer's office.

Fast track?

Get this.  From the getgo (June 10, 1999 or thereabouts) "Zeigler instructed Owens to train Frustaci on the chief administrator's duties [Owens' job], so that the new employee could take over when Owens retired [which occurred in May, 2008]." 

"Zeigler gave Frustaci his own office in the fall of 2008"

"... Frustaci got the title that went with his back office.  Zeigler named him chief deputy treasurer in September 2001, a position, that in title, gave him the same rank as Owens ... "


"Frustaci also continued to gain more and more of Zeigler's trust or so it seemed to other employees."

"He also often joined Zeigler for golf ... and he frequently stood at Zeigler's side at various charity golf outings and fundraisers.  He sometimes took Zeigler's place when his boss couldn't attend."

All of the bold type being quotes from Kelli Young's July 5, 2010 story.

Young goes on to write about how Frustaci:

• had enough clout with Zeigler to get a friend a job in the treasury,
• got his own set of keys to the vault in 2003,
• seemed to be spending fewer and fewer hours on the job at the Stark treasury, and
• was able to avoid being taken to task by Zeigler, though Zeigler most certainly knew of his being the  "office worst" frequently "AWOL" (the SCPR's term) employee.

Was it apparent that Zeigler knew or should have known that Frustaci had a gambling problem?

The SCPR believes so.

Again to Young:

"A few co-workers, especially now that Frustaci has admitted his gambling habit, has speculated that he was leaving work to pull up a chair at one the local card games.  Frustaci had a reputation ... for loving high stakes poker games (Texas hold 'em), frequenting Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort in West Virginia and betting on sports.

Other employees (Paone and Owens) knew of Frustaci's gambling.

"Did Zeigler know?  Owens says yes.  He recalls one of the first times Frustaci attended a County Treasurers Association of Ohio convention with [Owens] and Zeigler.  ... "then left to play poker at a nearby riverboat casino ... [they] did attend all the classes at the conference."

"Owens recalls another occasion, back in September 2003 [about the time that Zeigler gave Frustaci the keys to the vault], while sitting in Zeigler's office with Frustaci.  The three joked about a newspaper article about a poker game in Plain Township that had been robbed ... 'You know, you get caught in one of those games your done here,' Owens remembers Zeigler saying to Frustaci.

Another side of the Zeigler administration of the Stark County treasury is his stewardship of the facilities, the policies and the procedures in place from the time he took office.

The reason why Zeigler got the opportunity to be Stark County treasurer is that his predecessor Mark Roach failed to keep up with his continuing education requirements imposed by Ohio law.

An ancillary matter to the "failure to keep up" was a finding by the SOA that $1,000 was missing from the county treasury.  While not blaming Roach personally for having anything to do with the missing money, county officials recovered the missing money from Roach who paid up voluntarily.

Here is what Gary Zeigler had to say at the time:

Zeigler a reformer?

Not if you ask the State of Ohio Auditor's office and successor treasurers Allbritain, Koher and Zumbar.

The SOA cited the Stark County treasury for a number of deficiencies in policy, procedure and facility security.  Moreover, Allbritain, Koher and Zumber put a significant number of fixes in places during their respective times in office.

Why the citations, why the fixes when Zeigler says he did nothing wrong in managing the office and setting policy and procedures and securing facilities?

Numerous Stark Countians have remonstrated that had Zeigler admitted what was/is obvious to most, he could have salvaged a little bit of confidence from the Stark County public.

But he didn't and hasn't and it appears that Zeigler with his bulldog attitude has been a large part of the utter lack of trust in county government on the part of the "informed" part of the Stark County public.

Zeigler is not all to blame.  The commissioners (former commissioners Bosley, Harmon and Vignos) are part of the problem in that they imposed a 1/2 cent increase in the sales tax in December, 2008 and in the process focused on the "we're fixing 9-1-1) while virtually ignoring that half the tax was to go to the county general fund.  Also, Sheriff Swanson with his "poop on the public" attitude in support the tax imposition bears responsibility.

However, there is no getting around it.  What local attorney and civic activist Craig T. Conley calls "Zeiglergate" is at present the front and center reason why Stark Countians turn their collective noses up at county commissioner pleas (in their series of public meetings around Stark County) that Stark Countians once again trust county government.

Conley is pushing Canton Law Director Joe Martuccio to prosecute Zeigler under state of Ohio dereliction of duties statutes (a misdemeanor). 

And, of course, there is the civil suit in Stark County Common Pleas (Judge Inderlied as visiting judge) to recover of Frustaci and Zeigler some $1.5 million of the missing $2.96 millions from the Stark treasury.  Zeigler is trying to get Stark Prosecutor John Ferrero to go after the SOA for the money.

The SCPR is told that there are ongoing discussions between Zeigler and the county that could lead to Zeigler's resignation.  The hangups appear to be Zeigler's insistence that he be paid through his September, 2013 end of term date and that he be cleared of any obligation to repay the still missing $1.5 million.

If the reports are accurate, then do not look for any resolution of the matter until there is a court decision on whether nor not Zeigler is liable as a matter of law.

Even then, The Report cannot imaging any Stark County politician-office holder agreeing to pay Zeigler "one red cent" in future compensation with him having resigned as part of any deal.

It simply is not going to happen unless and until Gary D. Zeigler gets real.

As far as the SCPR is concerned, Zeigler has shown no signs whatsoever that he will own up to any part of what the Stark County public thinks - in a negative way - about his stewardship of the Stark treasury.


In the meantime Stark County government continues to suffer an utter lack of public confidence and trust which makes effective and productive county governance near impossible.

FRUSTACI INVESTIGATION RESULTS TO BE REVEALED AT PRESS CONFERENCE SCHEDULED FOR FRIDAY, JUNE 25, 2010 AT 10:00 AM

The Stark County Political Report has learned from a reliable source that a news conference has been set by law enforcement officials for Friday, June 25, 2010 at 10:00 a.m. in Canton  to announce the results of an investigation of the Stark County Treasurer's office regarding allegations by Stark Treasurer Gary D. Zeigler that former Chief Deputy Vince Frustaci had stolen Stark treasury monies.

The Report has learned that the results will include heretofore publicly unidentifed person(s) also subject(s) of the investigation in addition to Frustaci.

Zeigler's allegations concerning Frustaci came to public light on April 1, 2009.  With the allegations came Zeigler's further revelation that he had fired Frustaci.

LATER TODAY; THURSDAY, THE 24TH; FRIDAY, THE 25TH; MONDAY, THE 28TH; OR TUESDAY, THE 29TH OR MAYBE EVEN WEDNESDAY, THE 30TH? FINALLY, A CONCLUSION TO THE FRUSTACI INVESTIGATION?

Yesterday, the SCPR received a telephone call from a person in a position to know, that "finally, finally" the allegations made by Stark County treasurer Gary D. Zeigler on April 1, 2009 that Zeigler's - the then - chief deputy Vince Frustaci had misappropriated money (Zeigler fired Frustaci on the 1st of April, 2009) from the Stark County treasury being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) will be concluded within days.

"Within days?"

What does that mean?

Hard to say.

Dare say that nobody in Stark County government on April 1, 2009 would have thought on that day that it could take as long as July 1, 2010 to complete the investigation.

Accordingly, The Report was reluctant (despite a constant stream of questions and musing from various readers and public officials) to do yet another blog speculating on the investigation conclusion date because of the large number of inaccurate reports as to the timing of the conclusion.

Not that the SCPR's sources have been wrong.  Not at all.

What has happened is that people very close to the investigation have indeed let it be known to The Report's sources that the end is near.  But for one reason or another the investigating authorities have changed the timeline.

As The Report observed several blogs ago, law enforcement authorities will take whatever time they think they need to do the job correctly.  And that is the way the anticipatory public should want it.

The Repository was - at the time of the blog referred to above - jumping all over the county commissioners for not pushing for a conclusion of the investigation.  Such was just a case of "grandstanding" by "the powers that be" at The Rep.  Kind of journalistically unbecoming for folks who know the reality that quality law enforcement should and will take the time it needs to do an investigation, no?

So, it appears, any day now, the matter will be finalized.  At least, insofar as Mr. Frustaci is concerned.

However, once the amount of the alleged theft is officially known (believed by some to be as high as $3 million); there may be other ramifications in terms of the county commissioners looking at the county treasury's oversight function and whether or not there was (on the commissioners' assessment) insufficient performance of the oversight responsibility meriting action by the commissioners in pursuit of the Stark County public interest.

Accordingly, there may be plenty of life left in this story.

Stay tuned!

SHALL WE CRY WOLF "ONE MORE TIME?" THE FRUSTACI INVESTIGATION RESULTS ABOUT TO BREAK?

Maybe the frustration of county officials is about to end.

The SCPR has learned that the Stark County Prosecutor's office had one of its attorneys in Cleveland recently going over the progress of the Vince Frustaci investigation with the U.S. Attorney's office.

Readers will recall that on April 1, 2009 Stark County Treasurer Gary D. Zeigler fired Frustaci (his chief deputy) making allegations that Frustaci had stolen from the county treasury.

Stark County has spent $209,000 plus a little in fees paid to State of Ohio Auditor Mary Taylor's office for service rendered in conducting a forensic audit of the county treasury.  Results of the audit is in the hands of the United States Attorney.

Several weeks ago there was a big flap among the Stark County commissioners over the authority of the commissioners to pay the $209,000.  As far as the SCPR is concerned, the flap - started by the folks at The Repository - was "much ado about nothing."

The genesis of The Rep story was an agreement between the Ohio Auditor's office and Treasurer Zeigler regarding the outlining of and provision for payment of the auditor's services.

So what was the problem?

Zeigler's office chose not to share the existence of the agreement with county commissioners.

The Repository editors blasted county commissioners (blaming the failure to ferret out on the fact that the three commissioners are "all" Democrats" - how thin can you get in your reasoning?)  for not being on top of the situation and knowing about an agreement that Zeigler's office held out of public view on the suggestion of the Ohio Auditor's office itself.

If anyone thinks that the county commissioners were not going to have to pay the $209,000 plus out of county general fund dollars, then please see The Report about the sale of some swamp land in Florida.

A well placed source tells The Report that Stark Countians are likely to learn about the federal investigation within the next week to ten days.

Although The Report source is highly reliable, as we all know - "there is many a slip between the cup and the lip," and one has to be skeptical of any reports.

IS THIS ANOTHER FALSE ALARM OR IS IT "NO FOOLIN" THIS TIME IN TERMS OF GETTING RESULTS FROM THE FBI INVESTIGATION OF THE ALLEGED THEFT IN THE STARK COUNTY TREASURER'S OFFICE

The SCPR is once again being told that results could come any minute in the FBI's investigation to an alleged theft of taxpayer money out of the Stark County treasurer's office.

Today is the first anniversary (obviously not a day to celebrate as far as Stark County government is concerned) of allegations made by Stark County treasurer Gary D. Zeigler - to local media - that his chief deputy Vince Frustaci had stolen county money from the treasurer's office.  Zeigler also announced that he had fired Frustaci on the basis of the allegations.

County officials have wanted the investigation of the matter to have been completed long before now.  it appears that the next two weeks may well be the time frame within which Stark Countians will learn the results of the FBI investigation.

Two sources are reporting the imminence of an announcement by law enforcement officials on the outcome of the investigation.

One source used the figure $3,000,000 as the amount missing.

If true, such a loss further complicates the county's desperate financial picture.

Most knowledgeable Stark County political observers (including the SCPR) believe that there is no chance that the county can convince Stark voters to pass a new sales/use tax issue and base their analysis on the fact that the county imposed 0.50% tax increase in December, 2008 only to have it rescinded by voters in November, 2009 by an overwhelming majority and the economic reality of local, state and national economies being in the dumper.

Add missing money, and the political complications grow, perhaps, to the point that not even a renewal will pass when it comes up which most certainly will be in November of this year

Once the investigation results are announced, the SCPR believes that there will be a renewed outburst from the Stark County public of indignation at the loss in terms of wondering how it could possibly have happened under Zeigler's watch.  Moreover, the public may want to punish the entire county government operations over the failure from within the Stark treasury to have adequate safeguards in place to have prevented the alleged loss.

The Report is told that there are some within Stark County government who are putting pressure on Treasurer Zeigler to step down.  The Report has previously stated that, in the opinion of yours truly, Zeigler should resign.

For him to do so might make it easier for other county officials to convince voters to approve at least a renewal of the existing 0.25 sales/tax add-on which is due to expire on June 30, 2011.

WHY HAS THE FBI SHOWN UP AT THE STARK COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' OFFICE?

The SCPR has learned through a law enforcement source that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has shown up at the Stark County Office Building a couple of days this week to question Stark County commissioner Pete Ferguson (elected in November, 2008).

Why?

The source does not know.

There is no indication that Ferguson has done anything wrong.

The conjecture is that the questioning has something to do with the Vince Frustaci investigation that Mary Taylor of Ohio auditor's office requested when Frustaci was fired as chief deputy by Stark County treasurer Gary Zeigler on April 1st amid allegations by Zeigler that he suspected Frustaci had stolen money from the county treasury.

Ferguson is said to have known Frustaci for a long time.

If the questioning is related to the Frustaci matter, it gives credence to those who do not think that indictments will be coming down any time soon.

As an aside, it is interesting to note that The Repository recently did a story (County finds that seeking bond for treasurer amid probe to be problematical, July 17)to the effect that Treasurer Zeigler may not be able to be sworn-in for his new term as county treasurer because of difficulties in securing a $1 million bond set by the county commmissioners.

If Frustaci gets charged with taking the county money, it is interesting to note that he was covered by a $500,000 bond. The allegations are that $2 to 3 million is missing from the treasurer's office.

These, indeed, are troubling times for Stark County government.

The SCPR believes this is the price citizens pay when they vote in "one-party-rule."

Only Democrats serve in countywide office (except for judicial office).