Demotions follow city firings

The City of Toledo's investigation into its beleaguered Department of Neighborhoods produced two new casualties Wednesday.

Housing Manager Jody Prude and Rehab Specialist Toni Thomas -- two midlevel officials whose names have come up in allegations of bid-rigging and poor oversight at the department -- were suspended for 10 days without pay and demoted to positions elsewhere in the city.

The action follows the firings Tuesday of the department's director, Kattie Bond, and housing commissioner, Mike Badik.

Ms. Prude and Ms. Thomas have been on paid administrative leave since early December, just after the city began its investigation into the department. That investigation is still ongoing but is winding down, city spokesman Jen Sorgenfrei said.

The city charged Ms. Prude and Ms. Thomas with failure to follow proper procedure, gross misconduct, misfeasance, nonfeasance, and insubordination. Both were scheduled to face administrative hearings Wednesday but reached agreements with the city before those hearings. Ms. Sorgenfrei would not elaborate on the charges, citing the ongoing investigation.

When reached by phone, Ms. Prude and Ms. Thomas declined comment.

Under terms of the agreement, both women will be suspended for 10 days without pay. Ms. Prude faces a $13,000 salary cut and demotion to an administrator position in the Department of Public Services division of Solid Waste. Ms. Thomas' salary will be cut by $4,281, and she will be demoted to painter at the Department of Public Services division of Facility and Fleet Operations.

Ms. Prude was paid $62,450 in 2010. Ms. Thomas was paid $52,156.

The city's probe of the neighborhoods department grew out of a Nov. 22 article in which The Blade detailed allegations of wrongdoing by city employees and poor supervision in the neighborhoods department, which awards millions of dollars annually in federal money, including block grants.

The Blade found sealed bid documents were sometimes opened outside the view of city employees and filled out after the bid openings. Ms. Prude's signature appears alone on some bid opening documents, apparently in violation of city rules requiring at least three witnesses.

A local roofing contractor, meanwhile, told The Blade that Ms. Thomas steered him to use a subcontractor with a lengthy criminal record but instructed him not to list that subcontractor on city paperwork.

A day after The Blade published the story, Ms. Thomas left a voice mail for the contractor, Craig Gordy, telling him to recant the statements he had made to the newspaper. In the voice mail, Ms. Thomas said the department director, Ms. Bond, had told her to make the call.

The audio recordings prompted the city to open an internal investigation into the matter. The FBI and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development also have sent investigators to probe the department, according to several sources and acknowledged by Mayor Mike Bell.

The disciplinary actions met with criticism Wednesday from a former Toledo mayor, several local pastors, and a city councilman, who said Ms. Bond and Mr. Badik got a raw deal.

Former Mayor Carty Finkbeiner said he's known Ms. Bond and Mr. Badik for years and would stake his reputation on their integrity.

"I believe that the individuals who orchestrated this housing fiasco remain on the city payroll and that Bond and Badik have been made scapegoats," he said.

Councilman D. Michael Collins said the punishments for Ms. Prude and Ms. Thomas weren't stiff enough. "How do you justify the termination of two people [Ms. Bond and Mr. Badik] when the major actors were able to salvage their employment?" he asked.

Ms. Sorgenfrei said the city has not ruled out taking additional action against Ms. Prude and Ms. Thomas. "Neither of these agreements preclude them from further disciplinary action if further information is discovered through the remainder of the investigation," she said.

Mayor Bell and other city officials remained tight-lipped about the reasons for the demotions and the firings of Ms. Bond and Mr. Badik.

However, in his Jan. 3 termination letters to the director and housing commissioner, the mayor wrote he had lost confidence in their ability to do their jobs. To Ms. Bond, he added: "It is my belief that you knew or should have known of serious issues occurring within your Department. You failed to adequately address these issues and, therefore, failed to effectively lead the Department in a manner consistent with my expectations and the expectations of the taxpayers. Moreover, you consistently failed to bring matters to my attention so that problems within the Department could be addressed."

Several pastors met with Mayor Bell Wednesday to urge him to reconsider the firings. "He prayed about it," said Cedric Brock, pastor of Mount Nebo Baptist Church and president of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Toledo and Vicinity.

Contact Claudia Boyd-Barrett at: cbarrett@theblade.com or 419-724-6272.