Patrick DeOrio out as North Canton administrator; Mayor will make announcement Monday

NORTH CANTON − Patrick DeOrio is no longer leading the city administration.

Mayor Stephan Wilder said he has designated DeOrio's deputy administrator, Catherine Farina, as the city's acting director of administration as of Wednesday.

The mayor said he would issue an official statement when City Council meets Monday evening.

In an interview at City Hall Thursday afternoon, Wilder declined to provide the details about what had happened and would not confirm DeOrio's employment status.

When asked if DeOrio was no longer employed by the city, Wilder said, "That is not true."

"Right now, I don't have anything to share with the media at this point," Wilder said. "I just don't really have anything to say about that right now. It's a personnel issue. And I'm going to leave it at that for right now. ... There's a few things that need to be taken care of. ... I'm not going to share any information right now until I'm prepared to make a statement on Monday."

Then-Mayor David Held appointed DeOrio, a former city councilman, to be the city director of administration in 2018. Wilder chose to keep DeOrio in the role when he became mayor in 2019.

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Wilder said the personnel change would not affect city services.

"Services will continue as they always have been. Exceptional," he said.

As of late Thursday, DeOrio was no longer listed in the city's administration staff directory on the city website, which Wilder confirmed. Calls to DeOrio's cellphone resulted in a mobile carrier message that said, "The person you're trying to reach is not accepting calls at this time."

DeOrio was set to return from vacation. He did not attend the council meeting Monday.

Messages seeking comment were left at DeOrio's North Canton home and in the voicemail box of Council President Matthew Stroia, at-large.

Wilder said the status had not changed for any other city administration employees.

"Nothing's changed. Everybody else's jobs are intact," he said. "All of our services are intact."

DeOrio had been the city's top negotiator with the Hoover District developers on a new tax-increment financing agreement he had hoped to present to council by Monday.

Wilder said the city administration is "finalizing that agreement right now. Administratively, we're finalizing it now before we present it on Monday to council."

The change in DeOrio's employment status also took place nearly two weeks before the March 19 primary when voters will decide whether to approve a 0.5% increase in the city's income tax rate to 2%.

Wilder said the city administration would still stick to the pledges DeOrio made on how the city would spend the roughly $3.6 million a year the tax increase would generate.

"We're not deviating from any of those," Wilder said. "Nothing is going to change. Other than we're looking at it, services that we provide will still continue. Right now, I'm dealing with an internal issue on our leadership. We'll have an announcement come Monday."

Council members respond

Before a reporter spoke with Wilder Thursday, two council members said Wilder did not notify them of any changes in the administration's leadership.

Council member John Orr, Ward 4 said, “I don’t know nothing. I'm not sure. I haven’t heard anything. I’m shocked.”

Council member David Metheney, Ward 2, said the mayor invited him to attend a noontime meeting on Wednesday. But Metheney couldn't attend due to a conflict. Metheney said Wilder did not reveal what the meeting topic would be or who else would be at the meeting. The councilman said council is set to have an executive session Monday related to personnel.

Later, after Orr was told of the mayor's comments, he said he would seek to speak with Wilder Friday to find out what had happened.

Orr said he did not believe DeOrio no longer leading the city administration would affect public support for the income tax increase. He said all the promises DeOrio made about how the additional revenue would be spent would be kept.

Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com. X formerly Twitter: @rwangREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Pat DeOrio out as North Canton administrator, mayor won't say why