'A strange situation.' North Canton's ex-administrator suddenly fired instead of retired

NORTH CANTON − Mayor Stephan Wilder has now fired the city's former director of administration rather than letting him retire as planned.

The city's attorney, Wayne Boyer, released a letter Wednesday afternoon from Wilder to Patrick DeOrio. The correspondence accuses DeOrio of failing to submit a written letter of resignation as agreed by 3 p.m. March 11. And the letter alleges DeOrio deleted public records on his city-issued cellphone, a violation of policy.

The mayor terminated DeOrio's employment retroactive to March 11, the same the day Wilder told City Council that DeOrio had agreed to retire effective at the end of April 1.

Pat DeOrio's retirement from North Canton becomes firing

Related: North Canton mayor: Patrick DeOrio leaves city hall as part of voluntary retirement

DeOrio is to get the remainder of his pay owed to him by March 29, the city's regular pay day. He will get paid for unused vacation time. His health insurance coverage will end March 31. According to city records, DeOrio's pay rose to $140,715 a year after a 3.2% cost-of-living increase on Dec. 23.

Wilder said Wednesday that he chose to remove DeOrio due to his "management style," and he said he had documented his reasons. He said he would provide more specifics when he meets with a Repository reporter later this week. That is when city officials are expected to release public records related to the DeOrio's surprise removal.

Wilder said DeOrio had told the city he was retiring but did not put it in writing.

"When I met with him (March 6), I gave him an opportunity to submit a letter of resignation or I would proceed with a letter of termination," Wilder said. "I never received a letter of resignation."

Wilder said he will formally appoint Catherine Farina, who had been DeOrio's deputy administrator, as the interim director of administration. And he will ask City Council to vote Monday to approve the appointment, as required by the city's charter. The mayor said he will advertise the position around April 1 and accept applications through April 12.

The release of DeOrio's termination letter came a day after 60% of voters rejected city officials' request for a 0.5% to the city's income tax rate to 2% from 1.5%.

Wilder said he did not believe DeOrio's departure impacted the voters' decision.

The mayor said his administration would submit proposals to council April 1 on what the city would do following the income tax issue's defeat.

Fired North Canton administrator responds

Reached Wednesday afternoon, DeOrio said he had not yet received the termination letter.

“Obviously, I'll have to speak with my legal counsel as to what this all means, not quite sure," he said, adding that it was the latest twist in a "strange situation."

DeOrio said it was not his understanding that he was supposed to submit a resignation letter.

He said he routinely deleted emails and other information on his city-issued phone. "I don't really keep stuff on the phone in case I lose the phone."

He said nothing he deleted was destroyed because any content was automatically backed up to the city's cloud service.

“There wasn’t anything of value on it (the phone) in terms of documents,” he said.

DeOrio said he did delete content on the phone before he returned it, the same day after he picked up personal items he had in the office that city staff had packed for him.

”I don't know. I didn’t really give it much thought. I thought I’d turn it back in the way I got it," he said.

DeOrio's attorney Jim Collum said he needed to find out more information before he could comment.

Mayor, DeOrio had meeting before his departure

DeOrio said he was supposed to return from vacation on March 7 when Wilder asked to meet with him at noon March 6. Council President Matthew Stroia also attended.

DeOrio said the mayor told him he no longer wanted DeOrio to serve as director of administration.

“We just decided it looked like there needed to be a change and I was like, OK, there’s going to be a change," DeOrio recalled. "The mayor has the right to have who he wants at his side and I proudly served for five years at his side. And he would like someone else, and that’s OK."

As for the reason, "we really didn't get into that. ... He doesn't owe me an explanation. He made a decision and I respected the decision.”

DeOrio, a former councilman also works as a financial adviser, said he has no plans to seek public employment or run for public office again. He had served as a deputy administrator under the former city administrator Mike Grimes for about a year before then-Mayor David Held in 2018 promoted him to director of administration.

DeOrio said he counts among his successes capital improvements to City Hall and Bitzer Park and attracting more Diebold jobs to the Hoover District and working to bring Meijer to the former Kmart site. Before he was removed, DeOrio said he hammered out the final terms of the tax-increment financing agreement with Maple Street Commerce while out of town on vacation.

“I’m happy that I had been given an opportunity to be the director of administration for so long," said DeOrio.

"And I thank Mayor Wilder for keeping me here. I think I might be the longest serving in that role. ... I’ve got no hard feelings. No bitterness. I'm in a happy place. ... I believed I needed to get my work-life balance in order and so I don't know why we are doing all these things going on here. But whatever. I’ll let my legal counsel talk to their legal counsel and figure out what’s happening.”

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

This article originally appeared on The Repository: North Canton mayor officially fires administrator Patrick DeOrio