Former head of job-training agency claims it breached his employment contract
The former president and chief executive and financial officer of Washington-Greene County Job Training Agency filed a breach-of-employment-contract suit in Washington County Court, seeking compensation from mid-June 2014 through Dec. 31 of last year.
David P. Suski, who gave a Donora address in the complaint, started his career in county government in federally funded job-training programs. In 1980, WGCJTA hired him as an independent monitor and promoted him to director in about 1984. In 1995, his job title changed to president/chief executive officer and chief financial officer.
Beginning Jan. 1, 2010, the agency and Suski entered into a six-year employment contract signed by William Polacheck, who was chairman of the agency’s board of directors.
Suski’s annual salary was $104,000, with the same annual percentage raises that staff members received. As a longevity incentive, he also was to receive a cash, lump-sum payment of 1 1/2 percent of his salary each Sept. 2; health insurance for himself, spouse and dependent children; and a “leased mid-sized automobile along with insurance, maintenance, repairs, gasoline and oil.” Throughout his years of working for the agency, it made pension contributions on his behalf.
The contract stated his employment could be terminated due to disability, death, resignation or a drastic reduction in funding.
The suit says Suski did an excellent job while in charge of the agency. “In fact, the agency’s board of directors regularly and publicly praised his job performance. Despite this fact, on or about June 14, 2014,” the agency terminated Suski’s employment, but not for any of the causes outlined in the employment contract.
Suski claims the agency had no legal basis to terminate his employment contract, which cost him compensation and loss of benefits, and states that the agency has no basis to contest, dispute or offset his claim for unpaid wages. He is seeking a jury trial to determine compensatory damages, court costs, interest and other relief.
Suski’s suit, filed by C. Christopher Hasson, does not mention the state Department of Labor & Industry fiscal review of Washington-Greene County Job Training Agency’s operations that in 2015 questioned $1.13 million in agency expenditures over a four-year period.
L&I examined nearly $1 million in cost allocations, including the methods by which former and then-current agency executives and some staffers allocated their salaries and time across various funding streams. It also addressed Suski’s personal use of an agency-leased vehicle; an alleged failure to provide timely disclosure of a conflict of interest because of some printing costs charged to a third-party company owned by Suski and then-Vice President Linda Bell; and additional leasing costs incurred from duplication of some services.
Suski abruptly left his position in June 2014, and Bell succeeded him as president of the agency before retiring in March 2015.
Although the agency’s name includes Washington and Greene counties, the nonprofit is not part of either Washington or Greene county government operations. It is and was the fiscal agent for the Southwest Corner Workforce Investment Board, funneling state, federal and local grant money for various job programs. The WIB reports to a nine-member panel of county commissioners from Washington, Greene and Beaver, helping residents at all income levels through a variety of programs, including those re-entering the workforce, veterans, those who recently lost a job, as well as others who are starting their own businesses.
In the eight-page supporting document provided by L&I, the department questions $981,200 in costs it said were allocated as expenses to various WGCJTA programs but “not based on relative benefit to the funding streams overseen by the Southwest Corner Workforce Investment Board.”
Suski, who at the time said he reported the use of the agency car on his income taxes, said he did not resign but was terminated by the board because of funding issues.
He said he was “bewildered” by the events of 2014-15, but that he bore no animosity toward anyone.
“I have nothing against the state, they’re just doing their jobs. I don’t want to say we made a mistake, but if we made a mistake, it was because of changing regulations,” he told the Observer-Reporter in January 2015.