Tempers flare during discussion of after-hours youth programs at Steubenville’s MLK Center

STEUBENVILLE -- Tensions over a change in hours that could force an employee at the Martin Luther King Jr. Recreation Center out exploded into raised voices and finger pointing during Tuesday’s City Council meeting.

Mayor Ralph Petrella was forced to slap his gavel off the desk a total of nine times and raise his voice, admonishing Fourth Ward Councilman Royal Mayo and City Manager Mike Johnson to be silent.

“Gentlemen,” Petrella said, his frustration showing. “We’re moving on, understood? We’re not having outbursts like that, we’re not doing this here. This will be a professional setting. Am I understood?”

At issue was a proposal to change the hours of an MLK employee who comes to the center after his responsibilities as a teacher and assistant coach at Harding Middle School are met each day to work with at-risk kids as well as adults.

Mayo said the employee, Henry Fleming, is working with kids who might otherwise be out running the streets and getting in trouble and, in some cases, were well on the way down that road. In addition to teaching them sports and weightlifting, Mayo said Fleming, who’s job title is program director, mentors about 120 kids.

Recreation Director Don Patterson told Mayo he “sat down and spoke with Henry but never heard anything back, and then you came in here to council so I don’t know what happened in between.”

“We sat down, everything was fine, and (then) we’re in council,” Patterson said. “We can sit down and talk again, I have no issue talking to Henry.”

“I would love that,” Mayo said. “But when I left (the recreation board meeting) last night you said you want Fleming’s hours to be noon to 8 p.m. and I was done at that point.”

Patterson, though, told Mayo he left that meeting before he’d finished speaking.

‘You left, you didn’t hear me talk it all the way out.” Patterson said, but Mayo interrupted him before he could finish, pointing out, “He can’t be here at noon and he’s the one running around.”

“Can I finish?” Patterson asked.

“Yeah,” Mayo replied, only to interrupt him again to add, “(But) only when I say you can because this is my meeting.”

As Petrella pounded his gavel, a frustrated Johnson told Mayo, “You don’t control (employees) like that, Royal.”

Mayo told the mayor that “it’s called the recreation committee, (and) anybody who speaks for recreation, it’s when I say they speak. If that is wrong, tell me.”

Petrella did, along with Law Director Costa Mastros who pointed out that if it was a committee meeting, Mayo would, indeed, be running it, but Patterson had an opportunity to respond during council’s meeting, so, it was for Petrella to decide who spoke and when.

Mayo apologized to Petrella, saying, “I stand corrected.”

“We’re good, man,” Petrella replied. “We’re going to move on. Again, I always appreciate friction, I think friction polishes stones, but we need to have order and professionalism so we’re going to move on.”

Mayo suggested allowing Patterson to finish speaking, pointing out “he was talking but I stopped him” but Petrella told him, “No, we’re going to move on.”

During a recreation committee meeting prior to council, at which Mayo did preside, Fleming told council he just wanted to continue working with young people of all ages, but it wouldn’t make sense financially for him to give up his job with Steubenville City Schools.

“He’s getting kids in the center, keeping them out of trouble, keeping them off the streets,” Mayo had said during the committee meeting. “There’s two kids I know, I won’t say their names, but they’re both starters on the football team. They’re very good. They’ve been (working with Henry) since they were very young, and, year after year after year, they develop. They’ve become better kids, they’ve become stronger. They’re becoming leaders, and he’s keeping them on the right track. If that’s not what we’re working for with the Martin Luther King center, then I’d like to know what it’s for.”

A recreation board member at the meeting, however, did point out that in the year he’s been involved he’s never seen any documentation of how many kids are actually participating in Fleming’s programs.

After the meeting Johnson said the recreation center “should be open hours that benefit the public and not ... any specific employee, just so the employee could work 40 hours.”

“The MLK hours are 8 (a.m.) to 8 (p.m.) Monday through Thursday, 8 (a.m.) to 5 (p.m.) Friday, noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday and closed on Sunday. (Those) are substantially the same as other area recreation centers. The current program director is a full-time city position, and the individual who holds that position holds another full-time position with another employer. It is very difficult to hold two full-time positions at the same time.”

Johnson said part of the job requirement of the program director “is to assist the parks and recreation director and fill in for the director when the director is absent.”

“The current program director is unable to work daylight hours due to his other full-time position, which makes it impossible for him to fill in for the director when the director is absent as well as assist the director during the normal work day,” Johnson said, adding the city “acknowledges some of the programs that have been started by the program director have been beneficial, (but) disputes the participation levels of the programs that were mentioned in (the) meeting as those numbers do not agree with the computerized records of participation.”

“The city is fine with expanding hours of the center when there is a public need,” Johnson continued. “The director would like to continue some of the programs instituted by the program director, but the director has determined that the program director needs to work a 12-to-8 shift for the operational needs of the MLK center. I agree with the director’s determination. If the program director cannot work that shift due to his other full-time job, the city can offer him other hours to run the programs as long as the hours coincide with the MLK operating hours. The parks and recreation board sets the MLK hours in conjunction with the director, and they decided yesterday to maintain the current hours of operation.”

Councilman at large Joel Walker told Mayo if council members feel strongly enough, they can amend the table of organization to add an employee to do the youth sports and mentoring programs, though there’d be no guarantee it would be Fleming who got the job.

“He’s doing a good job, but we have to figure out how the hours,” Walker said after the meeting. “If we can’t, then we need to find some way to keep the programs he’s doing.”

Johnson, though, said that while council can create a position in the table of organization, ‘It does not have the authority, according to the city charter, to set the work hours of city employees. In addition, it is the department head and city manager who conduct the hiring process for any newly created position and have discretion in whether or not to fill any position.”