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i <br />a <br />City of North Olmsted <br />('itv Council Meeting <br />Michael Ubaldi <br />March 22, 2011 <br />Page 73 <br />i Q. I'm sorry -- <br />2 A. The rules, those are rules adopted by the Civil <br />3 Service Commission pursuant to charter authority <br />4 to deviate from state law. <br />5 Q. Correct. But they don't say anything about the <br />s notice from the appointing authority to be a <br />7 triggering event, does it? <br />a A. Yes, it does. <br />s Q. Well, I'm not going to get into that. <br />1o MR. CARSON: Nothing further. <br />ii MR. LIMPERT: No further questions <br />i2 by counsel? <br />13 MR. JAMISON: No, thank you, <br />i4 Mr. President. We're done. <br />15 MR. LIMPERT: Very good. Next <br />i6 witness. <br />17 MR. JAMISON: We call <br />is Chase Ritenauer. <br />1s MR. LIMPERT: If the reporter <br />20 would swear him it. <br />2i ---- <br />2z (Thereupon, the witness was sworn by the Notary.) <br />23 ---- <br />24 DIRECT EXAMINATION OF CHASE RITENAUER <br />25 BY MR. JAMISON: <br />Page 74 <br />i Q. Your name, please. <br />2 A. Chase Ritenauer. <br />3 Q. And, Mr. Ritenauer, your position with the City <br />4 of North Olmsted? <br />s A. Director of Public Safety and Service. <br />s O. And how long have you held those positions? <br />7 A. Shortly over 11 months. <br />a O. Okay. And I know you fill two roles, safety and <br />s service director, and we'll focus today on the <br />io safety director aspect. <br />11 As it relates to safety director, what are <br />12 your duties? <br />13 A. They generally center around the oversight and <br />i4 management and direction of the police division <br />is and fire division, operations, personnel and, you <br />i6 know, any types of capital expenditures. <br />17 Day-to-day operations is what they center around. <br />is Q. Do those duties also include notifying the Civil <br />i9 Service Commission when a member of the police <br />20 and/or fire department are retiring? <br />2 i A. Correct, yes. <br />2z Q. Now at some point this year, 2011, did you become <br />23 aware that Police Chief Wozniak was thinking of <br />24 retiring in 2011? <br />25 A. Yes. <br />Page 75 <br />i Q. At that time when you, when did you know that? <br />2 Was that January, December of last year? <br />3 A. He had discussed whether he would be leaving, it <br />4 was probably the end of last year he discussed <br />5 whether he would be leaving in 2011 or 2012. <br />s Earlier this year it became clear that it was <br />7 going to be at some point in 2011. <br />a Q. Okay. At that time did he ever inform you or <br />s give you an actual date that he was going to <br />io retire? <br />ii A. No. He gave me a general timeframe, maybe <br />12 sometime in April or May is what he was looking <br />13 at. <br />i4 Q. And he never gave you anything in writing to <br />i5 basically say here is the day I'm retiring? <br />i6 A. No. <br />17 Q. Correct? <br />is A. Yes. <br />1s O. Okay. After you became aware that he might <br />20 retire at some point in 2011, did you have any <br />2i discussions with the Mayor, Mayor Kennedy or any <br />z2 members of his staff in regards to the test that <br />23 would be used to determine the promotion of the <br />z4 next police chief? <br />z 5 A. Yes. <br />Page 76 <br />i O. And what was the nature of those discussions? <br />2 A. The nature of the discussions centered around the <br />3 type of examination to be given, you know, <br />a whether to add some new measures to an <br />s examination, to ask the Commission to consider <br />s new measures, to capture various characteristics <br />~ that we thought the next chief should possess, <br />a namely leadership, communication skills, those <br />s types of things. <br />io Q. And why did you think that was important to <br />ii discuss and go over? <br />12 A. I thought before an exam were to be scheduled, to <br />13 have these types of items discussed was important <br />14 so the next chief has those qualities and <br />is characteristics, and I thought discussing those <br />i6 earlier rather than later was prudent. <br />17 Q. Okay. And at some point did you express those <br />is suggestions or ideas to the Civil Service <br />i9 Commission? <br />2 o A. Yes. <br />21 Q. And would that have been at one of the early <br />22 meetings in February of 2011? <br />23 A. Correct. <br />z4 Q. Okay. Now subsequent to February 28, 2011, did <br />zs you receive formal notice from Chief Wozniak as <br />Mehler & Hagestrom (19) Page 73 -Page 76 <br />800.822.0650 <br />