Protesting on the Square

MILAN — Nearly four years after the village fired her, friends of the villages's former fiscal officer are protesting the way she was treated. Bobbie Weber and Sharon MacNicol, both of Milan, walked around the Village Square Thursday, holding a sign supporting their friend Mary Bruno. The village fired Bruno in 2017 after it accused her of overpaying herself while she worked from home following treatment for skin cancer in 2016. A 2019 investigation by the Ohio State Auditor's Office concluded she overpaid herself by nearly $3,000. But Weber and MacNicol believe the allegation is baseless and she's innocent. "I've known Mary for years, my kids went to school with her kids," MacNicol said. "When I heard this happened, I was concerned." "She's a very honest and capable person," Weber added. One side of the sign they carried included photos of Bruno's stitches and scars from surgery for melanoma and the phrase, "Forced to work from home with cancer. Fired for working from home with cancer." After returning to work, they claim she was fired without being told why and lost her health insurance. "She was a loyal and caring employee with the village for 16 years and nine months with no disciplinary issues," MacNicol said. Weber and MacNicol hope the protest will bring "vindication" for Bruno, who currently has a wrongful termination lawsuit filed against the village in the Erie County Common Pleas Court. Background While employed as the village fiscal officer, Bruno was the only one able to process payroll, including her own. The village council voted to terminate her employment after it alleged she overpaid herself while working from home. The auditor's investigation found she charged the time she worked at home as overtime without management authorization and should've instead received regular pay. A special prosecutor chose not to press charges, however, because Bruno believed she was supposed to record her time in this manner, and criminal intent couldn't be proven. In other words, there was no credible evidence of any wrongdoing. The investigation found she didn't track her daily hours while working from home and didn't have supporting documentation to justify working from home. But an audit by a U.S. Secret Service employee from the electric and financial crimes task force who was asked to conduct a forensic analysis of her laptop computer found the hours she claimed were the same as what was logged in the computer. "During the examination I noted that during the time frame from Nov. 7, 2016 to Dec. 2, 2016, Mary Bruno was actively using the computer for work purposes. Emails, documents and internet activity including online banking for the village were located," wrote Nicole Beckwith wrote in her report to the Ohio state auditor. In the lawsuit against the village, Bruno contends in 2014 the village's former solicitor told her to use 40 hours a week as sick time, and any time she worked should go in as compensatory time with time-and-a-half pay. When she was diagnosed with cancer in 2016, she asked former Mayor Steve Rockwell for medical leave. She contends he told her to find a replacement for her job, but since that's not a part of her duties, she didn't, and the solicitor told her to fill out her time the same way she did in 2014. Bruno said she requested several times, but the solicitor and the village never put the agreement into writing. Harassed? Bruno wrote a letter to Erie County Sheriff Paul Sigsworth alleging Milan police Chief Bob Meister stopped in front of her home and cussed at her in April, causing her to feel threatened. She said she felt he could be harassing her because of the lawsuit against the village. She didn't want charges pressed. Sheriff Sigsworth contacted Milan Mayor Ben Smith about the complaint. He was already aware of the incident, he said, because Meister had informed him of the incident shortly after the encounter, according to documents the Register received. The mayor kept a document dated April 16 describing his conversation with Meister following the sheriff's call. In Meister's account, he drove past Bruno's home in his personal vehicle and civilian clothing when she "flipped" him off. He claimed he stopped to ask her if she had a problem with him. He admitted he shouldn't have done so but denied cussing. Meister also claimed Bruno had previously "flipped" off another policeman and looked into his home's window, causing distress to his family. Smith stressed to Meister that even if he's off duty and in plain clothes, the village holds him to a higher standard because of his position as a police chief. The mayor, however, determined no disciplinary action was necessary because it appeared to be a result of miscommunication between two people and Meister came forward on his own accord. "I do believe that the chief let the 'flipping off' incident get the best of him and that he is remorseful and that something like this will not happen again," Smith said. Tracy Thom, an advocate, said Bruno never made any obscene gesture toward the police chief, or anyone else, and she never peeked in anyone's window. "I find it worrisome the mayor never contacted Mary to hear her side of what happened in that encounter," Thom said. "She was on her own property minding her own business."