CLEVELAND — Longtime Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority board member Valarie McCall was not entitled to the $400 monthly stipend some board members receive, so she should repay $57,200 in compensation, an Ohio Audit released today says.
“Ms. McCall was appointed as an employee of the city and in seeking payment, she was effectively receiving double compensation,” Faber said in a statement.
The audit says, "a Finding for Recovery for public monies illegally expended is hereby issued against Valarie McCall in the amount of $57,200, and in favor of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority."
3News first revealed the findings in June, based on a draft copy of the audit.
McCall’s attorney, Jon Pinney, downplayed the issue in June.
“You are in possession of a preliminary finding stamped “DRAFT” and “CONFIDENTIAL” for a reason,” he said in an email statement. “Ms. McCall just provided her documents and information to the auditor this week and we look forward to resolving this matter. We have no further comment currently. Thank you.”
Pinney said in an email statement late Thursday the treatment of McCall by the RTA is unfair.
“The RTA compensated Board members pursuant to its bylaws for over 30 years," he said. "Ms. McCall was no exception. It is very troubling that RTA authorized and issued the board stipend to Ms. McCall and then subsequently raised the matter to the Ohio Auditor. It is even more troubling that she has apparently been singled out by RTA. We are pleased that the Auditor found RTA’s former officers jointly and severally liable for reimbursing the RTA and look forward to resolving this matter swiftly.”
McCall is Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson’s chief of communications and government affairs. Her job duties include staying connected to key institutional boards, including the tourism bureau (Destination Cleveland) and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She is a past chair of the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) and a past president of the board of the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA). She currently serves as Treasurer of the NOACA board, according to her biography posted on RTA's website.
Jackson appointed McCall to the RTA board in 2006 and told RTA at the time in a letter that McCall should not receive any compensation for her duties. The audit cites that letter as one of reason for a finding of recovery issued against McCall.
McCall, who is paid more than $130,000 a year working for the mayor, didn’t initially take the stipend. But in 2014, she asked then-board President George Dixon and then-RTA General Manager Joe Calabrese for the stipend and back pay.
When her payments become publicly known in 2018, McCall insisted that RTA told her she needed to take the stipend to be in line with other board members, something RTA officials disputed. Last year, RTA stopped paying her the stipend and referred the matter for investigation.
Dixon resigned in 2018 and later pleaded guilty to theft in office for not paying more than $100,000 in healthcare premiums. Calabrese stepped down and later consulted for RTA.
The audit says they and others could be liable for the repayment since they signed off on McCall’s request.
“Under Ohio law, any public official who either authorizes an illegal expenditure of public funds or supervises the accounts of a public office from which an illegal expenditure is discovered, is strictly liable for the amount of the expenditure,” the audit reads. “Joseph Calabrese, former Secretary/Treasurer and George Dixon III approved Ms. McCall’s request for back-pay, while Mr. Calabrese, as designated Fiscal Officer, had ultimate responsibility over the improper monthly board payments."
The audit released today also says RTA should also recover the $132,000 in unpaid medical premiums from Dixon. He has already been ordered by the court to pay restitution of $132,000.
About the audit’s findings on Dixon and McCall, Faber said, “This is an extraordinarily large amount of taxpayer dollars that the Authority should have had a better handle on. I trust the management and the Board will be more diligent to avoid these inappropriate fiscal missteps in the future."
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