ADP Employees Vote Unanimously to Unionize
ADP Board Meeting - July 13, 2026
Meeting Details: The Automatic Data Processing Board (ADP) held a Special Meeting beginning at 11:00 am on July 13, 2026 in the Geauga County Auditor’s Office Appraisal Conference Room at 231 Main St., Chardon, OH 44024. Virtual access was available via MS Teams, and the agenda was provided in advance. Members of the public may attend ADP meetings virtually via MS Teams by emailing an invitation request to Auditor’s Office Chief Operations Officer Pam McMahan at McMahan@geauga.oh.gov. This Observer attended via MS Teams.
Public Comment: ADP does not have a written public comment policy. In practice, public comment is solicited at the end of the meeting.
Board Attendance:
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Auditor/Chief Administrator – Frank Antenucci for Charles Walder
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Clerk of Courts – Sheila Bevington
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County Commissioner – Ralph Spidalieri
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County Engineer – Andy Haupt
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Board of Elections – Tyler Plants and Nora McGinnis
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County Prosecutor – Jim Flaiz
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Recorder – Celesta Mullins
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Sheriff – Scott Hildenbrand
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Treasurer – Caroline Mansfield for Chris Hitchcock
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Coroner – John Urbancic (absent)
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Common Pleas Court Judge - Vacant
ADP Staff Attendance:
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Karen Murphy - Director, CARE (virtual)
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Traci Rahimi (virtual)
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Ashley Serraglio - Senior Archives and Records Clerk (virtual)
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Madeline Simmons (virtual)
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Katelyn Cellitti, Operations Coordinator (virtual)
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Samantha Harris (virtual)
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Akshay Raikar (virtual)
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Eleanor Zavada (virtual)
Reviewer Note: ADP restructured into three groups in 2025: Department of Advanced Technology and Applications (DATA), Department of Advanced Research & Cybersecurity (DARC) and Department of County Archives and Records Enterprise (CARE). More information on this restructuring is available in the March 4, 2025 ADP Observer Report.
Other Government Representatives:
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Judge Matt Rambo - Court of Common Pleas
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Velta Moisio - IT Director, Court of Common Pleas (virtual)
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Pam McMahan - Chief Operations Officer, Auditor’s Office
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Kate Jacob - Chief Compliance Officer & Administrator, Auditor’s Office (virtual)
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Katie Taylor - Finance Director, Geauga County Public Health (virtual)
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Nick Gorris - Director, Water Resources
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Gina Hofstetter - Director, Community and Economic Development (virtual)
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Adrian Gorton - Finance Manager, Geauga County (virtual)
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Carolyn Brakey - County Commissioner (virtual)
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Stacie Malone - Veterans Services Commission
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Amy Bevan - County Administrator
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Randy Taylor - Court of Common Pleas
Others Present:
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Anastasia Nicholas, reporter with Chagrin Valley Times (virtual)
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Allison Wilson, reporter with the Geauga Maple Leaf
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Molly Walsh, reporter for Cleveland Plain Dealer, Cleveland.com (virtual)
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Kathy Johnson - Mental Health & Recovery Services Board member (virtual)
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John Smith (virtual)
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This LWV Geauga Observer (virtual)
The meeting was called to order at 11:00 am by Mr. Antenucci.
Minutes: Minutes from the May 4, 2026 Special meeting were approved. Minutes, once approved and posted, are available here.
The Board took the following actions:
DISCUSSED - The Board received an update regarding the ADP employees' unionization effort. Employees voted 20-0 in favor of union representation from the Ohio Council 8, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL-CIO. The State Employment Relations Board (SERB) is scheduled to meet on July 23, 2026, to certify the election results. Upon certification, management and union representatives will begin negotiating an initial collective bargaining agreement, likely beginning in August. Board members discussed the anticipated negotiation process and noted that any finalized agreement would return to the Board for approval. Observer Note: Read the letter from ADP employees explaining their motivations for joining the union attached to the “Tally of Ballots” dated July 9, 2026. The letter starts by stating, “We want to begin by stating plainly that our concerns do not originate with our internal leadership.” It goes on to say, “Unfortunately, the risks we face are driven by forces outside the span of control of ADP’s leadership or its supportive Board members.” They then referenced a specific meeting saying, “During the County Commissioners’ session on Tuesday, December 9, 2025, Commissioner Ralph Spidalieri publicly declared his intention to withhold funding for ADP in 2026.” The letter further explains ongoing events leading to the employees’ union action, the employees’ respect for ADP’s leadership under Auditor Chuck Walder and their desire to continue to serve Geauga County.
APPROVED - Clerk of Courts/Common Pleas AdGators Kiosk Technology ($19,901) and Clerk of Courts/Common Pleas AdGators Visitor Signage ($10,085) - The system will display court dockets and visitor information, improve navigation within the courthouse and allow attorneys and potentially jurors to electronically sign in. Mr. Antenucci outlined cybersecurity and infrastructure requirements, including enabling multi-factor authentication (MFA), creating dedicated network segmentation, eliminating the vendor's use of TeamViewer in favor of an approved remote access method and vendor responsibility for maintaining the Linux-based appliance. The Board discussed implementation logistics, vendor experience in other counties and security considerations.
APPROVED - Clerk of Courts/Common Pleas - Additional Zoom Room Licenses ($489) - 2 licenses for Zoom Rooms to support court operations.
APPROVED - Veterans Records Retention Schedule RC-2 - Veterans Services requested approval of an updated records retention schedule. The revision adds a new record category to reflect current office recordkeeping practices.
Regular Business - The following items were raised during Regular Business:
DISCUSSED - Russell Township Offboarding - Mr. Antenucci informed the Board that Russell Township notified ADP of its intent to transition technology services from ADP to centralize all services under one vendor. The original July 31, 2026 transition date was postponed until August 31, 2026, because the other vendor required additional preparation time. ADP will resume the offboarding process in August.
DISCUSSED - Personnel Update - ADP received the resignation of employee Andy Haines, ADP Network Administrator, who is leaving for a position with the Sheriff's Office. ADP plans to fill the vacancy by promoting internally and hiring a new Help Desk employee.
Public Comment - Ms. Nicholas asked Mr. Spidalieri for a comment saying, “I just wanted to ask Commissioner Spidalieri to comment on ADP unionization, just because I found that he was involved in some of those discussions, so I just wanted to ask if you have a comment.” Mr. Spidalieri responded saying, “I haven't really had a whole lot of time to, you know, figure out what, I think that it's probably, it could actually be a good thing. To avoid a lot of variable, you know, raises that happen throughout the year, that were called into question multiple times, and that the variants of the raises were, you know, there was people from, you know, 2% to, I would have to look at my notes, you know, as high as over 12%.” He went on to say “...everybody should then have the same rules to play by.” Mr. Antenucci responded, “We have given out 3% across the board to every ADP employee for at least 4 years now. Now, if we do promotions within that term, then people do get increases based on their promotion status.” A discussion followed regarding merit-based versus across-the-board raises in government. Mr. Antenucci clarified that employee protections, rather than wage increases, appeared to be the primary motivation for unionization.
This Observer requested clarification regarding the acronym "SERB," which Mr. Antenucci explained was the State Employment Relations Board.
Mr. Gorris clarified information from a previous meeting regarding the Rockwell Automation software used to operate the water treatment plant, emphasizing that the operational software is separate from monitoring software, the control system remains air-gapped from external networks and the previously approved software purchase had been properly authorized by the Board. Observer Note: See the LWV Observer report from June 11, 2026 where this software was approved.
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 11:53 pm.
Next Meeting - The next scheduled meeting of the ADP Board is a Regular Meeting on September 10, 2026 at 1:00 pm. Before publication of this report, another Special meeting was called for on July 29, 2026 at 11:30 am.
Minutes when posted are available here: Meeting Minutes | Geauga County Automatic Data Processing
Virtual Meeting Information - Contact Pamela McMahan at PMcMahan@geauga.oh.gov.
Observer: Carol Benton
Editor: Rooney Moy
Reviewer: Gail Roussey
Submitted: July 31, 2026
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