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ADP Board Approves Collective Bargaining Agreement 

with New ADP Employee Union with an 8-2 Vote

ADP Board Meeting - September 10, 2026 

Meeting Details: The Automatic Data Processing Board (ADP) held a Regular Meeting beginning at 1:00 pm on September 10, 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:

• Auditor/Chief Administrator – Charles Walder

• Clerk of Courts – Tammy McClintock for Sheila Bevington 

• County Commissioner – Ralph Spidalieri

• County Engineer – Andy Haupt

• Board of Elections – Tyler Plants and Nora McGinnis

• County Prosecutor – Jim Flaiz

• Recorder – Celesta Mullins 

• Sheriff – Scott Hildenbrand (absent)

• Treasurer – Chris Hitchcock

• Coroner – John Urbancic

• Common Pleas Court Judge - Vacant

ADP Staff Attendance: 

• Frank Antenucci - Chief Deputy Auditor, Deputy Chief Administrator

• Karen Murphy - Director, CARE (virtual)

• Ashley Serraglio - Senior Archives and Records Clerk (virtual)

• Madeline Simmons (virtual)

• Theresa Foltz (virtual)

• Akshay Raikar (virtual) 

• Eleanor Zavada (virtual) 

• Prasad Karamsetty (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:

• Judge Matt Rambo - Court of Common Pleas

• Krystal Thompson - Director, Law Library

• Scott Daisher - Board of Elections

• Pam McMahan - Chief Operations Officer, Auditor’s Office

• Velta Moisio - IT Director, Court of Common Pleas (virtual)

• Katie Taylor - Finance Director, Geauga County Public Health (virtual)

Others Present:

• Joe Deboth - Republican candidate for County Auditor (virtual) 

• Allison Wilson - Reporter, Geauga Maple Leaf
  Observer Note: Mr. DeBoth and Ms. Wilson left the meeting before the Executive Session was concluded and the public meeting reconvened.

• Kathy Johnson - Mental Health & Recovery Services Board member (virtual)

• John Smith (virtual)

• This LWV Geauga Observer (virtual) 

The meeting was called to order at 1:00 pm by Mr. Antenucci.

Minutes: Minutes for the June 11, 2026 regular meeting were approved. Minutes, once approved and posted, are available here. 

The Board took the following actions:

APPROVED - ADP Purchases List from April to June 2026.

APPROVED - ADP Equipment List from April to June 2026. During discussion, Mr. Walder raised concerns about approximately $55,000 paid to KnowB4 in security training costs and discussed whether training could instead be obtained at no cost by meeting Ohio Auditor of State participation/completion requirements. The prior training opportunity reportedly required 80% completion, while the county achieved approximately 72%. Mr. Antenucci agreed to contact the University of Cincinnati to determine if it is possible to obtain free training through their program. 

APPROVED - Tyler Technologies Renewal ($342,531) - Mr. Antenucci explained that the cost of the annual renewal represented an approximate 5% increase over the previous contract, or about $16,000. Mr. Walder asked if module usage was reviewed, and Mr. Antenucci confirmed that it had. Observer Note: Tyler Technologies is the software company that owns the New World financial and administrative management software ERP system utilized by Geauga County. 

APPROVED - Law Library Westlaw Contracts - Courts Contract ($274,927), Law Library Westlaw Contracts- Patron Contract ($118,192) - Ms. Thompson explained that the patrons contract is for anyone from the public (mostly attorneys) coming into the Law Library to have access to do legal research. The courts contract provides a legal research database for a number of county entities. Each of the contracts were for 5 years. Mr. Flaiz commented, “as a beneficiary of this, if we didn’t have a law library, the courts, my office, the public defender’s office, we would each have to get our own contracts which would be more expensive, so they save us money and administer it. It’s a great thing.” 

Regular Business - The Board approved BIS Annual Renewal ($500), Zoom Renewal ($13,851) and Common Pleas CDW-G Equipment Purchases ($21,676). These additional requests included equipment purchases of monitors, desktops and notebooks through CDW-G (vendor) equipment, a renewal of the Zoom business meeting licensing through Carahsoft, and a business information system costing approximately $500. Mr. Walder explained that the hardware purchase was receiving the county's favorable purchasing/pricing terms through the ADP CDW-G account. 

Executive Session - At 1:14 pm the Board voted to go into Executive Session to discuss collective bargaining negotiations concerning employee compensation and other terms and conditions of employment pursuant to R. C. 121.22(G)(4). Mr. Antenucci and Ms. McMahan joined the Board in the Executive Session.

At 2:40 pm, the Board returned to open session. A motion was made to approve the tentative collective bargaining agreement with American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Ohio Council 8 and the affiliated local union of the AFL-CIO and the Geauga County Automated Data Processing Board, employer. A roll-call vote was taken, and the tentative agreement was approved by a 8-2 majority vote, with Mr. Spidalieri and Mr. Haupt voting against approval. Mr. Antenucci indicated that the next step was to notify union lawyers and the ratification goes into effect on October 1, 2026.

Public Comment - Discussion Following the Approval of the Agreement

Mr. Flaiz thanked Mr. Antenucci for his work on the collective bargaining process. Several comments focused on the financial and operational implications of the tentative agreement. Mr. Hitchcock commented that, “This is the unfortunate result of people's opinions, and mistreating people publicly. I always had exceptional collaboration with your team, and they do a wonderful job taking care of treasury, and frankly, I believe they are one of the best teams in the state, because we have been so lucky to have avoided serious consequences. If we were to oppose this, and we continue negotiating, I think it would have been only a question of time (until) the county would have been frozen out of all computer abilities, and we would have ceased to function because of that. This is not the best possible result. But given the circumstances, this is appropriate, for at least the next 4 years.” Mr. Spidalieri relayed his thoughts saying, “I’ve heard it multiple times that everybody is accusing statements that I’ve made that has brought this here. As I’ve stated, this has been conversed multiple times that this is not about compensation. However, to the taxpayers, this is going to increase up by a quarter of million dollars by us moving forward with this. In addition to that quarter of a million dollars, that’s not a one time deal, that’s continuous. It’s an additional 3.5%, 3.5%, 3.5%, so it compounds.” Mr. Antenucci cautioned Mr. Spidalieri that his comments could raise concerns under fair labor laws. Presumably referring to the booklets provided to the Board members at the start of the Executive Session, Mr. Spidalieri finished his comments by saying, “I’m giving them nothing more than what’s in this book.” 

Observer Note: See the LWVG Observer Corps report on the December 9, 2025 Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) meeting for Mr. Spidalieri’s comments regarding ADP employees.

Mr. Walder stated, “In general this quarter of a million cost to the county is one-third of what was arbitrarily given to a fair (Geauga County Fair) a few days ago without any public conversation or discussion. So I think in the scope of things, yes, it’s unfortunate, but I think we put ourselves in this position by our behavior, and the only way we can come out of this is by our behavior.” Observer Note: See the LWVG Observer Corps report on the BOCC meeting of September 3, 2026 to learn more about the $750,000 commitment by the BOCC to the Geauga County Fair. Mr. Walder continued, “I understand that certain people are going to want to blame people for what happened, it is what it is, facts are what they are… the position though that we came to was that they didn’t have complaints about their pay; they had complaints about their treatment. The results are unions end up having to settle in some manner that’s settleable, and you can’t change people’s behaviors. You can charge them more and that’s what happened here. Our best solution is to learn from this and move on.”

Mr. Flaiz stated, “I’m putting some of the blame on other office holders having wages that were given  giant increases in the past that were unchecked, and they were never held to account by the Commissioners. The Board of Commissioners for many years have selectively held people to account and the groups that were not held to account… when you see 60% wage increases with these IT jobs in other parts of our county government, this is what happens. And this is sending a very bad message to a lot of other workers in the county, so we need to start being consistent on the wages.”

The meeting was adjourned at approximately 2:45 pm, after determining there was no additional public comment or other business. 

Observer Note: After the meeting, Mr. Antenucci provided this Observer and members of the press with ‘Official Statement from Management Regarding Ratification of the Collective Bargaining Agreement’ in an email. In its statement, management described the agreement as “fair and responsible,” saying it recognizes employees’ value while preserving management’s ability to operate the county’s increasingly complex technology environment. The agreement establishes clearer expectations and procedures covering working conditions, grievances and arbitration, wages and benefits, staffing, training, technology changes and after-hours responsibilities. Management emphasized that the agreement goes beyond labor relations because maintaining a stable, experienced workforce is directly connected to the continuity, cybersecurity and reliability of county technology systems.

Management also tied the employees’ decision to seek union representation to instability surrounding ADP, particularly Commissioner Mr. Spidalieri’s effort beginning December 9, 2025 to defund the department for the 2026 fiscal year. Management characterized that effort as “an extraordinarily serious and reckless approach to an organization responsible for supporting critical county technology infrastructure,” and said the use of governmental or budgetary power in ways that create fear can amount to “institutional bullying.” With ratification largely complete, management said its focus will return to ADP’s public mission, with employees able to concentrate on maintaining systems, protecting county information and responding to cybersecurity threats rather than organizational conflict. Calling the Board’s decision “a huge win for the taxpayers of Geauga County,” management said the agreement provides a foundation for stability, accountability and respectful treatment of employees while protecting management’s authority to operate the organization.

Mr. Antenucci also provided a copy of the collective bargaining agreement which is linked here.

Next Meeting - The next scheduled meeting of the ADP Board is a Regular Meeting on December 10, 2026 at 1:00 pm.

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: Sarah McGlone

Submitted: September 18, 2026

The League of Women Voters of Geauga is a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan political organization that encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy. They do not support or oppose individual candidates or parties. Learn more about the LWVG at www.lwvgeauga.org.