The Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency has lined up a law firm to investigate the contents of an anonymous letter that urged the board not to renew CEO Grace Gallucci’s contract.
NOACA’s new board president, Montville Township Trustee Jeff Brandon, has asked executive committee members to weigh in on hiring Cleveland law firm McCarthy Lebitt Crystal Liffman.
Brandon told Signal Cleveland he hasn’t yet signed an engagement letter with McCarthy Lebitt. He said he believed the firm to be “very capable.” But he wanted to hear from the rest of the executive committee, which includes Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne.
Gallucci has led NOACA – which spends millions in state and federal money on such projects as roads and highway interchanges – since 2012. She is up for a new three-year contract, which would start in July 2024 at a base salary of $254,601.
Last week, NOACA’s board voted to hold off on approving that contract after members received an anonymous letter – signed off on by former employees – criticizing Gallucci’s management.
In interviews with Signal Cleveland, six former NOACA employees voiced complaints about staff turnover and Gallucci’s travel to Chicago. The employees identified themselves to Signal Cleveland but requested anonymity because they feared reprisals.
Gallucci has defended her record and has called former staff complaints “defamatory.” She said she has brought in outside help to fill vacant positions and maintains that she is reachable even when she is out of town.
Three former staffers shared an email with Signal Cleveland that they said was sent to certain current NOACA employees this week. In the email, NOACA attorney Nancy Griffith announced that the agency had retained McCarthy Lebitt for the investigation. It encouraged staff to preserve documents and to contact Rob Glickman, the firm’s managing principal.
Asked whether the email was authentic and McCarthy Lebitt had already been hired, Griffith replied that the “board mandated internal investigation of the correspondence recently received has not yet begun.”
“The NOACA Executive Committee will determine next steps,” she wrote to Signal Cleveland. “Further than that, NOACA cannot respond to questions regarding a pending internal investigation.”
Brandon, when asked about the email, said, “I think they jumped the gun a little bit on that.”
A spokesperson for Ronayne’s office said the county executive did not receive the email before Signal Cleveland shared it to ask for comment. In a statement, Ronayne’s office said the final decision rests with the board’s executive committee.
“What is suggested in that email conflicts with what the NOACA Board of Trustees passed on Friday, January 12,” the county statement reads. “Any selection of a firm to perform an investigation is premature without Executive Committee approval.”