May 10, 2002 By Paul Sunyak 5 min read

Saying his seven-person staff is ill from possible environmental factors, Fayette County Controller Mark Roberts shut down his office most of Wednesday and Thursday, sending employees home early and advising them to forward any related medical bills to the county for payment. Roberts said that while he has been unaffected by the mysterious malady, others in his office have complained of headaches, scratchy throats and extreme tiredness, among other things. He said they began experiencing those symptoms last week in the basement level of his two-floor office in the Fayette County Courthouse, and it seemed to spread to upper floor employees this week.

While speculating that the illness spate may be related to the shredding of old documents in his office, some dating to the 1920s, Roberts said that such shredding was going on for “several months” without any problems.

“We have suspicions that it might be some old documents that we recently destroyed,” said Roberts, who admitted the situation is baffling. “Nothing out of the ordinary has happened. I wouldn’t even consider the moving (of old boxes) and the shredding out of the ordinary … but something must have been stirred up recently (in the air) that’s caused it.”

Roberts said that while he has had staff report to work at the normal start time, he’s been sending them home after a couple of hours. He said they will be fully paid and he is not going to require them to use vacation or sick time. He added that some of them have visited a physician and he’s told them to forward any bills to the county.

“I’m not charging them for any time that they’re taking off related to this. Any medical cost that they’ve incurred related to this, I have recommended that they seek reimbursement from the county,” said Roberts.

Noting that work needs to get done in his office, Roberts said that he is limiting staff exposure to the lower level to two- or three-minute intervals. He said he and his chief deputy Jeanine Wrona have been staying in the upper office and working a full day. He added that his employees’ health and safety comes first, noting, “If I’m going to suffer any backlash, so be it.”

County manager Warren Hughes said the county hired FACE Associates of Uniontown to perform indoor air testing in the controller’s office, which was done Wednesday night. Hughes said the firm charged $2,400 and will provide the county with a written report of its findings.

“As soon as the written report comes in, it will be given to us. Then we’ll take whatever action we need to take, if we need to take any action,” said Hughes. He added that no other courthouse offices have complained of similar illnesses, including those who work in the lower level of the commissioners’ office right next door to the lower level of the controllers’ office.

“We have two staff members that are (working) close to that (controller’s) storage area and they haven’t reported anything,” said Hughes. “It could be as simple as someone changing their perfume or something (that’s caused a reaction). We tried to look at all the possibilities and when we couldn’t find anything that looked obvious, that’s when we called the company (FACE) to do the tests.”

Commissioner Sean M. Cavanagh said he has concerns with how Roberts handled the situation, sending employees home with full pay without trying to first find them alternate working space.

“I signed the piece of paper immediately and told them to have it (the air) tested,” said Cavanagh. “But I think this is another comedy of errors on the controller’s part, sending people home and telling them they’re going to get paid.

“If he feels there are problems with the air quality, there’s no problem with moving them somewhere else (temporarily). They could use our conference room and there’s office space in the Federal Building. There are other areas where people could be located.”

Cavanagh also said that a county Building and Grounds department worker initially removed the shredder from the controller’s office but Roberts put it back in, thus “exacerbating the problem.” Cavanagh said that if the shredding is suspected of causing the problem, the shredder should not have been put back in the office.

“This is another example of Mark Roberts and his inability to manage anything properly,” said Cavanagh. “His behavior is pretty bizarre and his management decisions, without a doubt, need to be scrutinized and questioned.”

Commission Chairman Vincent A. Vicites said he heard about the problem early on and toured the basement “the first day the smell was detected by county employees.” He said the commissioners acted promptly and in a responsive manner.

“Until we know what it is, you really can’t jump to conclusions on what the effects might be. We need to know what it is … and if there’s a serious problem here that could affect our employees’ health,” said Vicites.

On his tour, Vicites said he “smelled something” in the controllers’ office that warranted getting some type of professional advice on the source of that odor.

Vicites added that while Roberts did not consult with him before sending his employees home, all elected row officers have discretion over using their staffs and setting office policy.

“Work-related decisions are totally within their scope of authority. We have no authority over them under the county code,” said Vicites. “Certainly if he had consulted with me, I would have given him some options. But he made that call himself.”

Regarding the payment of any medical bills, Vicites said he thinks the employees’ health insurance or the county workers’ compensation coverage would cover those types of claims.

Commissioner Ronald M. Nehls did not return phone messages seeking comment.

Roberts said he’s hopeful that a thorough cleaning of his office scheduled for this weekend will alleviate some if not all of the problem. “They’re going to start from the downstairs and work their way up,” he said.