North Township jobs change focus
HAMMOND: New positions take aim at education, job development
NWI Times
Nov 30, 2006
nwitimes.com/news/local/north-township-jobs-change-focus/article_a02a5968-56c8-5f0f-9c6e-71ccc8b83362.html
HAMMOND | North Township Trustee Frank Mrvan has eliminated the jobs held by two East Chicago insiders who recently left their township positions, creating three new jobs at less cost.
Gone are the positions of East Chicago office manager, a post formerly held by political insider Robert Cantrell at a salary of $41,216, and communications director, a job formerly held by Myrna Maldonado at a salary of $35,000.
Replacing those positions are a full-time employment coordinator at a salary of $26,500, a full-time secretary-receptionist at $20,000 and a part-time clerk at $14,976 -- for a total of $61,476.
Cantrell and Maldonado each left township employ in October, Cantrell to retire and teach part-time at Purdue University Calumet.
Hired last year by the former trustee, Greg Cvitkovich, just prior to Cvitkovich pleading guilty to tax fraud charges, Maldonado has left the township to take a public relations position with the East Chicago Public Library. Maldonado previously served as spokeswoman for the city of East Chicago under Mayor Robert Pastrick.
The new employment coordinator will work under the supervision of job coordinator Dean Johnson to establish relationships with area employers with the goal of creating a database of job openings available to township clients.
It's Johnson's role to assess township clients before placing them in educational facilities to prepare clients for work opportunities, Mrvan said. Currently, 56 clients are in programs at Sawyer Business College, Ivy Tech, GED programs and apprenticeship programs.
The full-time secretary will take up roles formerly performed by Mrvan's administrative assistant, who has taken on additional duties, he said.
Mrvan said the part-time clerk's position will be filled by a Workfare client, who had been training with the township at no cost because of the township's participation in the Workfare program that seeks to place welfare recipients in jobs.
"We evaluated her as far as being an asset to the township," Mrvan said. "We're offering her this as a beginning step in hopes of her becoming full-time."
Mrvan said it should be part of the trustee's job to assist people in becoming self-sufficient and off the tax rolls.
"That's part of my job," he said.
Indictment cleaned North Township system
NWI Times
Nov 24, 2006
nwitimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/mark-kiesling/indictment-cleaned-north-township-system/article_958a3be8-d531-5b9a-b484-d43ca3bd0019.html
Nothing clears out the system quite like a habanero burrito or a federal indictment.
At least that seems like it was the case in North Township, where there may not have been any chili, but a federal tax-fraud indictment lopped off the leadership of former Trustee Greg Cvitkovich.
Cvitkovich was indicted in December 2004. In October 2005, he pleaded guilty, quit and was replaced by the current Trustee, Frank J. Mrvan. In April 2006, Cvitkovich was sentenced to five months in prison.
Not exactly the shining Camelot moment the township could've hoped for -- at least not until last week, when the Indiana Township Association named North Township its "township of the year."
So in less than a year, the township has gone from the wall of shame to the hall of fame.
When asked why North Township merited the honor, ITA President Debbie Driscoll said from her Fishers office that the honors committee was struck by the teamwork of the board, the trustee and the staff under "trying" circumstances.
"Do you mean the indictment?" I asked. Driscoll hesitated a moment.
"Well, yes," she finally said, apparently unaware from the safety of her suburban Indianapolis workplace that an indictment in Lake County is less embarassing than a case of bad breath.
Leaving aside for a moment the necessity of township government, particularly in places like North Township -- which is totally within incorporated cities and towns -- the committee's decision last Wednesday was not really a bad choice.
The indictment "really shakes you at the core of leadership. It shakes the board, and it shakes the staff," Driscoll said. "The trustee is the chief executive officer and the leader, and certainly Frank Mrvan is noteworthy. But I don't believe any one person could have done this by himself."
The "this" to which Driscoll referred was the turnaround in the aura in North Township. After Cvitkovich left, it took Mrvan a while, but he downsized the controversial office "liaison" Robert Cantrell, the former East Chicago Republican Party Chairman turned Democratic advisor extraordinaire.
Cantrell, who has made a lifetime career out of landing on his feet, is now teaching a political science course at Purdue University Calumet. And quite honestly, it would be difficult to think of a more qualified instructor on local politics.
"I'm very proud of North Township," Mrvan said, politely sidestepping the indictment of his fellow Democrat. "This shows what happens when a governmental entity works together with the community to improve a quality of life."
Of course, sometimes it takes a federal habanero burrito to get things going.
Investigators seek Cantrell records
A.G., State Police want to know where Cantrell lived during 2003 EC primary
NWI Times
Nov 10, 2006
nwitimes.com/news/local/investigators-seek-cantrell-records/article_83801b8a-7217-5c95-8dd8-8e9e02b367fa.html
The far-reaching investigation into vote fraud in the 2003 East Chicago mayoral primary has come to Robert Cantrell's doorstep.
As part of the continuing probe into that infamously flawed election, the Indiana Attorney General's Office last month requested all information from the North Township Trustee's office regarding where Cantrell lived in 2002, 2003 and 2004, according to a letter obtained by The Times.
The Oct. 11, 2006, letter, which is addressed to North Township attorney Kevin Smith and sent by the state attorney general, seeks all documentation showing where Cantrell lived, including emergency contact information, W2 and 1099 tax forms, employment applications and all correspondence mailed to Cantrell's home.
Neither Smith nor Township Trustee Frank Mrvan returned calls for comment regarding the letter Thursday. Attorney General spokeswoman Staci Schneider declined to comment.
The letter -- which is not a formal subpoena -- states that detectives are seeking the information on Cantrell "in connection with our investigation" into vote fraud in the 2003 city mayoral primary.
Indiana State Police investigator Al Williamson declined to comment on the request for information pertaining to Cantrell.
"This is a very sensitive investigation, and this information should not have gotten out," Williamson said of the letter. "We'll have to do an investigation as to how that got out."
Cantrell was manager of the township's East Chicago poor-relief office until this fall, when he left there and began teaching an introductory American history class at Purdue University Calumet.
Although Cantrell had been the on-again, off-again chairman of the East Chicago Republican Party, he was living and voting in Schererville during those years, Lake County voting records show.
Cantrell's listed address in county voting records is 5011 Gull Drive in Schererville, where he voted in the Republican primary in 2003. Cantrell is co-owner of the house at 4306 Ivy St. in East Chicago but is not registered to vote there.
Cantrell said Thursday he was aware of the probe but declined to comment on the investigation or say whether he voted in the East Chicago election. His attorney, son John Cantrell, could not be reached for comment.
"I was aware of that. That's no problem," Robert Cantrell said Thursday after being told of the request.
The 2003 East Chicago mayoral primary was overturned by the Indiana Supreme Court after lower courts concluded that a sweeping pattern of fraud pervaded the balloting. In the 2004 do-over special election, eight-term incumbent mayor Robert Pastrick was defeated by Democratic challenger George Pabey, who went on to win the general election and become mayor.
But a joint public-corruption task force of officials from the Attorney General's Office, the Indiana State Police and the Lake County Prosecutor's Office is investigating vote-fraud allegations that came to light in the litigation that overturned the 2003 election.
So far, 53 people have been charged with various violations of absentee balloting in the 2003 East Chicago primary, many on accusations they voted where they didn't live or signed or fraudulently delivered other people's absentee ballots.
Nine people have pleaded guilty.
