SALINEVILLE - Along with her letter of resignation citing a problem with getting financial records, Woodland Cemetery Clerk Rhonda Johnson provided the media copies of court dockets indicating village Fiscal Officer Robert Roach has financial problems of his own.

Johnson said Roach's personal financial woes is a good reason to keep a closer tab on all cemetery records because of what might happen in the future if she couldn't compare her records with the bank statements in his keeping.

"I'm not accusing him of anything, but my fear is he was put in office and no one checked his background. I'm concerned that, when I request my documents, why he won't give them to me. It leads me to feel he has something to hide. I'm suspicious of him now," she said.

Mahoning County Court records from Johnson showed Roach was sued successfully in the past year by several creditors and further research showed other cases pending, including the foreclosure of his Austintown home, from which he operates his business, American Mortgage Advisors.

Saying, "My personal financial things are my personal financial records," Roach blamed some newly acquired enemies for releasing information to the media.

He said, "I can understand the game if people on the wrong side are forwarding things (to the media). I'm trying to make things better here. Change brings hate."

By enforcing purchase order use, asking clerks what they are doing and trying to stop people from saying "that's the way (former clerk) Melissa (Baker) did that," Roach said, "I knew I was going to make some enemies. I understand I'm not making friends with this crowd, but I'm getting good feedback from some citizens and auditors who I won't name."

Nonetheless, fiscal officers are required to be bonded, and Roach was asked where he is bonded and whether he expects his bond to remain in good standing with outstanding judgments against him.

Saying his bond is held by the Mills Insurance Agency, Roach said he had planned to "shop around" until he learned the bond only costs the village $20 per year for $50,000 worth of coverage.

At that low cost, he said, "I guess the qualifications are not very steep. It's 'Make sure he hasn't been convicted of theft in office or felony embezzlement and woohoo, let's issue the bond'."

Roach said he assumes the bonding company would not take his outstanding judgments into consideration, saying, "I assume for the cost of the bond, they probably do a criminal background check and that's it. Evidently, things on the financial side don't affect the likelihood of theft."

He said he should be judged not on his personal financial situation but by his work in Village Hall, saying if he is successful in implementation of new policies, taxpayers will judge him well and if he isn't, they will judge him poorly.

Saying there is a "common misinterpretation that the fiscal officer controls the finances and unfortunately he doesn't. I'm not the one who decides when to spend money. Council does," Roach said.

"Now do we have to get into this tabloid stuff about six members of council and see if they've been sued or do we want to make credit checks on the six people making the purchasing decisions?" he asked rhetorically.

Reminded that village taxpayers may justifiably be gun shy about a fiscal officer with money woes after a former mayor and clerk were found guilty of embezzling money and that a situation in which a fiscal officer has personal financial problems lends itself to taking money, Roach replied,

"I think a person's character lends itself to taking or not taking money."