A Summit County welfare employee has been disciplined for failing to process some of her paperwork, resulting in delayed benefits to needy clients and overpayments to others.
Keely Jones, a case manager in the Department of Job and Family Services, is serving a 30-day unpaid suspension for the violation. The suspension ends today.
Jones, 53, has been disciplined for other instances of failing to process paperwork, according to county personnel records.
Those records indicate a supervisor found a box under Jones’ desk in August that contained unprocessed documents from 2009 to 2011. Included were applications for benefits and releases for medical information.
It’s unclear how many welfare clients were affected.
Jones also has been disciplined for copying personal documents at the office, records show.
Jason Dodson, chief of staff for County Executive Russ Pry, said it would be inappropriate to comment on a personnel matter. He also would not say how many cases were affected or whether the county is seeking to recover overpayments.
Jones, who makes $20.50 an hour, didn’t return a phone call seeking comment. She is president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2696. She has held that position since October 2011.
It’s not the first time Jones, who has worked for the county for more than 10 years, has been in trouble at work.
She was suspended without pay for 10 days in January 2008, when supervisors discovered 5,153 documents in her work area that were unprocessed. She was suspended without pay for 20 days in June 2008 for a similar offense.
Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com.
