For the first time since being accused of harassing and intimidating Mayor Frank Whitfield and his children, Carl Spanos is speaking out.

Spanos, 60, has worked for the City of Elyria for 18 years and is currently employed in the Wastewater Department. His coworkers describe him as having a strong work ethic with a no-nonsense attitude. Some say his personality is abrasive. Others say he simply has a matter-of-fact way of communicating. Most agree he’s a hard worker and consistently gets the job done.

On August 8, 2023, Spanos and Whitfield were involved in an altercation at Black River Reservation where Whitfield was attending a City event. Whitfield accused Spanos of harassing and intimidating him and his children, allegations which soon made their way to the front page of the Chronicle Telegram. While details of the incident remain unclear (I will have more on Spanos’ version of events later) we now have a clearer picture of what occurred in a closed-door meeting at City Hall following the altercation.

On the morning of August 9, 2023, Spanos tells me he was called to a meeting with Whitfield, Safety Service Director Matt Lundy, and Human Resources Director Jean Yousefi. Spanos was accompanied by a local union vice president and his union steward. Whitfield opened the meeting by stating Spanos, the previous evening, harassed and intimidated Whitfield and his children by taking photographs even after Whitfield asked him to stop.

According to Spanos, Whitfield spoke for only a few minutes before turning the meeting over to his staff. He then left the conference room. “He (Whitfield) said all this dramatic stuff, accused me of harassing him and his kids. He was angry and said, ‘I expect this kind of treatment from the general public but not an employee, I’m your boss.’ And that was it, real quick he just said ‘my staff will take care of this’ and left the room,” Spanos tells me.

Lundy and Yousefi then took over the meeting. Spanos claims the two directors reiterated Whitfield’s harassment and intimidation allegations and asked Spanos to explain his behavior. Spanos stated he was taking photos of a City vehicle because he was curious whether it was being used improperly (more on this later). He denied harassing or intimidating the mayor or his children.

Lundy and Yousefi then told Spanos his behavior was illegal and that Elyria’s Police Department was “looking into” the matter. Lundy told him, “There are laws against this and what you did is illegal. You can expect a call from Chief Pelko today,” according to Spanos.

Spanos tells me he thought he was about to be fired, or worse. “I knew I didn’t do anything wrong, but I was sitting there thinking, ‘Is there an officer with cuffs out there waiting for me?’ I thought I was about to be arrested.”

At the conclusion of the meeting, the directors ordered Spanos to go home for the day and wait for Pelko’s call.

Matt Beal, AFSCME local president, was unable to attend the meeting and sent his vice president instead. Beal tells me he later received a summary of the meeting from the VP. In that conversation, the VP told Beal that “the police are looking into Spanos,” and that “the police chief is going to be calling him (Spanos),” according to Beal.

At the time of the meeting Spanos, Beal, the union steward, and the union VP were unaware of another meeting earlier that same morning between Lundy, Yousefi, and Elyria Police Chief Pelko. Lundy and Yousefi had laid out Whitfield’s version of the previous evening’s altercation and asked Pelko whether Spanos’ behavior constituted a criminal matter.

According to Pelko, he made clear to both Lundy and Yousefi that Spanos’ behavior did not rise to requiring police intervention. “I listened to what he (Lundy) was asking and, to me, I didn’t see anything illegal. And that’s what I told them,” Pelko tells me.

Lundy then asked Pelko to join the meeting with the other administration officials and Spanos. Pelko declined. Later, Lundy contacted him again, this time urging Pelko to call Spanos at home. “He wanted me to call him (Spanos). I said, again, I didn’t see anything illegal here, but they wanted me to a have conversation with him. They wanted me to talk to him, so I gave him a call,” Pelko told me.

Spanos tells me received Pelko’s call that afternoon, a “couple hours” after returning home. Spanos described the call as cordial and professional. “He (Pelko) just told me his boss wanted him to call me. He made it clear he didn’t think I did anything illegal, he said that a couple times,” Spanos tells me.

Pelko shared a similar recollection of the phone call with me. “It was brief. We talked a bit. Again, I told him the same thing I told them (Lundy and Yousefi), that I didn’t think anything illegal took place. I just asked him (Spanos) to be careful, something like that.”

Spanos told me Pelko’s phone call came as a relief. “Look, I had these people telling me I did something illegal, telling me the police were investigating me. I was sent home wondering if police officers were going to be waiting for me, you know? So yea, in that way it was a relief to have the police chief tell me I didn’t do anything illegal.”

A day later, Yousefi and Lundy asked Spanos about his conversation with Pelko. “She (Yousefi) kept asking me what Pelko said. I told her to go ask him, and she said I was being uncooperative. Finally I just said you don’t have anything on me. You got nothing,” Spanos said. “I wasn’t even on the clock when this happened!”

As I previously reported, Spanos was not on the clock at the time of the incident.

As Yousefi and Lundy’s investigation continued for the next several weeks, Spanos tells me he was no longer being accused of harassing or intimidating the mayor or his children. Instead, he was now being accused of lying.

“Eventually they started saying I was going to be disciplined for being dishonest. They stopped saying I was harassing the mayor, now they were just saying I lied about this or that. It’s like, okay you bring me in here with all these accusations and when that falls apart you try to accuse me of something else,” Spanos says.

At the conclusion of Yousefi and Lundy’s investigation, Spanos was disciplined with a three-day suspension without pay, which Spanos is now fighting. He tells me, “I don’t care about missing three days of pay, I mean come on. It’s not about that. What they did isn’t right, it’s just not right.”

Yousefi, Lundy, and Whitfield have not responded to requests for comment on this story. Previously, Lundy has declined to comment on grounds the City does not discuss personnel matters.

Spanos, together with his local union representatives, filed a grievance against the City and demanded that the suspension and the disciplinary letters be rescinded. Both Lundy and Whitfield denied Spanos’ demands. AFSCME representatives are now debating whether to take the issue to arbitration.

In the meantime, Spanos has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. His complaint alleges unfair treatment, harassment, and intimidation. The EEOC complaint highlights the Whitfield Administration’s decision to involve the police department, even after the administration was told the issue was not a criminal matter by the police chief.

I asked Spanos whether he has retained legal counsel and he declined to comment.

What he made clear, however, is his desire to share his side of the August 8 story. “They put this in the paper, right on the front page. They said I was harassing and intimidating the mayor and his kids. I have my own children, and I’ve worked for this City for nearly 20 years. It didn’t happen like he (Whitfield) said. I want to tell the actual story.”

Click here for Part Two of this series.

If you appreciate this post consider tossing the author a couple bucks for cup of coffee.