Zanesville’s former City Planning and Zoning Administrator made allegations about the Community Development Department following his resignation Friday.

Jay Bennett, Director of the Community Development Department, responded to the allegations made against his department saying that things may have been “misinterpreted.”

George Kagafas, the former administrator, alleged that there were building permits signed off on by city staff that needed to go before the Board of Zoning Appeals in accordance with the Ohio Revised Code.

Prior to Kagafas’ employment, Pat Denbow was the Zoning Administrator. Bennett said he and Denbow sat down every week to discuss permits and present necessary permits to the board for approval. If there were discrepancies in signage from Denbow, Bennett said it wasn’t intentional.

“If he (Denbow) had signed off, it’s because he may have misinterpreted the code and signed off,” Bennett said. “Now that’s a misinterpretation, that’s not a violation. That’s human error.”

Bennett said the wrongfully signed permits will be looked into, but he hasn’t physically seen any copies signed by Denbow to date.

In Section 1153.06 of the ORC, it states that the Chief Building Official must sign off on sign permits after an application is submitted.

Bennett explained that, over the past 17 years, the role of signing off on those permits has been delegated to the Community Development Department. The Law Director, David Tarbert, determined last week that the delegation of that task was allowed by the Chief Building Official after Kagafas claimed that it wasn’t his role to sign such permits.

“If George had stopped, asked questions and began to look at that and had conversations with the building code department … he would have heard the same interpretation that the law director heard and made a determination on last week,” said Bennett.

Kagafas was most recently employed in a similar position in Las Vegas and went into early retirement before moving to Southeast Ohio. He applied and was hired to the City of Zanesville’s Planning and Zoning Administrator Position in December 2017.

The hiring board was impressed by Kagafas’ qualifications and extensive experience in historic planning and neighborhood work for the specific position, Bennett said. Although Kagafas had applied to a previous city position and was denied, Bennett and the hiring board felt he was fitting for the newly available role.

Bennett cites a breakdown in communication as a factor that could have led to Kagafas allegation of a toxic or hostile work environment. He wanted to allow Kagafas the space to utilize his abilities and talents to their fullest potential. Poor communication began to take place between Kagafas and other departments. Information was not flowing between personnel as it should have been, Bennett said.

While many allegations toward the department were made by Kagafas, Bennett doesn’t doubt that Kagafas maintained the city’s best interest throughout the duration of his time in the Community Development Department.

Bennett could not comment on the high department turnover rate that Kagafas cited because he said employees are still in his office this year that were present last year.

He also is unsure about the “hundreds” of files that Kagafas claimed were missing, because he is confident that any record over the four years could be accounted for. As for records that were filed previous to Bennett’s employment, he cannot speak to them.