ELYRIA — After more than two years of impassioned speeches and detailed presentations, the long-awaited fire management study was supposed to finally stop friction between the city administration and Fire Department.

Yet Wednesday night saw more of the same as McGrath Consulting Group returned for a second public meeting, and this time its representatives were the ones on the defensive.

Dean Marks, president of the local firefighter’s union, has said that the 331-page report is full of contradictions, errors and misinformation. He came to the meeting armed with a 60-page rebuttal and peppered consultants Tim and Victoria McGrath with questions.

“I don’t know how much research went into this,” he said. “The overall mood of this audit is firefighters take too much time off and have a lucrative contract.”

The idea of the audit was to unveil the strengths and weaknesses of the department — “a playbook for the future,” Marks said. But instead it turned into a tool for negotiating a contract.

“Even in these trying times, safety cannot be compromised to save a buck.” Marks said.

Both McGraths defended their audit and called on the administration and Fire Department to move forward.
“I say this again,” said Tim McGrath, a firefighter before he because a consultant. “This is a book of opportunities. I understand what everyone is saying, but what I didn’t hear is someone asking, ‘What is the opportunity to move forward?’ I’m not that bright, but even I can see that every time I walk in this city there are fewer and fewer firefighters. What you are doing is not moving forward.”

Nonetheless, Marks not only called on McGrath to revise the report but also asked for a public apology from the consulting group and the city administration for releasing the flawed information that has tainted public perception of the Fire Department.

When the report was first made public, it was learned hours later that a possible error was contained in it. The error was the calculation of the average number of days an average firefighter works. The report first numbered the days at 57.69. It was later changed to 82.75, but by then members of the Fire Department said the damage had been done.

“Mr. McGrath, the last time you were here you said the public loves us and use that,” said now-retired firefighter Mark Horton. “Well, the public doesn’t love us anymore, and that’s because of the misinformation put out there.”

Council members were still ready to hear about what should happen next.

“What I want to see come out of this is the administration and Fire Department to put together an action plan for implementing recommendations from the audit,” said Councilman Mark Craig, I-4th Ward. “Council has to force joint cooperation.”

Likewise, Councilman Mike Lotko, D-at large, said it’s time Council demands the lines of communication between the two remain open.

Unlike his fellow council members, Councilman Kevin Brubaker, D-at large, said he is not ready to accept the audit as unflawed. Before the meeting he said he had 47 questions pertaining to the report.

“I’m just not convinced enough fact finding and research was done in the audit,” he said.

City leaders may not agree on many things in relation to the controversial study, but one thing emerged as common ground Wednesday.

Despite the detailed report calling into question Fire Chief Rich Benton’s capabilities to lead the department, city leaders said they support the new chief and believe he can use the in-depth audit to turn around the department.

Lotko was the first to speak out against the audit, which described Benton as a “nice individual who has little experience in dealing with the administrative, fiscal, political and public relations issues that is required of the position of fire chief.” He asked Victoria McGrath, principal partner in the group and a lead consultant, to quantify how she came to her conclusion.

“I know he lacks experience as a chief, but sometimes people with experience don’t make good chiefs,” he said.

Councilman Larry Tanner, D-1st Ward, echoed the sentiment.

“I don’t buy that, and I don’t see where you come off saying he is not ready,” he said. “Who knows that Fire Department and those men better than someone who has been there? What the audit should have said, but didn’t, is he needs to be left to be chief and do the job of chief. If he could be chief and deal with his men, everything — even negotiations — would go smoother.”

Victoria McGrath said she stands behind her assessment that Benton would need a mentor to guide him through rebuilding the department but has since softened her stance.

“The more I come here, the more I can acknowledge he is showing great leadership skills — he still can’t do it alone,” she said.

Others may not be ready to use the audit as a tool for change, but Benton said he is, to a degree.

So far, he has begun the process of transferring fire dispatching duties to the Lorain County 911 system, is working on a plan to bolster emergency medical service in the department by working with LifeCare, is moving the administrative offices from the Broad Street fire station to the Cedar Street fire station and is making training a bigger priority.

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.

ELYRIA — The Elyria Fire Department was not allowed to speak the first time the McGrath Consulting Group was in town to deliver a presentation on its 331-page fire management study.

That will not be the case Wednesday, when the team of Tim and Victoria McGrath return to Elyria for a question and answer session with city leaders and fire officials. The 6 p.m. meeting in City Council Chambers will be broadcast live on the Chronicle’s Web site.

Dean Marks, president of the local firefighters union, said he will speak and hopefully set the record straight on the inaccuracies in the report.

“All we are trying to do is get actual facts out there,” Marks said. “We are excited about that so people can make an informed decision based on all the facts.”

When a final copy of the audit was released in mid-July, it was Marks who quickly found the most-talked-about error — the average number of days an average firefighter works. The initial report said the number was incredibly low, but after Marks brought the error to the attention of Victoria McGrath, a principal member of the consulting group and one of the lead consultants that worked on Elyria’s report, a revised study was released days later just in time for the July 22 public meeting.

Since then, Marks said he has gone though the report several times and has found numerous errors.

A letter sent to Mayor Bill Grace by Marks on Aug. 31 detailed some of the errors Marks said he found in the report.

Accompanying the letter was 60 pages of information and data Marks said will correct many of the major errors in the report.

“I believe that without a complete re-evaluation of the report and all the data provided, the creditability of the entire report must be called into question,” Marks said in the letter. “I believe that the citizens have a right to know the accurate facts.”

Marks questions the McGrath group’s claims about not only the days worked figure, but also sick-time usage in the department, the claim the union contract is rich with lucrative benefits and the department’s response times.

When asked if he agreed with the claims Marks made about errors in the report, Grace said he is not the person to defend it.

“Part of the purpose of this meeting is to get everyone together — fire officials, city officials, the McGrath Group and the public — so things can be discussed in terms of accuracy, clarity and philosophy and I’m sure everything will be addressed by the consultant either on the spot, the next day or soon after,” he said.

Still, Grace said the choice of the McGrath Consultant Group to perform the Fire Department audit was a unanimous one of the audit selection committee, which consisted of firefighters, city administrators and City Council members.

Contact Lisa Roberson at 329-7121 or lroberson@chroniclet.com.

ELYRIA — The man accused of brutally beating, shooting and sexually assaulting a Carlisle Township woman while she hiked in the Lorain County Metro Parks last year pleaded guilty today.

Matthew Plas in court today. (Photo by Bruce Bishop, The Chronicle-Telegram.)

Matthew Plas, 36, showed no emotion as Lorain County Common Pleas Judge Edward Zaleski ran through the litany of charge against him — attempted rape, tampering with evidence, gross sexual imposition, carrying a concealed weapons, having weapons under disability, two counts each of felonious assault and attempted murder, three counts of aggravated robbery and five counts of kidnapping, most of which carried firearms specifications that will add prison time to Plas’ eventual sentence.

Plas could get up to 72 years behind bars when he is sentenced later this year, Assistant County Prosecutor Peter Gauthier said during the hearing.

The victim in the case, Shawn Stevens, who was paralyzed from the waist down from the injuries she sustained during the May 6, 2008, attack, was not in the courtroom, but is expected to speak at Plas’ sentencing.

Stevens was hiking alone when Plas attacked her, sexually assaulted her and shot her in the back. He left her for dead before returning and carrying her back to his car. He was loading her in the vehicle’s trunk when passers-by stopped to ask if something was wrong and Stevens cried out for help.

Plas sped off and was pursued by the Good Samaritans and police as Stevens hung on to the still-open trunk of the car. He dropped Stevens behind a building before ditching his car and fleeing on foot.

He was later arrested after being found hiding in a swampy area of Carlisle Reservation.

For more on this story, see Wednesday’s Chronicle.

They stood by and anxiously waited as the machine lowered the flag-covered casket onto the tarmac.

The family of Lance Cpl. David R. Hall would have traded anything not to be there to watch their boy come home, at least not like this. But as the mechanical arms brought Hall’s body down to American soil, it at least meant they could be with him again.

Hall

“It was symbolic and important for us,” said Hall’s sister, Lora Hall, minutes after the family returned to Lorain from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware where her brother’s body arrived Wednesday morning.

“We saw him come off the plane and return home,” she said.

Hall, 31, died Monday from injuries sustained during a blast from an improvised explosive device while patrolling in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province. The Marine’s body will be embalmed and an autopsy will be performed before it can return to Cleveland sometime this weekend, his sister said.

Lora Hall said the family has not planned funeral arrangements yet but hopes to publicize them so that all who knew and loved her brother could celebrate his life with them.

The transfer case containing the remains of Marine Lance Cpl. David R. Hall arrives Wednesday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. (AP photo.)

“I’m already starting to think about what I’m going to say, and I think I’m going to try and talk about how he wanted to make people appreciate freedom and all that means,” she said. “We’re going to focus on that a lot. It’ll be comforting.”

The family arrived at the base about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday and were greeted by dozens of Marines who answered questions and guided them through the process, she said. A Marine staff sergeant based in Northeast Ohio was with them the whole time, she said, driving them to Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, flying with them and driving them from Philadelphia where they departed to the Air Force base.

“One thing that was very comforting was the Marine Corps takes care of families,” she said. “There are even a lot of high-ranking officials in his company that are going to fly down for the service. They were really embracing us.”

The family was taken to a small chapel where they were briefed on what they would be doing.

Afterwards, they went to where the body was and witnessed what the military terms a “dignified transfer.”

“The honor guard marched in and went onto the plane and stood next to him. They were all dressed up. They weren’t wearing their dress blues, but they had their khaki uniforms and white gloves. Everything was very official. It was very symbolic. They take their time,” she said.

She said the Marine Corps is trying to get Hall’s best friend, Lance Cpl. Jean Fenelus, to fly out of Afghanistan for the funeral service. Fenelus, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., became almost like an adopted son to Hall’s family and Lora Hall even took to calling him her brother. Both soldiers were in the same 2nd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force based in Camp Lejeune, N.C.

A Lorain native, David R. Hall joined the Marines in 2006 after spending six years working at the Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake and at the Lorain Assembly Plant. His father, Delmar Hall, said his son joined the Marines because he wanted something to be proud of.

He spent about seven months in 2007 in Iraq training military police and was sent to Afghanistan in June. He was scheduled to come home Dec. 17.

A Southview High School graduate, he joined the football team his senior year and started at quarterback, earning a scholarship to play football for a Division III college. He turned it down to live in Chicago for a year, where he worked at a camera shop. He also lived in Elyria.

David Hall was the eighth Lorain County man to die while serving overseas since 2004 and the first killed in Afghanistan.

Contact Adam Wright at 329-7129 or awright@chroniclet.com.

A yellow ribbon for Lance Cpl. David R. Hall adorns the mailbox of the Lorain home of his parents. (Photo by Chuck Humel, The Chronicle-Telegram.)