Suplizio Fired from City Manager Position

An aggressive write-in campaign promising to “restore integrity & trust” in the City of DuBois resulted in Elliott Gelfand, Jennifer Jackson, and Pat Reasinger winning not only the spring primary but the November election. The change was immediate during their first meeting when they voted to terminate John “Herm” Suplizio who is accused of stealing from the city and other agencies and accepted the resignation of solicitor Toni Cherry. (Photo from Jackson’s Facebook page)

By Julie Rae Rickard

DuBOIS – John “Herm” Suplizio, indicted for stealing government funds, was officially fired from his position as DuBois City Manager by the newly elected council members during the reorganizational meeting of the DuBois City Council on Jan. 2.

Suplizio was first charged by the PA Attorney General’s Office for allegedly taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from the city and other agencies in March. Additional charges were filed in October.

Because his employment contract doesn’t end until March 2025, Suplizio was placed on paid leave.

DuBois City residents who were angry with how the city was handling Suplizio’s situation, responded to a write-in campaign for council seats with Jennifer Jackson and Elliot Gelfand winning in the spring primary and earning seats on the council in the November election. Patrick Reasinger was chosen as the new mayor.

In August, Jackson, Gelfand and Mike Clement filed a lawsuit against the city to keep the “lame duck” council from continuing to pay Suplizio or buying out his contract. This injunction remains in effect.

Shortly after taking the oath of office, Gelfand made a motion “to authorize the intermediate solicitor to assist city council with the immediate termination of John Suplizio’s employment with the city.”

Jackson seconded the motion. Council members James Aughenbaugh and Shane Deitz voted against this, but with Reasinger along with Gelfand and Jackson voting in favor, the motion passed.

The public members attending the meeting, which was streamed on Facebook, applauded this action.

It was noted by Reasinger that long-time solicitor Toni Cherry had submitted her resignation.

“I will happily accept that resignation,” Jackson said as she made the motion, causing laughter from the crowd and Gelfand seconded it.

The motion passed 3-2, which was also met with applause. Again, it was Aughenbaugh and Deitz voting against it.

Recent meetings have seen residents requesting the resignation or firing of Cherry due to her continued defense and support of Suplizio as well as questions regarding the payment of various legal fees.

The cases against Suplizio filed by the AG’s office were withdrawn following the filing of federal charges on Nov. 16.

Suplizio, 63, was indicted by a federal grand jury on five counts of conspiracy and federal program fraud, along with Roberta Shaffer, 58, a city employee.

According to the federal Indictment, from 2014 to 2022, Suplizio and Shaffer conspired to divert and steal hundreds of thousands of dollars in city funds.

“As the full-time, salaried City Manager, Suplizio maintained substantial authority in DuBois, where he ran the city’s day-to-day operations. As alleged, beginning as early as 2008, Suplizio and Shaffer used the city’s tax identification number to establish secret bank accounts into which they diverted city money, including approximately $60,000 in annual administrative fees from the city’s waste management contract,” according to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Pennsylvania.

They are accused of making large cash withdrawals from these unaudited accounts, writing checks to themselves and others, totaling more than $350,000, it said in the release.

In addition, they “allegedly spent more than $450,000 from the accounts toward payments on Suplizio’s personal credit card, which he used to pay for personal vacations, utility bills for his residence, department store purchases, and jewelry store purchases, among other personal expenses.”

“Our communities entrust public officials like Suplizio with tremendous authority, and when that trust is violated–as is alleged here–this office and our federal and state law enforcement partners will hold them accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” United States Attorney Eric G. Olshan stated in the release.

The charges stem from a search warrant executed on Suplizio’s residence and offices in April 2022, during which records of his banking activities and other accounts were seized, according to previous reports.

The state grand jury proceeding covered Suplizio’s finances starting in 2014.

Suplizio, in addition to being City Manager since 2010, was also the Executive Director of the DuBois Area United Way, was affiliated with the DuBois Volunteer Fire Department and handled funds for DuBois Community Days.

Other accusations in the previous cases involve a bag with $93,920 in cash Cherry turned over to the city in May.

The money came from the Community Fund and had been at the DuBois Area United Way Building, Cherry said. Suplizio gave it to her “to keep the PA OAG from confiscating it”, she told the authorities, but she could not recall when he gave her the cash, according to the documents with the second case.

The money was placed into a new DuBois City account.

Suplizio, if found guilty could serve up to 45 years in prison.