Geauga County cybersecurity, technology and archives staff vote unanimously to unionize

When everything is working the way it should, the Geauga County Automatic Data Processing (ADP) Board is not making headlines.  

They show up for work, go about their day protecting the cybersecurity, technology and archival infrastructure of the county, and go home.  

However, recent local political disputes and leadership changes have put the future of the team at risk – and consequently the safety and security of the nearly 100,000 residents of the county. This environment led the employees to unionize with AFSCME Ohio Council 8, unanimously voting in favor of forming their union. 

“Replacing experienced employees is not free. Rebuilding lost knowledge is not quick. Recovering from a preventable cyberattack is not cheap,” said Joe Birli, a lead security analyst with the DARC (Department of Advanced Research and Cybersecurity) team within ADP. “Fair and consistent job protections need to be established before decisions are made that could affect careers, disrupt services, and place the county’s technology and records at risk.” 

The employees of ADP maintain critical services for the county daily and have spent years building high-quality and efficient systems that save taxpayer dollars. 

“Without ADP, every county agency, every township, everybody is all responsible for their own IT,” explained Zach McLeod, the director of the DARC team. “With ADP everybody pulls their technology resources together and you have huge savings in the amount of funds because every agency doesn't have to hire their own IT, have their own servers, figure out cybersecurity. Everybody's on their own if they don't have ADP.” 

After years of a challenging atmosphere where the work that ADP employees do daily for the county was devalued by various county leaders, a county commissioner meeting in December of 2025 considered a motion to defund ADP completely. This motion was narrowly defeated and created even more concern among workers about being a political punching bag.  

“Watching a commissioner vote to defund ADP really shook me,” said Katelyn Cellitti, an operations coordinator for the DATA (Department of Advanced Technology and Applications) team within ADP. “It made me realize that no matter how strong our leadership is, things outside of their control can put our jobs, our agency, and the critical services we provide at risk.” 

Managing critical IT and archival services for the public should not be subject to the political whims of others, particularly in an environment where cybersecurity and access to public records are increasingly a line of defense against bad actors.  

“Employees should not be caught in the middle of those disputes,” said Joshua Holtz, a security technician with the DARC team. “We do not control elections, budgets, or disagreements between public officials. We are the people maintaining systems, supporting departments, protecting County information, and serving the public.” 

Finding solidarity together and fighting for respect on the job through forming a union made for allies in some unexpected places, as Ashley Serraglio found who is one of the archivists and part of the Department of County Archives and Records Enterprise (CARE) team within ADP. 

“I would just encourage people, don't be silos, find allies in other disciplines because you are going to be stronger together if you can work with more interdisciplinary staff,” said Serraglio. “It's not just you, look for other allies in other departments as well. You might have more friends than you think.” 

AFSCME Ohio Council 8 represents over 31,000 public service workers across the state of Ohio at municipal and county public sector employers and private sector employers providing critical services to Ohioans every day. Learn more at afscmecouncil8.org.